Trapped in the spell of La Digue

One last breakfast on Praslin before the last belongings are packed in the suitcase. A brief chat with the landlady when returning the keys - she advises us to ride the bicycle carefully on La Digue, she has met many tourists who were distracted by the dreamy bays on the roadside. Alright, we will be careful - otherwise everyone tells us 'you will love La Digue' - so there must be something to the spell of this island, in which one is said to be trapped as soon as stepping off the ferry and setting foot on the sacred island soil.

Off we go towards the ferry (about 25 minutes by car); by the way, Sonja and Andreas, our neighbors and friends, are also traveling to this new island today, but they are taking the ferry at a different time.

At the harbor or 'Jetty', as it is lovingly called here, there is a lot of hustle and bustle, the car rental goes smoothly and before we can check in on the ferry, we have some waiting time to bridge. But there is not much to see or do here at the harbor, so let's just enjoy the colors of the sea, because even at the harbor, they shine in all their splendor.

At 11:30 a.m., the ferry then departs and after 15 minutes we already arrive on La Digue, the harbor scenery alone captivates us - so it really only takes a few seconds - the special La Digue feeling that everyone has raved about.

In the small harbor town of 'La Passe', there is a lot going on, the bicycle rentals are right there for the new visitors arriving by ferry - because the bicycle is the only means of transport here besides taxis and transfer cars. We are greeted by a small electric car that takes us the 900m to our accommodation - if we had known that everything is so close together here, we could have easily walked this distance, but this way we are spared a few drops of sweat with 28 degrees and loaded with our belongings.

The accommodation is great, we quickly unpack a bit, strengthen ourselves with a fruit snack, and pack the bikes, which are already ready behind our apartment. Each bike here has a shopping basket on the luggage rack, and we are lucky that the bikes are also in pretty good condition. Both brakes and especially the gears are intact - which is not really the standard here, as we later learn from Sonja and Andreas :)) By the way, it seems that the Seychellois people don't even know what a bicycle helmet is, until now (and we have been here for 3 days now) I haven't seen a single tourist or local wearing a helmet, I don't think there is even a place to buy/rent one here - so another reason to drive extra carefully...

When I ask our landlady for a bicycle lock, she just smiles at me - they don't know such a thing here either, the bikes are always left unlocked everywhere - no one steals each other's bike here. How nice that there are still places like this in the world ... :D

At the beginning, we have a little trouble with orientation, we actually want to ride towards the north, but somehow end up in the interior of the island - luckily, the island is so small that you never have to take too big detours. After 30 minutes, we pass our accommodation again (in the meantime, we have already visited a few mini-markets on the way) - so we have somehow ridden in a circle. Well, on the second attempt, we find the north.

The route is really amazing, right along the sea - we are already used to this from the other islands, but from the perspective of a bicycle, you are even closer to the water. You really have to be careful not to overlook the potholes in the road because there are quite a few of them.

We pass many pavilions right by the sea and would like to stop at each one, some offer fresh fruit juices, others snacks and other souvenirs. Colorful bustling at the beach, there are also hammocks, swings, benches & tables from time to time, inviting you to linger. One pavilion even has two giant tortoises named 'Mango and Papaya', they are just lying 'lazy' by the roadside - you would like to be a giant tortoise in the Seychelles. During the bike ride, we also bump into Sonja and Andreas - the world is small and La Digue is tiny!!!

Mom lingers a bit at the beach and of course, I have found a hotel with a 'public' pool, which is almost empty here too - all the better for me.

By now it is already afternoon and we are amazed at how many impressions we have already gathered after just a few hours on the island. Madness - at first, we were skeptical whether we would really like little La Digue as much as everyone said - but now we don't doubt it for a second - and we can understand why even the Seychellois come here on vacation...

Shortly after returning home, unloading the bicycle basket, we look for a nice place for dinner, because there are restaurants and takeaways on every corner here, and at very cheap prices. During the island exploration at noon, a restaurant caught our attention, here there are supposed to be quite inexpensive Creole curry dishes according to the menu. The restaurant is also recommended in our travel guide, so the choice is quickly made. Although the service is a bit disorganized and everything takes a little longer, the food is incredibly good. We actually wanted to order fish curry, but it is not available today - which is why octopus curry was recommended to us and in retrospect, we are glad to have had the chance to try it. The octopus was super tender and the Creole curry incredibly aromatic - a true pleasure for the palate. And that for only SEZ 200, which is about €11.00 - so I would say, in Germany, you can only dream of something like this for that price... If I stayed here a little longer, I would definitely visit the kitchen there one day.

As you can see, a completely successful day, after the delicious dinner, we ride home with the bicycle and a headlamp (which we luckily brought from Germany because the bicycles here don't have lights), where we spend a little more time at the mini-pool of our accommodation and end the evening with a glass of Takamaka cocktail (Takamaka is a Seychellois rum that is very popular here).