La Digue & Aride Island, Seychelles
La Digue is the Seychellois’ favourite island: remote, sleepy and friendly. A treat for us after so many wild beach landings: we came ashore on a solid jetty with old schooners and smart new catamarans alongside. Old mammy-wagons were waiting for the naturalists, bullock-carts for the sightseers and bicycles for the adventurous.
There was much to see: a bright primary school, a fine Catholic Church and some traditional, wooden high-roofed houses on concrete stilts to escape the ravages of termites. Once into the interior we abandoned our transport and strolled in under the big takamaka and badamier trees.
We were seeking the famous Veuve: the Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher. We scanned high and low: first sunbirds, then an Indian Mynah bird scuffling in the leaves, then the harsh rattles of Seychelles Bulbuls. Past avocado, coconut and mango trees, a group of ticking Waxbills perched in a pawpaw, then suddenly the fluting song of a flycatcher. At last we saw a male, long tail plumes streaming as it flew down to a low twig: it was building a nest! Jet black with a purple gloss, and named Veuve after the widow’s black apparel. Nearby was a female, rusty orange with a black cap, flitting from perch to perch to catch insects.
But this was trumped by a later halt among young coconuts, where to our delight two male flycatchers were jousting: flamboyant aerial chases above our heads, showing off their long black tail streamers to best advantage, all for an eligible female watching critically from on high. Then past the old copra crusher to the famous Source d’Argent beach where giant, sculpted granite boulders frame one of the most photographed beaches in the world. After fresh coconut drinks (served by beaming locals with giant machetes) and a welcome dip in balmy waters, we returned to the ship.
The afternoon saved the best till last: we anchored off the dense forested ridgeback of Aride Island, a unique seabird reserve established by Christopher Cadbury in 1973. His estate has funded it ever since, and as soon as we raced through the surf and tumbled out onto the perfect coral sand beach we could see why: there was a swirling cacophony of sooty terns high above the island and birds everywhere among the trees. Over a million seabirds of ten different species gather here to breed every year.
There were noddies nesting in the trees above us, the immaculate white-tailed tropicbird incubating in old coconut stumps at our feet, and two different shearwater species in burrows beneath our feet. A successful introduction of Seychelles warblers here in 1988 saved this species, and everywhere we stopped, the Seychelles Magpie Robin (once down to only 12 birds on a single island) came down to feed at our feet, midnight blue with a white wing-patch and absurdly tame.
Tok-toks, Blue Pigeons, fruit-bats, skinks and geckoes in profusion, this wooded wonderland is a vision of the world before Man arrived to fell, cull and corral it. Long may this island survive in its wild form, an intact piece of paradise and an inspiration to those lucky enough to experience its magic.
La Digue is the Seychellois’ favourite island: remote, sleepy and friendly. A treat for us after so many wild beach landings: we came ashore on a solid jetty with old schooners and smart new catamarans alongside. Old mammy-wagons were waiting for the naturalists, bullock-carts for the sightseers and bicycles for the adventurous.
There was much to see: a bright primary school, a fine Catholic Church and some traditional, wooden high-roofed houses on concrete stilts to escape the ravages of termites. Once into the interior we abandoned our transport and strolled in under the big takamaka and badamier trees.
We were seeking the famous Veuve: the Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher. We scanned high and low: first sunbirds, then an Indian Mynah bird scuffling in the leaves, then the harsh rattles of Seychelles Bulbuls. Past avocado, coconut and mango trees, a group of ticking Waxbills perched in a pawpaw, then suddenly the fluting song of a flycatcher. At last we saw a male, long tail plumes streaming as it flew down to a low twig: it was building a nest! Jet black with a purple gloss, and named Veuve after the widow’s black apparel. Nearby was a female, rusty orange with a black cap, flitting from perch to perch to catch insects.
But this was trumped by a later halt among young coconuts, where to our delight two male flycatchers were jousting: flamboyant aerial chases above our heads, showing off their long black tail streamers to best advantage, all for an eligible female watching critically from on high. Then past the old copra crusher to the famous Source d’Argent beach where giant, sculpted granite boulders frame one of the most photographed beaches in the world. After fresh coconut drinks (served by beaming locals with giant machetes) and a welcome dip in balmy waters, we returned to the ship.
The afternoon saved the best till last: we anchored off the dense forested ridgeback of Aride Island, a unique seabird reserve established by Christopher Cadbury in 1973. His estate has funded it ever since, and as soon as we raced through the surf and tumbled out onto the perfect coral sand beach we could see why: there was a swirling cacophony of sooty terns high above the island and birds everywhere among the trees. Over a million seabirds of ten different species gather here to breed every year.
There were noddies nesting in the trees above us, the immaculate white-tailed tropicbird incubating in old coconut stumps at our feet, and two different shearwater species in burrows beneath our feet. A successful introduction of Seychelles warblers here in 1988 saved this species, and everywhere we stopped, the Seychelles Magpie Robin (once down to only 12 birds on a single island) came down to feed at our feet, midnight blue with a white wing-patch and absurdly tame.
Tok-toks, Blue Pigeons, fruit-bats, skinks and geckoes in profusion, this wooded wonderland is a vision of the world before Man arrived to fell, cull and corral it. Long may this island survive in its wild form, an intact piece of paradise and an inspiration to those lucky enough to experience its magic.
