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EDITS Travel
the British, as a part of Mauritius. In 1903,
Seychelles became a separate British Crown
Colony, thereby including the Amirantes.
On 8 November 1965, the United Kingdom
controversially split Desroches from the
Seychelles to become part of the newly-
formed British Indian Ocean Territory. The
purpose was to allow the construction of
military bases for the “mutual benefit” of the
United Kingdom and the United States.
However, on 23 June 1976, the island of
Desroches was returned to the Seychelles
as a result of the archipelago attaining
independence, when James Mancham
became President and Albert René, Prime
Minister.
The Amirantes Islands consist of 11 main
islands as well as numerous shoals, sand
cays and low lying coral atolls. The total
population of the island group is about 110,
and the main settlement is on the island of
Desroches, with a resident population of
around 50.
Of the outlying islands, Lady Denison-
Pender Shoal is submerged, African Banks is
a sand cay and Remire Reef is a drying reef,
and all are uninhabited. Remire Island, which
is an uplifted sand cay, has a small coconut
plantation.
African Banks is regularly visited by people
with charter yachts, and over the years the
island has been exploited by poachers for
nesting birds and their eggs, particularly
Sooty Terns who once bred there in
considerable numbers. In 1995, there was
once a single coconut palm, but other than
that, the island is treeless. There is a derelict
automated lighthouse at the north-eastern
end, North Island Lighthouse. African Banks
used to have a second islet, Île du Sud (South
Island), 2.9 km south of North Island, that
eroded in 1976, leaving a small sandstone
ridge exposed only at low tide. The closest
island to African Banks is Remire Island,
about 25 km to the south.
Remire, or ‘Eagle’ Island has trees over 15
metres high. It has a paved airstrip that is
457 metres long. The British adventurer and
businessman Mark Veevers-Carter and his
American wife, Wendy (Day) Veevers-Carter,
who was the daughter of American author
Clarence Day (Life with Father), lived on the
island with their family for some years where
they founded and operated a successful
copra plantation before it was taken over by
the Seychelles Island Development Company.
The island has rich deposits of guano that
was mined after World War I, but today only
a few workers live there to keep the island
clean and maintain the coconut plantation
and the few chalets on the island.
A variety of seabirds, including the Fairy
Tern and Lesser Noddy are seen on Remire,
but the number of birds has declined over
the years. In the early 1990’s, peacocks were
introduced to the island. It has also been a
Presidential retreat since the 1980’s.
D’Arros, or Daros Island is an oval-shaped,
flat coral sand cay, and much of the island is
covered by dense vegetation. Once a thriving
coconut plantation, the trees are over 27
metres high and mainly coconut palms and
‘Casuarina equisetifolia’. Until recently the
island was privately owned by the L’Oreal
heiress Liliane Bettencourt, but she has now
sold D’Arros and the surrounding islets to a
firm affiliated to the Swiss-based ‘Save our
Seas Foundation’ – a marine conservation
group.
There are several colonies of seabirds on
the island as well as a small number of giant
tortoises. The lagoon is considered to be
one of the most beautiful in the area and sea
turtles visit the island’s beaches for breeding
every year.
The island has a small hotel and is
permanently inhabited by the hotel staff only.
There is also an unpaved airstrip 975 metres
long which bisects the island into two parts.
There are no regular flights to D’Arros, but
some flights divert to the airstrip from nearby
Desroches.
Saint Joseph Atoll is located at the eastern
edge of the Amirantes Bank and has 14
sandy islets: the three larger ones along the
northeast and east shore, which are covered
by coconut plantations, and the remaining
ones to the south. The lagoon is completely
enclosed by the surrounding reef and has a
huge population of stingrays as well as giant
blue mud crabs that live in its depths and rise
to the flats at high tide. There is also a large
population of bonefish, grouper and rock
lobster. An abundance of colourful reef fish
can also be found there, along with Oysters
which can be seen in considerable numbers
clinging to the seaweed and feeding on
coralline algae.
There was once a small settlement at the
western end of Saint Joseph Atoll, now
abandoned to the seabirds, such as Lesser
Frigatebirds, who have a large colony on
the island. Other breeding birds include
Sooty Terns, numerous Purple Herons, the
Madagascar Fody, Lesser Crested Terns,
Brown Booby, Whimbrel and the curious
Crab Plover.
Desroches, or Île Desroches is the largest
and main island of the Amirantes group, with
a resident population of about 50 people. It is
located 36 kmeast of the Amirantes Bank, and
separated from it by a stretch of ocean over
1300 metres deep, making it the easternmost
island of the chain. It has a splendid hotel,
the exclusive Desroches Island Resort, and a
paved airstrip that is 1,372 metres in length.
The island is 230 km south west of Mahé, and
it takes about 45 minutes to fly there.
It lies on the southern edge of a coral
reef of atoll character. At the northern edge
of the atoll are the Shark Rocks, with least
depths between 3 and 6 metres. There is
also a lighthouse on the northeast end of
Desroches, which is a very popular tourist
attraction.
Desroches was named after the flamboyant
Chevalier des Roches, the Governor of Île
de France (Mauritius) and Réunion (then Île
Bourbon) from 1767 to 1772. Along with the
remaining Amirante Islands, Desroches has
been part of the Seychelles since it became
an official British Crown Colony in 1903.
The island has eight kilometres of white
sand beaches and is covered with coconut
trees. It is surrounded by a protective reef
that offers excellent scuba diving. Desroches
The green turtle, like other sea turtles, migrate long distances between their
feeding grounds and ‘hatching’ beaches in the Seychelles archipelago. The adults
commonly inhabit shallow lagoons, feeding mostly on various species of seagrass.
African Banks is regularly visited by people with
charter yachts, and over the years the island has
been exploited by poachers for nesting birds and
their eggs, particularly Sooty Terns who once bred
there in considerable numbers.
As if from nowhere a tiny pink crab appears,
scuttling sideways across the beach.
It skims the surface, barely making an
impression in the wet sand.