Seychelles

The Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa. It's home to numerous beaches, coral reefs and nature reserves, as well as rare animals such as giant Aldabra tortoises. Mahé, a hub for visiting the other islands, is home to capital Victoria. The current population is about 120,000 .

The Seychelles archipelago was uninhabited prior to sustained external contact. Although Arab and Swahili sailors likely knew of the islands earlier through Indian Ocean trade routes, there is no evidence of permanent settlement before European involvement. The islands were first recorded by Europeans in the 16th century, but were not settled until the 18th century, when France formally claimed them. During the period of French colonization, enslaved Africans—many of whom had already been captured through existing African, Arab slave trade, and Indian Ocean slave trade networks—were brought to the islands for plantation labour.

It faced competing French and British interests until it came under full British control in the early 19th century. After Britain assumed control in the early 19th century, slavery was abolished and later replaced in part by indentured labourers from India. Since proclaiming independence from the United Kingdom in 1976, it has developed from a largely agricultural society to a market-based diversified economy, characterized by service, public sector, and tourism activities. From 1976 to 2015, nominal GDP grew nearly 700%, and purchasing power parity nearly 1600%. Since the late 2010s, the government has taken steps to encourage foreign investment.

In 1976, Seychelles gained independence from the United Kingdom as a republic. In 1977, a coup d'état by France-Albert René ousted the first president of the republic, James Mancham. René discouraged over-dependence on tourism and declared that he wanted "to keep Seychelles for the Seychellois". The 1979 constitution declared a socialist one-party state, which lasted until 1991. In the 1980s there were a series of coup attempts against President René, some of which were supported by South Africa. In 1981, Mike Hoare led a team of 43 South African mercenaries masquerading as holidaying rugby players in the 1981 Seychelles coup d'état attempt. There was a gun battle at the airport, and most of the mercenaries later escaped in a hijacked Air India plane. The leader of this hijacking was German mercenary D. Clodo, a former member of the Rhodesian SAS. Clodo later stood trial in South Africa (where he was acquitted) as well as in his home country Germany for air piracy. In 1986, an attempted coup led by the Seychelles Minister of Defence, Ogilvy Berlouis, caused President René to request assistance from India. The Indian Navy's Nilgiri-class frigate Vindhyagiri arrived in Port Victoria to help avert the coup. The first draft of a new constitution failed to receive the requisite 60% of voters in 1992, but an amended version was approved in 1993.

Tourism is the vital backbone of the Seychelles economy. The country ranks among the most tourism-dependent nations globally, relying on the sector as its primary driver of wealth. Tourism-related industries concentrate roughly 21% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) directly. When accounting for indirect economic ripples—such as construction, banking, and local transportation tied to the sector—tourism drives more than 50% of the total economy. The tourism sector directly and indirectly employs roughly 27% to 30% of the formal domestic workforce, making it the largest employer outside of public administration. Foreign Exchange: Tourism generates approximately 70% of the nation's total foreign exchange earnings

Landing in the Seychelles at 7:30 pm , we had to hang around for hours as four suitcases did not appear. Apparently a whole truckload of cases had been deliberately left off the Air Seychelles plane as it was overloaded. The people in our group effected were Ching, Sue, Jacinta and Derek. They had to fill up forms and apparently there is not another plane for 48 hours . So tomorrow we will have to allow time for them to shop for some clothes, I think some of them think they will be going on a shopping bonanza courtesy of Air Seychelles. We eventually got to the Hilton hotel after 10 pm and then had a fiasco with them wanting to give us a welcome drink but not allowing us to take the glass to our room as they needed it for another set of later arrivals. So we transferred our drink to our room glasses and returned their glasses to reception. But by this time David was suffering from his stomach and we soon went to bed. The room seemed very luxurious and had plenty of space.

We had a lovely room here, looking out to sea. Breakfast was very good quality and the dining room was very scenic. The hotel had extensive grounds, which included two beaches

David suffered during the night from his dickey tummy and for unknown reasons, I woke up incredibly tired and moved around like a zombie for the first three or four hours of the day. I decided I would go on the excursion but often wished that I had stayed sleeping.

