Celebration of Life in an Eden

"Why do we need to celebrate life and how" you might ask?
Now its been nearly two years in the Magic Kingdom, nearly the end of my original two year contract - and say what, sign on for one more year?
Yes its been a journey with the good and the bad, but we believe we need to take opportunities to celebrate life, particularly for eventful milestones along the road. This summer the Skipper turned 65, the Admiral had "another birthday", it was our 10 year wedding anniversary, and we managed to reach one of our goals needed for "pre semi-retirement".
Life celebrations can be simple pleasures, or blow outs, or something in between. We elected to visit one of those exotic island groups, a sort of modern Garden of Eden, but without the snakes (honestly no snakes where we landed, although a number of unique forms of plant and animal life).

Our flight left Jeddah headed for Dubai on an Emirates flight, but being a full flight having just finished Eid in the Kingdom.
Unfortunately Mohammed sitting next to me did not understand the concept of "personal space", with his elbows and knees spilling over onto my seat area. An eventful start.
It was good to reach Dubai, now having become one of the major terminals for international flights connecting destinations on all continents. The airport terminal was in fact a pleasant place, as terminals go, to wait out the three hours we needed for our connection.

Our next flight segment via Emirates was almost due South into the Indian Ocean, Although nearly a five hour flight we were blessed that there were a number of empty seats so we could spread ourselves out without invading someone elses personal space,
We were headed for the Seychelles, an archipelago of several island groups, although we were only able to explore the "Intern Islands", Mahe being the largest island and where our resort hotel was located. The Intern Islands are basically lush granite based islands while the more outlying islands are coral based. Fortunately our resort, or base of operations, was everything we had expected. The airport in the Seychelles (at the capital Victoria on Mahe) was a typical "tropical island" setup, far from the amenities of Dubai.

 

Aside from the hotels, which catered to tourists like ourselves, the islands were relatively unspoiled, with people being friendly apparently living fairly simple lives. In fact none of the fast food chains we are used to were seen. It was also interesting being in the "Southern Hemisphere" as we were South of the Equator - however did not look to see if the water swirled down the drain in the opposite direction.

Our resort location was clearly a great spot to let our hair down and relax.

 

.Despite our short time snorkelling in the bay attached to the hotel the skipper did see a shark, a "teenager" being only about 3 to 4 feet long. Apparently there are two small sharks that frequent the bay - and no they don't bother you despite public misconceptions.

 

Victoria is the main city on Mahe, being the capital of the Seychelles.

A fairly laid back town with a definite tropical and African feel. However there were visible influences from the initial French colonization and the subsequent much longer British stay - now they are independent but part of the British Commonwealth (as Canada is). They also drive on the left, with roundabouts in many locations, the British influence.

 

The island of Mahe was a mixture of granite outcroppings, mountains, lush vegetation, and beautiful beaches with fine white sand - and of course the requisite number of palm trees. During our stay there was a mixture of sunshine, clouds, occasional short rainfalls (actually welcomed as we have not seen any rain in Jeddah for over one & half years, just continual sunshine - believe it or not continual sunshine does get tiresome). However the temps were pleasant being in the high 20's C.

 

We also discovered that the surf comes in very quickly!

 

A tour of Mahe also discovered the large tortoises - apparently the original inhabitants and a symbol of the Seychelles. There are no large predators or snakes on the islands. There were also no "natives" as when discovered they were uninhabited, being populated subsequently by immigration (French period, British period, Africans, Indians, etc)

 

Out and about in Mahe - we needed the time to relax and see the "green", a welcome contrast to our desert surroundings.

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As part of our exploring the region we took a high speed catamaran to the neighboring islands of Praslin and La Dique. The voyage was rough going out and rougher coming back, with a result of a number of passengers getting sea sick. The Admiral believed I would pay for it later as I enjoyed the ride. The other two islands were much less developed.

 

 

Yes we had a heavy rainfall on exiting the boat in Victoria harbor which continued into the evening when we got back to our hotel. The tropical downpour was welcome and refreshing.

 

 

 

All in all a great trip to celebrate some key milestones in life.

On our way back to Jeddah, despite Emirates airline having a superb reputation we did run into a glitch. At the end of a trip one just wants to get back, no matter how good the trip had turned out, don't we?

Ready to go in the Dubai airport. The boarding however was two hours late - they claim to have been "cleaning" the plane. For two hours??

On finally getting on we sat there for another hour, then told we had to get off, and get on another plane - in two more hours! Apparently the "cleaning" was a "mechanical problem". Our arrival in Jeddah was supposed to be about 6 pm, instead we arrived close to mid night.If one travels enough one has to expect these kind of things from time to time.

Yes its the journey not the destination they say. The silver lining was that despite heading back to Jeddah, from Dubai (a very different world), there was a party atmosphere on the plane. No "drinks" however as we were headed back into the Magic Kingdom. Drinks in Dubai would have to do.

Yes, enjoy the journey? And we did.

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