So off for the day, with packed lunch from Victoria's equivalent of Waitrose (for the princely sum of £4) we were ready to find a boat taking day trippers to the Island, having read that you can visit for about £10. Back at the Marina, this seemed a simple task, wave some Seychellois Rupee, hop on board and arrange a return pick up later in the day. How wrong could we be! We had not accounted for the Caribbean style laid back attitude to making money coupled with the French element of leaning back on the nearest post, waving a Gaullois in your face and demanding €120 euro for a 15 minute taxi service.....and should you not wish to have your house remortgage for the outing then there was no negotiation. Like a French tanker driver on strike they simply sit, laugh and in their French African drawl declare "c'est ca", in other words take it or leave it!
Liking nothing more than a challenge and undeterred in our mission to agree something reasonable, we spend the next hour hawking anyone with a boat to see if they can give us a ride. We don't want more than one island, we don't want the Creole barbecue and we don't want the snorkelling trip. Just a simple lift over THERE! Never have we pursued such an unattainable mission for so long, but the longer we tried the stronger the strike action. I thought we might wear them down to white flag status, but their belligerence is unsurpassed even by me. We briefly considered spending the cartel price but to be honest, the guy who lived there died in 2012, so wouldn't be up for a chat and we only wanted to see the place not buy it.
So option two was to see them in the botanical gardens, entry fee 100SCR or £5 each. These creatures weigh 200-300kg each and reach up to 4ft in length. They are on the endangered species list, with the largest populations remaining in Galapagos and the Aldabra Atoll, apparently those found in Galapagos originate from Ecuador and those in the Seychelles from Madagascar. Up close they move like a sloth and have the look and feel of a Komodo dragon, only with a shell. The weirdest thing of all is they love affection, rubbing their scaly heads and feet they nearly topple over as they become strangely drowsy when lavished with attention. They are in an enclosure which anyone can go in, but in true Cameron style we were the only ones willing. Every other visitor stood back and simply took photos, their holiday snaps no doubt ruined by the crazy English in each of them with their Creole fed bottoms taking up each frame!
We have also needed to buy ferry tickets from the Inter Island ferry terminal, as we move to Praslin tomorrow. A one hour ferry ride is exorbitant at £45 each one way and we will probably fly back as it is the same price. However arranging them has been easy with a ticket office at the terminal and clearly defined timetable and we shall see how things work out in the morning.
So what to do for our final afternoon on Mahe? A return to Beau Vallon beach none the less, with a desperate attempt to get past page 10 of my book and watch the world go by. The mornings efforts have obviously taken their toll however, as the book is never opened and our world watching attention span is clearly seriously depleted as we are out cold until sunset.
The total spend for the day has been in the order of £15.00, and we decide to finish off our stay with the Creole buffet at a place called the Boathouse. 400SCR (£20) gets you all you can eat and dessert. It also buys you the ability to set the pace as it is self serve, although you need not worry as its owned by a British family and whilst they bring with them the obligatory queuing around the food stand, they do offer something close to German style efficiency when compared to everywhere else.
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