A large number of reefs within the inner granitic islands of the archipelago of Seychelles could be entirely lost, unless concerted action is taken soon to control crown of thorns, warns Dr. Udo Englhardt, the expert on on the management of crown of thorns in a...
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North Island
North Island is a small granite island in the Seychelles. The size of the island is 201 hectares. The island is one of the Seychelles’ 42 inner islands. North Island is a conservation project aimed at protecting the indigenous natural flora and fauna and is home to a luxurious luxury lodge resort.
The island has four beaches; East Beach, West Beach (or Grande Anse), Honeymoon Cove, and Dive Beach. It is 5.8 km north of Silhouette Island, and 27 km north west of Mahé. The granite island is also a sanctuary for endangered species of turtles and birds. The island seas welcome nesting sea turtles, and the palm forests are home to giant Aldabra tortoises and rare Seychelles white-eye birds.
North Island was the first Seychelles island to record a landing by seafarers. An expedition in 1609 by Captain Sharpeigh and the crew of the English East India Company vessel Ascension reported that the island had a large population of giant land tortoises.
From 1826 until the 1970s, North Island was owned by the Beaufond family from Réunion. During this time, the island had a plantation for growing fruits and spices, as well as producing guano, fish oil and copra. After the plantation was sold in the 1970s, the island fell into disuse.
In 1981, North Island was given to Marius Maier by his father. Marius Maier returned the island to its former pristine state before human settlers arrived there. He removed many unwanted animal and plant species, including pigs, rats, coconuts, casuarina, cows, Indian mynah birds, cats and a very intrusive weed called lantana. He re-introduced the Seychelles’ natural flora & fauna, including giant tortoises, certain birds, and trees such as takamaka, badamier and the famous coco-de-mer palm.
In 1982, Marius Maier and the villagers established a turtle nest monitoring center in the island. North Island was all but abandoned by its German industrialist former owner after the copra market crashed. Wilderness Safaris bought the island in 1997, and removed non-indigenous species, including more than two million rats, a herd of domesticated dairy cows and casuarina trees, which were recycled to build the villas.
In 2019, management of North Island Seychelles changed from Wilderness Safaris to Marriott’s ‘The Luxury Collection’ brand. But this resort is far above all other hotels in Marriott’s other luxury hotels.
Wilderness Holdings Limited, an ecotourism company from South Africa bought the island in 1997 for US$5 million. They opened a private resort in 2003, aiming at the ecotourism market, with 11 private villas each with a private plunge pool and direct access to the beach. Villas 1-10 have two bedrooms, while the slightly larger Villa 11 suite is reserved for couples. George and Amal Clooney had their honeymoon in this suite. The resort has helped to develop the island and increase its population. During 2014, the villas were refurbished with a refreshed colour palette, and designer bathroom fittings.
The resort has 10 standard villas, and a special villa (Villa North). A gym, a huge spa, and a library, restaurant are in the village. La Vie by Golden Hands, the Spa offers a full menu of treatments. A 30-minute complimentary welcome treatment is offered by the spa to all guests. TheTechno-gym is located just below the spa. The resort also features a boutique, a dive center, a main pool, and a bar. You can shop for accessories and gifts from the North Island boutique. Each villa has an electric buggy for the guest’s total convenience. The villa pricing includes breakfasts, lunches, dinners and all alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, except cocktails and drinks on the reserve list.
The villas one to ten are known as Presidential Villas. Each of them measures 450 square metres and can accommodate up to four travellers. Every villa has a large master bedroom with a writing area, change-room and dressing table. The massive en-suite bathroom is fitted with a marble bath, an indoor and an outdoor shower. An outdoor shower is useful to remove sand or muddy feet from the beach. It is also useful to rinse off deck furniture and even scrub an outdoor rug and wash items like paddle boards. The bedrooms are air-conditioned and have WiFi internet access.
A completely separate, large second room is furnished with woven coffee tables and sofa beds in crushed velvet and linen. This room can be used as a study, lounge, theatre or, at an additional cost, to sleep children aged 19 or under. At night it can be transformed into a complete private cinema with projector screen and surround sound.
