Port Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles

We arrived at Port Victoria on the island of Mahe in the Seychelles on schedule, docking about 7:30 AM.  The harbor was full of activity. 

The Seychelles must import most things.

The islands are working hard to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels by investing in solar energy and wind power.

solar panels in background and tuna nets in foreground

We saw large tuna fishing boats and huge piles of nets.  One boat came in just after we docked, going alongside a freezer ship, next to which was docked a canning ship.

Today’s tour had the hokey name Spice and Sea.  Although nothing special, it met our expectations, showing us something of the island. 

Center for Preservation of Creole Language

rum factory

Yup - those are flies on the fish.

For the 'spice' component of the tour, we traveled down the east side of Mahe, then turning inland and ascended a steep road before stopping at Le Jardin du Roi. There we saw a number of exotic plants including a Coco du Mer (male) palm and one of the huge nuts that come from it.  [For facts and amusing legends about the Coco du Mer, click here.]

male Coco du Mer tree

Coco du Mer nut - Pam estimated its weight at 20 lbs.

In addition to plants, we saw several giant tortoises.  There was no stated cultural or religious reason for the presence of the tortoises.   

Leaving the garden, we descended the hill and rendezvoused with a catamaran at the beach.  We were ferried out and given a chance to do some snorkeling over a fairly uninteresting reef.  Under power, we then cruised along the coast back to the ship.  (Yawn)

a man-made island

Disembarking the catamaran, we boarded INSIGNIA to wash off the salt from our swim and have some lunch.

Mid-afternoon we walked into the city where we wandered around there for a while.  There was not much of particular interest.  The city was functional, but not attractive.  The walk to the center of the city and back was brutal, not in terms of distance but rather because of the temperature and accompanying humidity.  Every stitch of clothing went straight into the laundry hamper.

We had expected the 'clock tower' (lower left) to be a bit larger.

We found the Seychelles relatively clean and attractive, especially in contrast to our port calls in Africa.  We did not get a sense that the locals were friendly even though tourism is the Seychelles biggest industry.  In fairness, it was Friday afternoon when we wandered around the city, so getting home to start their weekend was no-doubt on most people's mind.

Our next port of call is the Maldives.

Mombasa, Kenya (February 23)

We had an uneventful overnight passage from Zanzibar to Mombasa, arriving at the mouth of the harbor about 7:00 AM.

Transiting up the channel to our dock, we passed a ferry boat so packed with people the thought on being on it certainly made me cringe.

Today's tour was to Shimba Hills Natural Reserve for a vehicle safari.  The vehicles were vans with pop-top roofs.  With six people plus the driver in each van, we could stand up to see and photograph the animals.  Even at 8:30 in the morning the day was so hot and humid that the driver popped the top before we left the pier, driving through the city and into the country in pseudo-convertible style.

Had I linked the fact that Mombasa is on an island with the scary ferry we passed coming in, I would have anticipated suddenly finding ourselves on said ferry.  The process of loading it seemed completely chaotic but was actually quite well choreographed.  Vehicles that had queued in multiple lines went on first, parking inches from each other on all sides.  It was amazing that the ferry deck was not littered with side-view mirrors.  Once the vehicles were aboard, on came the foot traffic.  In a surprisingly short time, the ferry was underway to the far shore where vehicles and pedestrians streamed ashore in another seeming chaotic swirl of activity. 

I would like to have taken pictures, but the ferry terminals and ferry itself were within a security zone where no photography was allowed. Sneaking some shots was contra-indicated due to the heavy presence of security officers.  I did find a picture online that depicts the disembarking. 

(internet photo)

Leaving the congestion of structures, people and vehicles in the vicinity of the ferry terminal, behind, we rolled south into the countryside.  We initially followed the shoreline. We then turned inland, climbing into the Shimba Hills.

After entering the nature reserve, the twenty or so vehicles in our convoy deployed onto various roads in search of animals.  Having had a conversation with our driver/guide Mr. Suleiman during a comfort stop on route, I was not optimistic.  This pessimism served me well.  We did have some sightings, but they were few, far between, mostly uninteresting and usually a considerable distance from our vehicle.  Unlike the private preserve, off-road safaris we went on in South Africa and Botswana in 2008, on this safari vehicles were required to stay on the road, so off-roading the get closer was not an option.  Thankfully I had a 300mm lens on a full-frame  camera.

warthogs

We got lucky!  This Impala was standing by the side of the road
a short distance from the entrance to the Reserve.

The best sightings of the day were a the Shimba Hills Lodge where we had lunch.  There were two fish hawks that put on quite a show diving for bread thrown into the pond by our waiter. 

a monkey enjoying the air show

After lunch there was another hour of safari during which the only animals we saw were more warthogs. 

Oh, the excitement!

Mid-afternoon, we headed back to Mombasa.  As we approached the traffic backlog for the ferry Mr. Suleiman reiterated his morning warning to close our windows to prevent someone reaching in to grab anything of value.

In hindsight, we should have tried to coax our driver into abandoning the afternoon safari in favor of a driving tour of Mombasa.  I suspect attempting to do so would have been futile since he probably did not have that degree of decision-making latitude.  Regardless, by the time we returned to the ship there was no time left to venture out on our own.  We divested ourselves of a surprising amount of red dust acquired on the Shimba Hills roads.  The ship departed Mombasa as night settled in.