We both had quite a small breakfast and then set off at 9 am, the promptness of the group to be assembled on time seem to be failing. We were at the back of the minivan and vision was not wonderful, and basically we just drove around for the day, seeing some indeed lovely beaches . We had an hour to wander around Victoria so that the four people without their suitcases could try and buy some new clothes but this was nigh on impossible as it was a bank holiday, it being the 50th anniversary of independence. We stopped at a so-called tea centre which was nothing other than a shop, all be it with a great view, selling Ceylon tea! Then we stopped for a takeaway and cold beer which we took to a beach. But David and I just had some beer, food is beginning to seem a problem for me. While David was under the weather anyway. In the afternoon we were meant to be stopping at the rum distillery, but this was closed for the day so that was not on. We got back to the hotel about 4:15 pm and I went for a swim, but the pool was out of the Sun and seemingly too cold and windy for enjoyment. Then we went back to the room and we were meant to be going up for happy hour between five and six but when I suggested at 5:30 pm that we go David was asleep rather than not wanting to go at that precise moment and by the time we realised our misunderstanding it was too late. So we just stayed in the room and had a snack, some lemon tea and then eventually coffee and caught up with a few podcasts.


Our tour took us to the north of the island

To Victoria for the ones with no suitcases to buy clothes	And the Botanic Gardens which were quite under whelming	But we did see the coco de mer. The Seychelles government ..	..aggressively stop live seeds leaving the country

The biggest tortoise that the boys have ever seen

A tea factory with no tea

Lots of scenic views

A bottle of beer for lunch, but only cos it was very hot

More scenic beaches			And a final stop outside the (closed today) rum factory

We spent a leisurely day at this 56 room Hilton Hotel . Two glasses of champagne with breakfast and some very good scrambled and poached eggs and good fruit. Also a Portuguese chef came round with a very decorative pastry tray, including Pastais da Nata which were truly wonderful.

Then we had a little explore and found one of their beaches and sat there just above it for a little while. Then back to the room for a short time before going for an explore in the opposite direction and sitting above their other beach. Both of the beaches really scenic. We returned to the room about 2 pm and had a snack and a cup of coffee. We then went down to the pool again, where I’d had a swim about noon and I had another swim before the Sun left the pool. Back to the room again before going to happy hour at 5 pm. Here we were given a free so-called alcoholic cocktail and two good tapas before we went through and ordered the 33% off cocktails for ourselves. David had a rum planters punch and I had a piña colada and we watched the sun go down behind Praslin Island.

Olaf appeared before we left and said he would be watching the England match at 8 pm. So David went back there at 8 pm after we’d had another coffee and snack in the room, but the screen focus in the bar was not satisfactory, so he came back. We had a very relaxing Jacuzzi in the super bath. An early night ready for a really early start in the morning and a 47 hour journey home: I certainly do not think it can be any quicker. Meanwhile I think the non-suitcasers have probably got their suitcases back about 10 pm . Air Seychelles certainly has a bad reputation for just offloading cart loads of suitcases if it suited them.

An early morning start at 5:30 am from the hotel and a 07.45 flight to Dubai with Emirates. This was only half full and we had lots of room to ourselves. The food was edible though not wondrous. Breakfast is always my least favourite meal on a plane. It was just a five hour flight to Dubai and the time passed quickly. Once in Dubai. we were transported to an Emirates hotel room for the afternoon and night. It was 38°C, so was too hot to walk anywhere. Our hotel room was classic 3 star middle of the market, adequate but soulless. In fact the whole hotel was soulless. Dubai was not our sort of town.

At 5 pm I had a swim. At around 18.30 we explored a couple of bars, bought happy hour drinks and in one decorated for the World Cup, complete with six televisions showing World Cup matches on them.

We them went into one of their restaurants and had their buffet (free from Emirates) which wasn’t too bad at all and I had a decent cup of coffee there to finish the meal. Then an early night for a 5 am wake up the next morning. That’s 5.30 a.m. bus from the hotel to the airport, 7:45 am takeoff to Madrid. This time the plane was very large and full, but we still found that we were not too squeezed in. The fact that it was a daylight flight made it more endurable. Seven hours later we were in Madrid and here there was a two hour time difference. It was a long long long wait until our flight Valencia at 23.00, which had been forced on us due to the many changes of flights that Trump's War had produced. We were home in the early hours of the morning around 02.00 am, a 47 hour journey, but still worth it in order to to have visited all these new islands.