Blowing Bubbles At Booby Island

Today has been a diving day and the location is Booby Island, aptly named due to its appearance. A small pinnacle above the Indian Ocean topped with a few trees. It does indeed look like a Booby from afar. We are diving with Octopus Divers, another 5* PADI outfit run by a French couple, who know how to run a dive centre but also know how to charge. Each dive is €55 per person, which is not cheap in diving terms, and given the slightly lack lustre quality of what there is to see we will probably only complete 3 dives on Praslin. The Seychelles have been experiencing strange weather, with gusty winds and no rain for weeks at a time, and the upshot is poor visibility at only about 5m, not the usual 20-30m, and some trickier diving. Booby Island lies a 25 minute boat ride away from shore and entry to the site is quite difficult with large 5ft swells crashing against the rocks and a powerful current surge.

The surge continues beneath the water and we have both been caught out with an injury each to take home, nothing major I hasten to add but we have both been swept against the large rock formations underwater resulting in some cuts and bruises. To be honest I am surprised we didn't both knock our teeth out getting back on the boat as it got bounced around on the surface. 

All said and done we have seen a few interesting things, including four white tip reef sharks, lobsters, Jacks and some large parrot fish.

Having finished for the day at 1pm, we have taken to our free sun beds once more following another visit to the supermarket for lunch supplies, again not overly expensive. A bag of bread rolls will set you back about £1 and cheese another £1, and a recovery beer or 3 are about £1.40 each. You can buy fruit from the local sellers all prepared and beautifully presented on banana leaves for £3.50 and there is too much to consume.

We have managed to hitch a free lift from Kevin at Sagittarius back to the apartment (saving one mountain climb) and in speaking to the his son on the way, have worked out that the restaurants will also take you home gratis if you dine with them, so only the downward stroll to deal with. One thing is for sure, if you do not stay at sea level, absolutely do not bother packing heels. On the subject of attire, don't bother packing anything particularly smart if the Seychelles ever takes your fancy, as you can go anywhere in your shorts, t-shirt and flip flops, and there is absolutely nothing to do after dinner, so it looks like the playing cards will be coming out. Most evenings we are home and ready for bed by 9.30pm, not exactly what we are used to but we are getting the hang of it and now seem to be perpetually knackered, doing not a lot!