Seychelles – Mahé Coast Road

At the western tip of Mahé, the road peters out between palm trees at Baie Ternay. The beach dissolves in the crystal-clear water, which slowly assumes a turquoise and then deep blue colour. The paradise in the Indian Ocean brings these flowing transitions to life. In the countryside, in the Creole language and on the coast road. The start of the route lies in the shadow of the smoothly polished granite rock formations that tower out of the green mountain landscape in the middle of the island. The road along the western coast has no side markings separating it from the adjacent terrain. Its surface has the same colour as the granite, so that it would be easy to believe that it has always been there. A natural part of the coast from which the sand has been swept away. The destination of the route: circumnavigation of the largest island of the Seychelles over a distance of 40 miles, of course in a cabriolet with the top down. The wilder and more deserted western coast dominates the first part of the route heading south. The first bays hug the spurs of Mourne Seychellois, the highest point of the island at just under 3,000 feet. What are probably the best beaches on Mahé with names such as Anse Cachee or Anse Capucins are hidden between the rolling hills in the south. Called »small bays« in Creole, they can be found away from the road at the southern tip of the island and can be reached by a short stroll along the sand. The increasingly developed roads along the eastern coast announce the more heavily populated region in the north even before Victoria comes into view. The capital of the Seychelles is also the home of British colonial buildings, an old Catholic mission and a towering Hindu temple. At the sides of the roads in between, the smells of Creole cuisine with its fascinating variety. After a short detour to the northern tip, the circumnavigation of the island has almost reached its final destination. After Beau Vallon, the road suddenly ends in the middle of nowhere at the densely vegetated rocky coast, just a few miles away from the starting point of the route. The circumnavigation of the island is therefore within one's reach, but impossible nevertheless. With a guide, it would no doubt be possible to cross this wilderness safely on foot. But one thing is certain in the shade of the palm trees: it would simply not be the paradise of the Seychelles without this last untouched stretch of coastline.