The Seychelles Diaries - Day 3 - Copolia Nature Trail + Beau Valon beach at night

Nikki and I were extremely excited on day 3 after finding out that we were the only couple to be part of Copolia nature trail with our very own personal tour guide Steve.

as usual we were greeted to the sounds of colourful birds waking us up, and after my fav breakfast 'bacon-ham-egg' we were off to explore the beautiful mountains of Seychelles.

our daily alarm

Paul with Nikki

steps provided by the tree roots

wild pineapple

Steve's friend

view from the top

nikki taking a break

man on the silver mountain?

these are spores which help the plant to propagate

home to the worlds smallest species of frog

size of a thumbnail

view of Mahe

the entire trek took about 2 hours, as Steve was explaining about the flora and fauna of Seychelles. it was hard to believe that such a thick bio diversity had NO DANGEROUS OR POISONOUS animals or reptiles , snakes etc!. a Botanist or nature lover would go crazy looking at sooo much greenery everywhere, but it still puzzles me that the jungles here dint have any wild animals. i was expecting to bump into at least a few monkeys, but no.

a lot of the flora is very similar to the western ghats with thick and evergreen towering trees and the fauna was mostly spiders and insects.

the interesting thing about the trek was trying to find the elusive tiny frog, which is indigenous to Seychelles, and is also the worlds smallest species of frog, the size of a human thumbnail. so it was our mission to find these buggers and as Steve, our tour guide told us that the chances of finding these frogs was extremely rare due to the environment and camouflage. However, on our way back, niki finally managed to find 1 frog! (and i think she nearly killed it too!)

if one has to just trek and not stop to look around, then the trek can be completed under an hour.

on reaching the top, it really felt like we accomplished something. the view was breathtaking to say the least! and it got really cold at the top! we managed to finish our lunch while Steve was telling us about his work with the wildlife federation and his being an environmentalist.

the mountains are Granitic rocks and if this was any other country, (like ours mostly) the mountains and forests would have disappeared within a decade thanks to illegal quarrying and mining of granite. it felt nice to know the local govt protects their natural resources at all times and at all cost and corruption is almost non existent.

anyways, after the trek , we were dropped back to our lodge where we slept like wooden logs for several hours and woke up pretty late only to have dinner.

Beau Valon Beach at Night - 

we were in luck , as a local beach festival was organized at Beau Valon , complete with several food tents, serving the most delicious sausages, beef chops and bacon i have ever tasted. Octopus was also on the menu.

the beach was really crowded with scores of locals all dressed up , with their friends and family, having a good time. a local celebrity (forgot her name) was also singing and dancing on stage and we managed to film it on our phones.

a local drink similar to toddy and equally potent

bon fire nikki

some more pics from the trek and beach

our lunch which was provided in the package, chicken and sandwiches