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| Seychelles Yacht & Lodge Safaris | ||
Bareboat Yacht & Lodge Safari |
There are times on a visit to the Seychelles when from land you are likely to look out to sea and wish you were onboard a sailing yacht, free to travel by sea from island to island and anchor in bays where native forest is all you will see at the water margin. There are times too when even the most dedicated of sailors is likely to look to the shore and wish to get lost within its rainforests and mountains, and enjoy a stable bed and large bathroom. Our Seychelles Yacht and Lodge Safaris are designed to provide you with your personal ideal balance between exploring the Seychelles under sail and basing yourself on land. Whether you want to sail yourself (bareboat), take a skippered yacht charter or join a small group yacht safari, the Seychelles provides one of the world’s most pristine combinations of islands and ocean. The Seychelles can broadly be grouped into a handful of sailing areas:
The Inner Islands From a sailing perspective, the innermost islands concentrate around Praslin and La Digue and the many smaller islands which surround them. Praslin and La Digue themselves are worthy of some detailed exploration providing some of the most beautiful coastlines you are likely to see anywhere. Praslin’s Anse Lazio, for example, is often touted as the world’s most beautiful beach and if you moor here overnight there is every chance you will be the only one to do so. Smaller satellite islands like Cousin, Curieuse and St Pierre are fully protected nature reserves so there is nowhere to stay and a boat is your only means of approach.
There are also the ‘outer inner’ islands which would include Silhouette, Bird Island, North Island and Denis. Cruising to each of these locations takes a good half day or more, but the rewards are excellent. Silhouette is the third biggest island in the Seychelles but the most pristine of the larger islands. Most of it is covered in thick forest which is lifted to more than 700m by a typically Seychelles scenery of giant granite boulders. Nearby North Island is one of the world’s most premium eco-resorts for which a yacht can provide a matching alternative, or in fact a substantially cheaper way of visiting the island than staying there. Bird and Denis are the northernmost islands of the Seychelles, bridging as they do the shallow waters of the Inner Islands with deep Indian Ocean waters which plunge 2000m off their northern shores. These provide the opportunity for some enjoyable open sea sails and glimpses of deep ocean Sail Fish and Marlin. Alternatively, these islands can be saved for highly rewarding land based exploration from an ecolodge and approached by plane. Praslin and La Digue deserve consideration for more extensive exploration on land and potentially a temporary base on land from which to do this. On Praslin, there is the Vallée de Mai which is a completely unique forest ecosystem dominated by the Coco de Mer palm. A coastal forest area which connects to the Vallée is home to the endemic Black Parrot of which just 250 individuals remain. We can arrange guided walks to the granite peaks of this forest to provide excellent opportunities to see these birds and enjoy some stunning views to neighbouring islands. La Digue can be explored from a yacht or with a short stay on land. There are no cars on this island, but there are ox drawn carts which provide a taxi service should you require. Exploration is best done on bicycle or on foot. A steep trek will take you to the island’s highest point from which you can enjoy 360o views to the surrounding islands. The Seychelles main island of Mahe provides some of the most dramatic coastal scenery in the group – in particular its north western coast where the high peaks of the Morne Seychellois National Park rise steeply above the sea. The landscape is a deep green here, thick with forest inviting you to step off your yacht and focus on some extensive exploration from on land. This is something we can arrange with an expert terrestrial guide and for divers we can introduce you to some prolific marine life at dive sites around this area. The Amirantes Like the Inner Islands, the Amirantes group lies on a shallow ocean bank some 25 – 70 metres below the surface of the Indian Ocean. Physically, they are quite different from the Inner Islands because they are low lying coral islands and atolls surrounded by wide expanses of shallow reef. They are also relatively uninhabitaed with a permanent population of little more than 100, of which half live on the island of Desroches. Extensive reefs and the absence of commercial fishing mean that the Amirantes are richly stocked with tropical fish. This all makes for some excellent snorkelling and it is a superb area for our skippered sail and dive charters. For these we can provide a monohull or catamaran yacht, skipper, compressor, scuba tanks and a divemaster to explore some of the best dive sites in this vast oceanic island system. This is truly a place where you can feel alone on a wide open ocean. Aldabra Aldabra is one of our planet’s ultimate oceanic island wildernesses for which a self sufficient boat is the only means to explore. This is the world’s largest raised atoll within which there is a huge lagoon encircled by broken ring of pristine islets. Each one provides a substantial area of land to explore, with its mangroves, terrestrial forests, beaches and inter-tidal pools.
The current literally screams in and out of the lagoon through a main channel – a zone described by some of our clients as a drift through an aquarium of fishes, sharks and rays. On land some 300,000 Giant Aldabra Tortoises lay testament to how pure the nature of this atoll is. Tortoises were the fresh meat preserve of sailors in years gone by, which is why they have become extinct everywhere except this remote atoll and the Galapagos. We arrange Natural History Yachts Safaris to Aldabra for divers and non-divers, as well as private yacht charters best joined from the neighbouring islands of Concepcion. As with the Amirantes, these can come fully equipped with dive tanks, a compressor and a dive master. Note The reefs of the Amirantes and Aldabra not only provide some stunning snorkelling and diving, but they present a significant navigational challenge too. Distances from rescue services are considerable, which is why we need to provide a trained local skipper to help you negotiate your yacht around the submerged hazards. This also ensures that you are guided to parts of the islands most likely to interest you. Links to further information General information about sailing in the Seychelles Sample 8-day Inner Islands sailing itinerary Photographs kindly provided by Ralph Pannell, Charlotte Caffrey, David Rowat, STB, Andy Davies |
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