Between the two rooms is an open-sided lounge and dining area which leads seamlessly onto the outdoor deck, and to the back of this is the kitchenette, which is used by your butler to help prepare drinks and food, if you choose to eat in your own villa.
In May 2011, it was the site for the royal honeymoon of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Actress Salma Hayek, David and Victoria Beckham, Liz Hurley, Jennifer Aniston, Pierce Brosnan and J.K. Rowlingm have all stayed in this resort.North Island stood in for Tracy Island in the 2004 live-action adaptation of the movie Thunderbirds. The resort is a magnet for the rich and famous.
The resort is one of the most expensive hotels in the world. Rates start at a hefty $6,000 USD per night, excluding 21% in VAT and service charges. You will also have to pay extra for the transfers by helicopter from Mahé, most spa treatments, and full-day excursions.
North Island offers an array of dining options. At The Piazza one can enjoy a candlelit meal consisting of tapas-style BBQ snacks, pizzas and cocktails. In-villa dining is also offered as guests can choose from the home-style menu and snacks from the stocked pantry. Exquisitely light tom yum talay sour soup is served at lunch followed by a zingy lemongrass popsicle with tiny chips of pineapple marinated in Malibu. Sous vide hen’s egg is served with flavourful morels. Salty pancetta and charred asparagus or, the sweet scallops are served with coconut sushi rice ‘risotto’ with lime and thyme. All food on North Island is either grown in the organic vegetable gardens, reared on the island, or caught fresh from the sea.
Activities on North Island Seychelles range from snorkeling, diving, kayaking, paddle-boarding, fishing and sunset cruises to exploring tropical trails by foot, bicycle or private buggy.
Air Seychelles, British Airways, Air France, Condor, Lufthansa, South African Airways, Air Mauritius, Kenya Airways, Air Madagascar and Interior provide regularly scheduled air services from Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Africa and the islands of the Mascarene Plateau to the Seychelles International Airport on Mahe. Guests from the United States access Seychelles through Europe, through South and East Africa.
From Mahe, access to North Island Private Sanctuary is by a 20-minute private helicopter charter. Meet, and Assist service is provided at Seychelles International Airport and from all hotels on Mahe.
Bird Island
Bird Island is found on the northernmost part of Seychelles, about 100 km away from Mahé. Sooty Tern, consisting of 700,000 pairs, forms the largest bird colony on the island. Fairy terns, common noddies, hawksbill and green turtles are other colonies found in this island. The island is 1,500 metres long and 800 metres wide. To get here, you need to take a thirty-minute flight from Mahé.
It is now a private resort with 24 self-catering villas chalet-villas. The island is owned by Alex Savy who lives there. It also contains a small weather station and a small landing strip Bird Island Airport which connects the island with Mahe.
The chalets are, without any air-conditioning, phones, and televisions, for tourists, which nevertheless offer a brilliant ocean view and make for an outstanding stay. The proceeds from the privately-run Bird Island Lodge benefit the island’s nature. The island does not have a pool, cars, roads, or even daily newspapers. There is a shop and restaurant to cater to guest’s needs. Meals are served at the restaurant in the main lodge area and guests can enjoy a drink at the on-site bar.
Because the island is surrounded by beaches, it is safe for turtles to come and nest here. Their nesting routine, which takes place under cover of darkness, must not be disturbed, and neither must the young turtles that hatch around sixty days later. Therefore, visitors stick to the lit paths in front of the bungalows.
Between April and October, hundreds of thousands of sooty terns nest there.
Moyenne Island
Moyenne Island is a small 24 acre island in the Ste Anne Marine National Park off the north coast of Mahé, Seychelles. Since the 1970s it has been a flora and fauna reserve. In the 1960s, a former newspaper editor, Brendon Grimshaw purchased it for about 10,000 dollars. Until his death in July 2012. He was the only inhabitant of the island.
He along with his friend, Rene Antoine Lafortune, a Seychellois, operated the island as a nature reserve, charging visitors €12 to come ashore, roam the island, dine at the “Jolly Roger” restaurant and relax on the beach.
