Peacock! and Tea!

Peacock? And Tea!

Made our transition from Praslin Island back to Mahe Island without a problem except the sea was a bit rougher on the journey so wasn’t as easy to read.  We were met at the jetty with the same car we had before so packed our luggage into it, had lunch at Fish Tail Restaurant right on the jetty which was excellent fried chicken and fries then away to our Sailfish Beach Villas again.  We are in a different villa this time, more room actually as it is a two story with the bedrooms upstairs.  Very nice places just friggin’ hot.

We unpacked most of our dive gear and clothes that we had left behind as we had jammed them into the suitcases possibly a bit damp before our transition over to Praslin.  Put everything out into the sun to dry better and also washed up with the clothes we had taken with us to Praslin and then laid them out in the sun too.    Then we headed out to the closest grocery store to get some supplies for breakfast.  As we are pulling out of our steep driveway, there is a peacock sitting on the stone column that marks our driveway.  A peacock?  What the hey?  We had learned that one of the UAE sheik’s nephews has built a home at the end of our road.  I imagine that the peacock is his as they are certainly not native here.   My hubby is trying to remember the call so he can whistle at the peacock but it eluded him at the time.  We continue to the grocery but the peacock has disappeared when we return.  We need not have worried as we heard the blasted thing most of the night, calling, calling, calling.  Dang lost peacock.

Had a bit of a sore throat, probably because my daughter has had one all week.  We have a rather unique connection in that almost every time she gets sick, I get sick too and this is even when we are on different continents.   So we just had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner and spent some time trying to answer emails as the connection on this island is just pitiful.  We are using a dongle and it takes a long time to upload or download anything.  Our host thinks they will get internet soon.  Apparently having a Sheik’s nephew down the road has benefits.  It speeded up their water connections and now probably the WiFi connections.  And they get a peacock to run around their yard sometimes.

So our last day in the Seychelles, we are going to spend it sightseeing.   We don’t have to get up early so just hop out of bed when it feels good and after a leisurely breakfast of toast and more PB&J and some yoghurt and cereal, we head to the gas station first and then on into Victoria, the capital city.  It’s not a big city so doesn’t take us long to see most of the sights.  There is a great Hindu Temple on one street which is also close to the open market.  We wander through both and then head to the Pirate Arms for lunch because it was open and had ceiling fans and looked pretty good.   Not a real big day because not a lot in the main city to see really.   There are some kiosks that are along the main road and by the parking lot and we wander past them.  One store had very nice carved tortoise starting at a ridiculous price of $2300.  While it was big and heavy, couldn’t have taken that long to carve.  A kiosk had one about ¾’s the size starting at $350.  He was willing to bargain but that was still way more than it was worth, we thought. 

Anyway, that concluded our sightseeing of the town.  We wanted to head over the mountains and find the tea plantation.   We missed the road because the signs weren’t really helpful to coordinate with the map but we did manage to get over the mountain and see where we were and then head back to the tea plantation.  Actually, it was the factory that we visited but they were only bagging tea today and one man was spreading citronella tea out on drying tables.  We’ve had citronella tea both cold and hot.  The hot is like drinking insect repellent.  The cold is quite nice if it is sweet enough.   So about 10 minutes to wander around the tea factory then sit down in the cool mountain breeze to have a pot of tea.  I had vanilla and my hubby had cinnamon.  Both were quite nice really.    And that’s about it for our sightseeing too.   There are roads to drive and hills to climb and coastlines to see and all of it is beautiful but it’s probably time to pack up our suitcases and get ready to head for home early tomorrow morning.

It has been a good vacation and relaxing and calming and nice.  We’d come back which is saying something because we don’t usually return to places.  Too many new places to visit.  The diving is good here and next visit will be almost all diving, I’m sure.A