Thinking of Seychelles Islands? Thinking of an exotic holiday? Imagine sun and deserted beaches. Think of warm seas 365 days a year. Dream of tropical islands without hurricanes. Dream of beaches - coral white beaches, pink beaches... It sounds like heaven, right? Or just Fantasy Island? Well the Seychelles group of islands is just such a place in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Seychelles is one of the most unusual of exotic islands. Some call it paradise. Some call it home. It is my home - a gem still to be discovered and enjoyed by the discerning few. Mass tourism here is not encouraged to preserve its character and charm.
Seychelles can be enjoyed the year round. There are no winters here. The temperatures hover around 29 and 30°C during the day and 26 to 27°C at night. So the sea is always warm - come rain or shine. Yes it does rain in the Seychelles and quite heavily at that when it does. The lush green islands are testament to that fact.
The Seychelles is made up of 155 islands in two distinct groups. 42 of these are rocky and mountainous and the rest are flat coral islands - mostly sand cays but some are raised coral islands, like in the Aldabra group.
The sand cays are no more than 3 metres above high water mark, so when there was that huge Tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean a couple of years ago the islanders were understandably concerned, expecting the worse, but other than some simulated extra-high tides on the coast all passed without incidents much to their relief.
Most visitors to Seychelles tend to stay on the rocky islands, two of which rise to a peak of almost 1000 metres (3000ft). For a small island measuring 3 to 5 kilometres (2 to 3 miles) across this is indeed very high. The majority of the population live on the three main islands, Mahe, Praslin and la Digue, which are of ancient granite rocks.
Languages spoken in the Seychelles are English, French and Creole. There are no indigenous natives of Seychelles. All trace their past to the first French settlers and their African slaves. The first European colonists gave way to the English as the war for control of the seas in that region intensified 250 years ago.
Seychelles is a relatively new nation, which attained self-determination in 1976. It is now in what is popularly referred to as the "third republic" phase in its recent history. The late 1970s and early 1980s was a time of upheaval in Seychelles with coups and counter-coup plots but now it is at peace and you can enjoy it without fear.
The islands have weathered their man-made storm and the Seychelles people seem to have put their past behind them and are pulling their weights in a unified direction. The people there are called Seychellois (masculine) and Seychelloise (feminine).
They eat fish at least 10 to 12 times a week, and fishing has always been a favourite pastime in these islands - not surprisingly with such abundance. I've heard seasoned anglers, who travel half way around the world to come fish the Seychelles waters, refer to Seychelles as the GT capital of the world (GT standing for Giant Trevally) and they are real giants attaining 60 pounds or more. Well there are thousands of species of fish in the seas around the Seychelles Islands.
It has not always been all good in Seychelles but the people are easygoing. So as a place to live Seychelles is one of the best in the world. As a holiday destination it is a paradise and second to none. It has a tempered tropical climate, so if you want to run away from your cold winters or your very hot summers Seychelles is the place 365 / 365.
Having said all that don't expect paradise to come cheap. Yes Seychelles is quite costly. Nothing is cheap here. So if you decide to visit or live in Seychelles you should have a fairly large budget. The reason for the high cost of living is that most necessities are imported.
The mainstay of the country's economy used to be cinnamon and coconuts. Since the opening of the Seychelles airport in 1972, this has changed, and now the focus is tourism and industrial fishing, of which tuna is the most important.
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