Three names…Three Locations…Three Gifts of Nature
Mahe-Praslin-La Digue forms chain of three beautiful islands of Seychelles. Why am I referring these islands as chain, when there is no such physical or virtual chain?
The answer lies in the beauty of these islands, the more you enter the chain, the more beauty of the island is unfolded by nature.
Let’s begin with the last part of the chain which is La Digue.
La Digue is near to Praslin and far from Mahe, so our first stop from Mahe was Praslin which can be reached through ferry cruise and from Mahe speed boats are available which took us to La Digue. Praslin is bigger as compared to La Digue and hence we decided to station at Praslin and visit La Digue through speed boat for day tour. However, lodging options are also available at La Digue but the availability is limited.
When I reached Prsalin, my first major task was to visit Praslin and for that I booked for to and fro journey from a local agent, which was an unregistered agent. Booking my trip with unregistered agent was a risky affair but I took chance and it proved right for me for my first trip, but my act of taking risk didn’t proved correct, subsequently.
It is good to start early in the morning for La Digue, so that entire island can be explored and we planned it accordingly. Generally, the trip starts at around 8:00 A.M to 8: 30 A.M and ends at 4:00 PM, but all is dependent on the weather condition.
It was our first day at Praslin and we were not aware of the local weather conditions, which I realized afterwards, how important role does this factor plays in planning trip to La Digue and other places.
The day when we planned for trip to La Digue, began with morning showers. Me and my wife were all set to start the trip, but we found that it was raining and as per my earlier experiences of island hopping during rainy weather, the boats are not allowed to sail. And my experience was proved perfect by the booking agent, who visited my hotel and informed me about the situation. He told me that, due to bad weather, next attempt shall be made at 9:00 A.M i.e half an hour after the scheduled trip start time. So, we got some more time to finish breakfast, which we were trying to finish like a marathon. Weather did not improved till 9:00 A.M and the last attempt was to be made at 9:30 A.M.
As the time was progressing, weather was also improving and I was hopeful for the trip to begin, also, I had already kept a reserve day to visit La Digue which was next day, so if my plan is abandoned due to rainy weather, than I had next reserve day to visit La Digue.
Me and my wife were waiting eagerly at around 9:30 A.M for arrival of travel agent with some positive news, since weather has improved and there were only light rains.
He came hurriedly and took us to a private boat of some travel agency, which was about to leave for La Digue. With some passengers already on-board, we also found our space and we boarded the speed boat and reached La Digue after ride of 25 minutes. The ride to La Digue from Praslin was also thrilling, since it was drizzling and we were cruising at good speed.
When we reached La Digue Pier, we assembled at the information zone and the pilot of our speed boat provided some necessary instructions.
He handed us the map of island, marked some important places to visit on the map and the best part, he provided us with bicycles to roam around the island. Lastly, he gave us the cut-off time of 4:00 P.M to return back to pier. We took two maps, two bicycles and started our next journey within La Digue.
At the time of booking this trip, I asked the tour agent about total charges for to and fro journey to La Digue island and local tours. He did not mention that, in La Digue, there will be no guided tour and I had to ride bicycle to explore island. This is one of the ill-effect of booking trip from an unregistered agent. So, the amount he charged for the entire trip seems to be higher now, after knowing the fact after reaching the island, but than there was no rental for the bicycle, so eventually, I was neutral when I compare the expenses. But whatever happened, I was feeling more happy to explore island on bicycle, of course I would never mind taking a guided tour, but exploring island independently and that too in a honeymoon trip, was much more exciting than expected.
Having gathered all the required details, we started our ride.
The map of the island was sweet in size and hence pocket-friendly but it actually worked like an offline GPS for me.
The tourist map of La Digue which looks like an ancient map, but it contains updated details.
