Praslin, Seychelles

Early morning, well, dark still, really, but good for stars. On the back deck I can see the Southern Cross, the Scorpion, and Alpha and Beta Centauri where I begin to trace the shape of the Centaur as he straddles the Cross and threatens the loping Wolf; other parts of the sky are obscured by clouds. But no matter, I’m watching our approach to Praslin, third largest of the Seychelles Islands. I am pretty excited because this morning we plan to visit one of those rare and wonderful places, a place out of time, the Vallée de Mai, a World Heritage Site.

After breakfast we board our fleet of Zodiacs and meet our small buses at the dock. It is a short drive to the Vallée de Mai as village gives way to homesteads give way to forest. This is a strange forest, first mostly trees, and then more and more palms, tall and dense.

Out of the buses I feel small, surrounded by tall plants. We enter the park on a dirt path and find ourselves in the shade of a most exotic plant species, the coco de mer, aka, the double coconut. But it is not a coconut at all, it is a completely different palm altogether. It was named long before anyone saw the actual plant; for hundreds of years only the fruit was known and incredibly valued. A legend grew that the plant lived under the sea and the fruits would mature and float to the surface, a few to be cast up on distant shores. Not until late in the 18th century were the palms found, for they only occur on two small islands in the Seychelles.

There are four other unique species of palm that also occur here, but it is not hard to recognize the coco de mer, it is the one with the 30-foot long leaves and 45 pound fruits! But it is not just plants here, there are birds: the very rare Seychelles black parrot whose strange whistle announces its presence and the always noisy Seychelles bulbuls. There are lizards: jewel-like day geckos and cryptic giant bronze geckos. But above all the filtered light and the wind against the palms create a sense, a memory, an emotion of a world before people, not dark and silent, no, not at all, a world twinkling, chirping, sometimes screaming, and always growing and alive!

Yes, there was more to the day, a nice beach, a cool drink, arrival to Victoria the capitol on Mahé, the largest of the Seychelles Islands, with a tour, but it is the Vallée de Mai that I will always remember.