Grimshaw and his friend did an enormous amount of work to develop the island to be incredibly beautiful. They planted sixteen thousand trees, built 4.8 kilometres of nature paths, and brought and bred Aldabra giant tortoises. They also brought in 2000 birds.
Grimshaw was the quintessential islander and a devoted lover of nature who poured his love for Moyenne into the island for nearly half a century. He even refused an offer of $50 million for the island, saying that he did not want the island to become a holiday destination for millionaires, but rather a national park for everyone to enjoy.
His friend Lafortune passed away in 2007.
Finally, in June 2008, after years of struggle to protect his island from privatization, Grimshaw’s Moyenne Island was declared a National Park in Seychelles.
In 1996, Grimshaw wrote a book about himself and the island, entitled A Grain of Sand.In 2009, a documentary film was produced about Grimshaw and the island, called A Grain of Sand.It is now known as the Moyenne Island National Park and forms part of the Ste. Anne Marine National Park just north of the capital Victoria. It has more species per square foot than any other part of the world.
There is a restaurant on the beach which is a haven for tourists.
Fond Ferdinand Nature Reserve
The Fond Ferdinand Nature Reserve which opened in 2013 is not yet widely-known, yet it is well-worth visiting when you are in Praslin. With an area of 122 hectares, Fond Ferdinand is more than six times larger than Vallée de Mai, and is even richer in terms of endemic plant and animal species, including roughly as many Coco de Mer palms as the Vallée de Mai.
The entrance fee here is much cheaper than at the Vallée de Mai, and a personal guide is always included. As there are no more tours after 13.00, visitors should arrive in the morning.
This reserve is more than six times larger than Vallée de Mai, and is even richer in terms of endemic plant and animal species, including roughly as many Coco de Mer palms as the Vallée de Mai. It will take two or three hours to get to the viewpoint through the winding path along the valley. From the viewpoint you can enjoy a beautiful view of Praslin island itself, as well as the other inner islands of the Seychelles. In one direction you can see Curieuse, Sister Island, Coco Island, Round Island, Felicité, and La Digue, while in the other direction you can spot Frégate, Mahé, and Silhouette. If the weather is clear, you may even be able to spot Denis Island on the horizon.
Aride Island Nature Reserve
Aride Island Nature Reserve
A visit to Aride Island in Seychelles will show what the islands were like 250 years ago before human settlement. Aride is the northernmost island of the granitic Seychelles. It covers roughly 68 ha, is 1.6 km long and 0.6 km wide. Aride hosts one of the most important seabird populations in the Indian Ocean with more breeding species than any other island in Seychelles. The island is managed as a nature reserve by Island Conservation Society of Seychelles. The only human inhabitants in the island are the reserve’s staff, including the Island Manager, Conservation Officer and rangers.
The guided two-kilometre tour starts at the house of the former island owner and takes about two hours.
The island is covered by lush vegetation consisting of coconut palms as well as broadleaf trees, guavas, bananas, oranges, papayas, aubergines, ginger, turmeric, and chillies. The highly fragrant Wright’s gardenia is an endemic plant species which grows up to 6 m high and is decorated with red and white calyx. Because of their small, lemon-shaped fruits the locals gave them the name “bwa sitron”.
Island Conservation Society acquired the lease of the island in 2004, when the freehold was passed from Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts to Island Conservation Society UK. Island Conservation Society is a Seychelles NGO operating conservation centres throughout the islands.
Aride holds more seabird species than any other Seychelles island. The island has ten breeding species. Two of the bird species were formerly considered critically endangered by IUCN and conservation work on Aride has helped to secure their future. Reptiles include one of the highest population densities of lizards in the world. In every hectare there are over 2,700 Seychelles Skinks (lizards) and 1,100 Wright’s Skinks, plus five other lizard species, a snake, a terrapin and a giant tortoise.
Poaching leads to declining populations of most seabirds in Seychelles. Poaching comes during the Sooty Tern egg season, from late May to July, when boats visit mainly from Praslin to collect eggs and adult birds. Shearwaters are also a target; sacks of birds are often taken, their wings snapped off. The poaching of octopus and harvesting of sea cucumbers from within the reserve boundary is also problematic.
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