Day 79 March 24 – Victoria, Seychelles
It was still early, around 9 AM, when the Seychelles came into view. The most prominent feature at this point were the 3 large windmills situated along the waterfront. The weather was quite pleasant out at sea, with a nice breeze across the deck, but we knew that once the sun got higher in the sky and we were ashore, the day would certainly heat up.
As we closed on our berth, we could hear the music of the welcome dancers and start to get the lay of the land in the immediate port area.
Our plan was to rent a car from Sixt rental cars in Victoria.
Sixt advertised that they would meet you right by the cruise terminal which would be very convenient. One thing to always keep in mind, is that the definition of “right by the cruise terminal/ship/port” is somewhat subjective. Sometimes this will mean within a hundred feet of the gangway and other times it may mean right outside the port gate – up to a mile away.
The ship did not arrange for a shuttle because everything was so close. Close is a relative term and the town is about a 1-mile walk with the nearest point of interest – The National Museum – about ½ mile away. There were taxis right by the gangway, but after I asked about the prices to take me to town, I discovered that they weren’t interested in short trips at this point and would only consider 4-hour tours. So unfortunately, independent travelers had no choice but to walk the 1 mile to town – at least early in the day. I suspect as the day wore on, the taxis may be more interested in shorter trips.
Note: The price for a 4-hour taxi tour with 4 people max – 3 in the back seat and 1 in the front – was about $150. This was before any negotiation so you may be able to get a better price, but this is the starting point – at least for today. Our rental car would end up costing us about $165 (including gas) for all day. We ended up using the car for 6 hours. As you will read later, the roads here are quite narrow and very unforgiving with no shoulders and steep drop offs. With the price of the taxi so close to the rental car, I might be tempted to rent a taxi here rather than rent a car if I were to do this trip again.
Once the ship was cleared, we left the ship around 10:30 am in search of our rental car. I wandered around the immediate port area and found a few shops, a hut with the welcome dancers in the middle of their performance, a few taxis and the tour buses waiting for the HAL guests heading out on the various tours. The Sixt rental car representative was no where to be found. I called their office and they informed me that their representative was outside the port gate, maybe a ¼ mile away. See the below maps to get yourself oriented and note the location of where you can expect to meet any private tour operators you may have arranged.
Here is a 14 second video showing the immediate port area from the ship.
After about 20 minutes of browsing the port vendors, we headed out to the main gate where we quickly found the Sixt car rental rep in a parking lot immediately past the gate. There is a sign that marks the closest point that private tour operators can approach the gate.
We filled out the rental car paperwork in the parking lot, and Elvis, our Sixt representative, called his office for them to deliver our car, which arrived in about 15 minutes. We agreed to meet Elvis at 6pm this evening to return the car, but we would call his office later to confirm the time.
The cars here are right hand steer and you drive on the left side of the road. I would be the navigator and Rick would do the driving.
On the way to the market we passed by the Clock tower, which is called the Little Ben, which is a replica of the clock tower outside Victoria Station.
Our first stop was the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market. The market is named after Selwyn-Clarke who served the British government as governor and commander-in-chief of the Seychelles from 1947-1951. We parked nearby and walked to the Market and spent about 20 minutes exploring the various stalls and shops. The market is on the small side as far as these types of markets go, and unless you are a fan of city markets, you could put this lower on your priority list of places to see in Victoria.
Here is a short video of the market
The Arulmigu Navasakti Vinayagar Temple is the only Hindu Temple in the Seychelles. If you are interested in visiting, admission is free, get there before 11:00 as they close at Noon. They open again later in the day, but I didn’t recall the hours.
Back in the car, we headed out of town toward the Mission Lodge viewpoint. Even though it was only 5 miles away, it took us about 30 minutes to cover the distance. The road is very winding and narrow, and sometimes it gets down to only a lane and one half. The worst aspect of the road is the lack of any shoulder on the valley side of the road. If your wheel would get off the road, your car would probably hit the frame making it difficult to keep going. Combine this with driving on the left and with a right-hand steer car, navigating the road to the Mission Lodge viewpoint is not for the faint of heart. Rick did an incredible job driving and if I had to do it over again, I would consider renting a taxi instead of self-driving.
