We moved a short distance during the night to our next port- La Digue, Seychelles. My excursion today is a Vallée de Mai Nature Walk. Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage site that is a palm forest with 6 species of endemic palm trees.
We took a tender to the pier, then a 30-minute ferry ride to another island- Praslin, Seychelles- where we got on a bus for a 30 minute ride to the nature preserve. We stopped along the way to see a beautiful beach and made another stop to see a waterfall. We just stopped on the edge of the road, got off the bus and walked on the road to see the waterfall. The guide keep telling us to watch out for the other vehicles.
We took a very, very short out & back walk in the nature preserve- I’d guess less than 1/4 mile. I was so tired- it wasn’t super hot but the extremely slow pace and the amount of time spent standing around made me feel like I was going to faint. When we walked back to the entrance at a normal pace I was no longer tired and felt fine. I talked with other folks that did the same tour but with a different guide and they did a much longer loop trail.
The palm forest was amazing- imagine a whole forest where the “trees” are all different species of palm trees.
The flagship palm is the Coco de Mer palm. It has the world’s largest and heaviest seed/nut which can weigh up to 90 pounds. We all wondered but the guide said no one has been hit by a nut/seed dropping from a Coco de Mer palm. There is a female plant and a male plant.
When we returned to the bus we were offered water that came from Vallée de Mai.
After we got back to the pier, I walked around the town looking for souvenirs but found lunch instead. I ate fish & chips and drank local beer and local cider at the Fish Trap restaurant on the beach. It was delicious and peaceful.
