A tiny nation-archipelago off the east coast of Africa, the Seychelles are blessed with natural beauty and unbelievably gorgeous beaches. It has been a long dream of ours, like with every other destination on “The Great Expedition”, to visit the Seychelles. In particular, we wanted to visit one of the most photographed beaches in the world – Anse Source D’Argent on La Digue island.
La Digue
La Digue is the third most populous island in the Seychelles, with about 2000 inhabitants. There is not much happening on the island – there are some small shops, but most of the buildings are hotels or guesthouses. Life here is pretty chill.
The island is also relatively small and a bike can take you anywhere you want to go. We rented bikes at our guesthouse and explored the amazing beaches around the island.
Grand Anse
Grand Anse lies on the south of the island and has amazing stretches of white sand with beautiful boulders and lush green vegetation on either side. The waves and currents were too strong to allow any swimming, so we admired the beach with our eyes only.
Petite Anse
Northeast of Grand Anse and a short hike away was Petite Anse, a smaller and more secluded version of Grand Anse. The sand was equally white and the water as clear as crystal.
Anse Source D’Argent
Saving the best for last, Anse Source D’Argent was just beyond incredible! This is what we came for. The color of the water and patterns formed by the reed and seaweed are just out of this world, but what made the beach stand out were the beautifully sculpted granite boulders that dot the landscape. We couldn’t get enough of the scenery. As usual, pictures are worth more than words:
Does it look like the most spectacular beach ever or what? We spent hours and hours exploring and wading through every corner of the beach and looking at it from every angle. The scenery was just surreal.
Wildlife on La Digue
Right next to Anse Source D’Argent was a giant tortoise farm. The tortoises resembled the ones we had seen in the Galapagos, but with different shell shapes and colors. The add on experience this time was being able to feed these slow-moving animals.
We also spotted very colorful and beautiful birds on the island, the two most notable ones being the Madagascar Fody and the Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher. The flycatcher is found nowhere else in the world but on La Digue island.
And now we leave you with the suggestively shaped Coco de mer an endemic nut from the Seychelles.
Our time in the Seychelles was incredible and surpassed our expectations. It was a continuation our beach time in Zanzibar and a nice break after the awesome but grueling safari in Kenya and Tanzania.