A walk to Anse Major

If you’re in the Seychelles, give yourselves a treat and do the walk to this stunning little beach. If you want a longer walk, you can park your car at La Scala restaurant at the end of the Bel Ombre road, or you can be lazy (like we were) and drive as far as you can along the road. There is a sign saying ‘No cars beyond this point’ at an abandoned house. Here is Big Foot near the start. There are amazing rock formations everywhere.

Here are the Brittains and D sweating their way along the path. You will sweat a lot, but it will be worth it....you'll see.

Here’s Marie resting in the walk through cave.

Marie's nearly there. There’s the small cove of Anse Major, way down there on the left, beyond the small shelter and picnic table.

And there it is in all its glory.

You've reached the beach. If you drove as far as the old house, it will probably have taken you about an hour and a quarter to get there, at a very leisurely pace. Now you can have a swim in the sea, or in the fresh water pool if the sea’s too rough. It often is. Don’t take chances. There are no lifesavers around.

Marie and Jane have stopped to drink in the silence and the view. You can do this anywhere along the route. If you’re lucky you may see blue pigeons, the graceful long-tailed tropic birds or fairy terns, swooping in pairs. You might even see rays way down there in the sea, or a school of dolphins swimming lazily along in the distance.

Heading back toward Bel Ombre, you get a totally different perspective. DO IT!

A gem: Round Island, Praslin

It’s small in global terms, but ROUND ISLAND, Praslin, Seychelles sits like a huge emerald jewel in its setting of turquoise sea. You can only get there by helicopter or by boat. Once on the island, the only modes of transport are ‘a pied’ or by golf cart. A few narrow roads and paths twist and turn up and down its humpy middle.

Your own personal butler takes you to your villa by golf cart and gives you a guided tour of the island. There are only four villas, three of which are two bed-roomed. Each bedroom has its own en suite bathroom (beware of the Jacuzzi jets!) and outside shower (but very civilized, with hot water). Reading on loungers on the veranda is wonderfully soporific. There is another much larger villa, delightfully rustic, with its own swimming pool. All are set in lush green shrubbery dotted with colourful tropical flowers – an ongoing supply of blooms to decorate beds!

You can climb the wooden staircase to ‘heaven’. Climbing up and up and up between amazing sculpted granite rocks, one gets to a viewing platform. Up there, you can see Mahe and Fregate on a good day... and have a candle or moonlit dinner at night! Or you can bird watch. We saw blue pigeons, the majestic fregate birds, the beautiful long-tailed tropic birds and fairy terns.

There is a restaurant and bar down at the small beach and another (the main one) overlooking a swimming pool, round of course. The chef conjures up meals fit for royalty - so good-looking in fact, that they deserve to be appreciated as works of art before being consumed.

The snorkelling in certain areas at the base of this jewel, is excellent. You can also sail or kayak.
Round is a true gem.