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EDITS Travel
is famous among the diving fraternity for the
‘Desroches Drop’, with its fantastic caves,
underwater labyrinths, yawning fissures and
deep chasms, which may be explored under
the supervision of a PADI dive-master from
the hotel.
In 2012, passengers from the stricken cruise
liner, the 28,597-tonnes ‘Costa Allegra’, left
adrift in the Indian Ocean after a fire onboard,
were shipped to Desroches Island, and to
safety. The island was chosen as a sanctuary
for the distressed passengers due to its
ability to facilitate them comfortably.
Desroches is one of the few outer islands
of the Seychelles that could accommodate
some of the passengers and crew, and even
assisted them in evacuating the remaining
passengers to Mahé, as there were over 1000
people onboard at the time.
This is actually the only island in the
Amirantes that offers accommodation.
Forbes Magazine recently described
Desroches Island as one of the “Top 10
Remote Destinations in the World”. There
is even a small Creole Village with its copra
drier, coconut oil press and lock-up – a
piquant reminder of the old plantation days.
Since 2009, a full time team of scientists
and rangers from the Island Conservation
Society (ICS) has been employed to monitor
and protect the terrestrial and marine life on
Desroches, and earlier this year they united
the island together to plant 350 new trees,
with a further 410 saplings already growing
in the island’s nursery. The ICS operation is
currently headed by Tony Jupiter, assisted by
Melinda Curran and Kathryn Machin.
Unlike most atolls where waters over the
reef are shallow, Desroches is also a good
spot for swimming and snorkelling, and the
beaches around the hotel have excellent
facilities for guests to enjoy sailing, cycling,
canoeing, windsurfing and deep-sea fishing.
Poivre Atoll (French for pepper) is near the
eastern edge of the Amirantes Bank, and was
one of the first places coconuts were grown
for commercial use in the Seychelles. There
are three islets on the reef; Poivre Island to
the north, Florentin to the west and Île du
Sud, to the south. A settlement stands on the
eastern side of Poivre Island, amid a clump of
coconut palms. The island is bisected by an
unpaved airfield, about 1100 metres long and
90 metres wide.
There are numerous other islands and cays,
including Étoile Cay – an uninhabited circular
coral cay which is 4.6 metres high, and lies
29 km northeast of Boudeuse Cay. The island
is treeless. The only vegetation is grasses
and low bushes, fringed by a steep sandy
beach. Landing is relatively easy during calm
weather.
Boudeuse Cay is a sandstone platform
island and the westernmost island in the
Amirantes. It has no trees, but it has a small
beach and is considered one of the most
pristine islands in the chain because it has
yet to be cultivated by humans. It has heavy
breakers even when the weather is calm, so it
is difficult to land on this cay.
Marie Louise Island is located at the
southern end of the Amirantes chain and
is a low sandy coral cay. It is permanently
inhabited with a population of about 15
agricultural workers and beach fishermen
based in a small settlement on the west
coast. It is not easy to land a boat here.
Île Desnoeufs is the southernmost island
in the chain and has a central depression
instead of a lagoon. Most of the land is
exposed sandstone, after the guano was
exploited in the late 19th century. The island
is still a base for the commercial exploitation
of breeding seabirds, especially the eggs
of the Sooty Tern, who have established a
colony here of more than 1,250,000 birds.
So why not discover one of
the Indian Ocean’s hidden
secrets and chart a course for
the glorious Amirantes, where
nature still reigns supreme!
The crystal clear waters of the Amirantes make it an ideal destination for scuba diving,
snorkelling and underwater photography. Fields of delicate fire corals and huge schools
of fish swim amongst the boulders as the Indian Ocean swells meander above them.
The coral-red bloom of the hibiscus, the
emblematic flower of the tropics. This
short-lived flower grows in abundance on
the islands of the Amirantes group.
Marie Louise Island is located at the southern end of the Amirantes chain and is
a low sandy coral cay. It is permanently inhabited with a population of about 15
agricultural workers and beach fishermen, pictured here hauling in the day’s catch.