Monday among the rocks.
Rain, and the sound of Zack running on deck to close everyone’s hatches woke us. A downpour at about 615 am was just fine and cozy for coffee and chatting, and by 7am the skies cleared.
Our swimmers were up and ready to swim for 730 as requested last night, and we jumped in right on time. We swam across the smooth sea surface to a little rock outcrop. The boulders were sitting in just a few feet of water over white sand. We stood and waded and wandered, awestruck as if walking on some Edenly planet. The granite is smooth underfoot and so climbing commenced. Not for me - I don’t climb.
From the low level climbing grounds we swam to the beach on shore, skimming just inches above some docile sting rays, working on their morning breakfast. They didn’t seem to mind as we floated above them, discussing the finer points of stingray morphology. Knowledge goes a long way to counter fear, and triples the enjoyment of fish watching.
Then, a deluge. The rain came again and we whooped and hooted and hollered and splashed around. I love swimming in the rain and apparently this crowd does too. We continued on around the bay dotted with pocket beaches in between the giant boulders. When we got to the end, everyone wanted more.
Back to the rock outcrop! This time, emboldened by the joy of the swim and confidence borne of knowing the area, the ladies climbed higher. Tara led the charge up to the highest point on the little granite island. I was the only one left below. They all yelled for me to join them. Fearfully, I climbed. Awkward on land, I slowly made my way to a moderate peak for some photos of them all. But they wanted more. They wanted me at the top among them. OKAY! I spend a lot of days gently coaxing people out of their comfort zones in the water - I suppose it’s only fair I get a taste of my own medicine!
The view was well worth the timid effort, with at least 5 or 12 or 17 shades of blue any way we look. The still dramatic skies made for a stunning total effect. Zack who is 5/8ths mountain goat grabbed my camera and skittered over to an adjacent peak to get a spectacular photo of us. We missed Marianne who was scouting her own swim adventure near the boat and is even less of a climber than I am, but she will get more than her share of granite boulder effect this week.
Zack took this stunner of the group of us. That’s me up there - white knuckled and seated!
After two hours of swimming and climbing and general marveling at our surrounds, we climbed back aboard the yacht, fully brined and more than satisfied. Second breakfast commenced.
While the ladies ate their second breakfast, the batfish (two kinds seen here!) enjoyed some crumbs that made their way overboard.
We are headed North now to what I think will be a special spot, calm and protected from the wind, scenic and beautiful like everywhere we turn.
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On the Northern shore of Praslin are a few beaches out of the seasonal Southeast winds. RIchie brought us to one of these, Anse Lazio this afternoon. We lunched on Seychelles creole fish and beef taco wrap things with an amazing chick pea salad and some yogurt dippins on the side. Bellies full, we chilled out for a few hours before the afternoon swim. People read and napped and got generally quiet in corners of this yacht where suddenly you can feel you’re on a boat of your own.
Ten minutes before we were to do our afternoon swim, the heavens opened and it poured. No matter, after the joy of this morning, who doesn’t want to swim in the rain? Everyone suited up and jumped in just as it stopped. We could feel a fresh layer on the surface of the water - not quite as salty, a little cooler. It made for a refreshing experience in this water that has been so warm - at least 85º F. We swam a straight line across deep water to a sloping granite boulder (which granite boulder?? That one! Which one? This one? No THAT one!). It’s all beautiful granite boulders around here. As we swam, we looked up above the tree line to see flying foxes, or the Seychelles Fruit Bat, a megabat (wingspan over three feet) found only in Seychelles and Comoros. They fly in the middle of the day and look like something from the Wizard of Oz.
At the point we turned and worked our way East along the shore. We bumped into a big Pacific green turtle and a healthy coral head the size of an elephant. It teemed with little fish of all different colors and sizes. We swam through the rocks just like we do at the Baths in the British Virgin Islands - the only other island with large granite boulders, inexplicably. We bobbed and weaved and saw fish swimming out from under ledges and into nearby crevices.
Eventually we ended up at a pocket beach surrounded by jungle. A few of the rocks had arrows pointing to a path into the jungle painted on them. Without even saying a word, Zack and some of the ladies made their way up the path, bare feet, buoys and all. Miriam, Myssie and I trailed long behind and joked that if we were villains trying to lure victims to a lair, we’d need only to paint some arrows on a rock, as our pals needed no other information before hiking into the jungle. We did not come across any villains, but we did encounter some VERY LARGE, like the size of your palm LARGE, spiders in their very impressive webs. These, Celine informed us, are the Golden Orb Spider.
I don’t really want to talk about it.
And for reference, today, this fish (me) climbed, hiked AND looked at spiders. Like, big ones. So, outside of your comfort zone, everyone! We are not in Kansas anymore.
But really, how cool to swim to a jungle and just walk in. We returned to the beach and stopped for some pics under a huge tree I have yet to identify. The light got great and the whole scene was just stunning.
We waded back into the water and immediately discovered two Tridacna - Giant Clam! Another SwimVacation lifer species! I have only seen these while diving in remote Indo-Pacific locations and was thrilled to show them to our swimmers just a few feet below the surface. We also saw a Soldier Turkeyfish which is a very close relative to the Lionfish. We see these beautiful creatures in the Caribbean where they are invasive and overtaking many local reef fish species. How cool to see them here in the Indian Ocean where they belong.
Zack made me crazy with a back flip from a 30 foot boulder. I recorded it, but the mom in me didn’t like it.
We meander-swam back to the boat where we bumped into Marianne who had been having an adventure close to the yacht. We all bobbed and chatted in the glassy calm water well into the sunset. No one wanted to get out.
But Pimms and yummy snacks awaited! These were followed by dinner of Giraffe Crab - another local dish prepared expertly by Lou Lou, along with coconut curry, rice and fresh peapods. Her famous Lemon Posset closed a dynamic and far flung day.
It’s bedtime, and we’ll swim early in the morning again. We haven’t had to drag any of these swimmers into the water. They’ve traveled a long way to explore the waters of Seychelles and they are ready and waiting for each jump in.
Flying foxes, Golden Orb crawlies and Giant Clams? Vivid boulders and jungles and entirely new shades of blue? It’s the stuff of science fiction. We are swimming in a technicolor Oz of our own.
Love,
Heather