As you approach the summit, keep a lookout for a single lane road that veers off the right side. This road is only 150 yards or so, but I am not sure what you would do if you came across another car half way up. It would probably be safer for the down hill car to back up into the parking lot, rather than back out into the street, but you will have to play this by ear if it happens. The parking lot is small and would hold about 10 cars or a few buses. And yes, the ship’s tour buses did drive up this narrow road later in the day. I am not sure if they were able turn around or had to back down the hill. Appreciate anyone who made this trip on a tour bus to give me a comment about your experience.
Getting to the viewpoint requires walking up 20 or so steps, no handrails, and then walking 150 yards over a level but uneven dirt trail. You also must climb some steps to get over a fallen tree. If it has raind recently, the trail may be muddy, so plan accordingly.
At the end of the trail is a small pavilion, open on all sides that overlooks the spectacular view. We spent about 10 minutes here before heading back. There are some ruins of the old Mission Lodge near the top of the stairs by the parking lot, but we took a pass on any further exploration.
View from the Mission Lodge
On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at a wide spot on the road for another view spot that was accessible down a short trail, maybe 50 yards. As we were closing our car, we watched four 30 passenger HAL tour buses make their way up the mountain heading to Mission Lodge. We talked to some people later who were on these buses and they said that the buses made it up the one lane road to the parking lot without a problem.
We walked down this short trail to another small pavilion that provided shelter for people enjoying the view. There were three young men there just “hanging out” as we interpreted their remarks. They spoke good English and surprisingly didn’t have cell phones. It wasn’t clear whether they were students, working or unemployed, but they were friendly, and we chatted for a few minutes before heading back to our car.
View of Amstedam
Going down the mountain seemed a little easier since we were now next to the hill rather than next to the cliff. The drop off when the road ended didn’t seem as steep as it was on the other side.
Our destination was The H Resort which boasted that their restaurant “Trader Vics” invented the Mai Tai back in 1944. There are 18 Trader Vic’s around the world with the USA locations being Emeryville, (near Oakland) and Atlanta. Per Wikipedia, the founder of Trader Vics, Victor Jules Bergeron, invented the Mai Tai at his Emeryville location in 1944. His rival “Don the Beachcomber” claims to have created it at his restaurant in 1933. Trader Vics appears to have the stronger case but do your own research and you can be the judge.
H resort Beach
There are manned gates at the resorts on this part of the island, but they will quickly let you pass if you tell them you are going to the restaurant.
Unfortunately, Trader Vics wasn’t open for lunch so we had to settle for walking around the resort and checking out the gorgeous beach. It is a beautiful resort with rooms running between US$400 and US$800 a night.
Heading back to the car we drove over to the nearby Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Resort and Casino. Once again there was a manned gate and the guard informed us that the casino wasn’t open until the evening, so we turned around and headed over to the Boathouse Restaurant, across the street from the beach, about 1 mile away.
The seating is informal, and the place was almost empty. We all ordered Fish and Chips for about $20 each along with local beers for $5 each. The food was OK, but you wouldn’t drive over here for the food. The location was fabulous, and it had a nice laid-back feel and if you were staying in the Seychelles for a few days, this would be a nice place to hang out. We arrived here about 2:45 PM and it took about 1 hour to finish our lunch.
We decided to avoid the narrow road thru the pass in the center of the island and instead loop around the northern tip in a clockwise direction. The roads here were not as narrow as those up to Mission Lodge but they still had those nerve racking drop offs instead of shoulders from time to time. Here is a video showing a little bit of the drive.
We had also hoped that we might enjoy some nice views, but as it turned out, the ocean was hidden by trees and buildings for most of the trip.
The drive around northern loop took about 1 hour, and we made our way to the Eden Plaza, south of Victoria, which was the location of another casino we wanted to check out. Unfortunately, the casino was still under construction and wouldn’t open for a couple of weeks. There is a marina next to Eden Plaza where we spotted a large yacht called “Cloudbreak” which you can charter for about $900,000 a week. Check it out HERE.
On our way back to return the car, we finally find an open casino, the “Grand Kaz” which turned out to be only about ½ mile from the ship. The casino consisted of two buildings, side by side, one was exclusively slot machines. In the other building, there were other games including: Roulette, Black Jack, Stud Poker, Russian Poker, Casino Hold ‘em Poker, and Texas hold ‘em Poker. We didn’t spend much time here, but we did pick up a few casino chips for souvenirs.
We met the Sixt representative back where we picked up the car and completed the paperwork for the rental and then walked back to the ship.
Since we were leaving late, 11 PM, HAL brought on some local entertainers who put on a Creole Cultural Cabaret. Here is a short video clip of their performance.
