I See Sea Shells on the Sea Shore.

A few things I have learned over the past few weeks:

1.     A minimum of factor 30 is required, even on cloudy days in Seychelles. That is unless you want to save money on a Halloween mask. Evidence of this is when my neighbour answered her door with a yelp, followed by ‘What the hell has happened to your face?’ and the usual ‘Sorry, I thought you were a traffic light’ kind of jokes.

2.    Always close your mouth when riding a scooter. Breathe through your nose at all times. That is unless you like to eat flying tropical creatures and when you see the size of the flying cockroaches here, you will understand my fear.

3.    Never believe that a ‘compliment’ from a child is what you want to hear:

‘Miss Nash, I love your hair...’

‘Why thank you...’ *ruffle of his hair and pat on the head (you are my new favourite etc etc).*

‘Yes......I love how it is black on top and gold at the bottom!’

‘WHAT?! DETENTION!!’

4.    Don’t take a sip of your drink mid-sneeze. It’s messy and unattractive.

5.    Passion fruits are a drug. I am addicted to the sweet, crunchy deliciousness. Particularly when they are in a Raffles Passion Mojito.

6.    Scooting in tropical rain requires more protection than just a Primark ‘Mac in a Sac’ jacket. Including a full change of underwear.

7.    I get seasick.

8.    Never park a scooter in the dark corner. It gets knocked over. Poor Rosie.

It’s been a while since I updated my blog, and I’m finding it difficult to know where to start. I’ve done lots of nice things and seen lots of lovely places. 

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent 3 days and 1 night on boats. Posh ones too! Since boasting that I never get sea-sick, my body hates me and, to avoid ‘feeding the fish’, I take pills. 

A couple of weeks ago I was invited on a fishing trip and leaving at 5am was well worth it to see the sun rise over Praslin (my island). 

We sailed until we couldn’t see land anymore (don’t worry, Mum, I didn’t get stolen by pirates!) and we caught some pretty awesome fish. When I say ‘we’, I mean mostly other people. When I did catch something, I wound in the reel on the ‘easy gear’, let someone else unhook and kill the fish, and then posed for a photo, claiming all the glory. 

We caught a big King Fish (not far off the same height as me), a Tuna (still have some steaks in my freezer), a Job fish and some other rainbow-coloured ones. Once we got back to shore at 11am, I felt pretty queezy but quickly got ready to hop on a catamaran for the afternoon/evening. 

My friend’s boyfriend manages a yacht company, so he took us to a place called Coco island, a small island where they shot an advert (some beer but can’t remember which one).

                                    Coco Island

 We had lunch on-board, jumped off the boat using a Tarzan-esque type rope, then I snorkelled to the beach, whilst the others got the speed boat. For about 5 minutes, I was the only person on my own desert island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. That’s a pretty tough one for me to beat!

                                View of our catamaran from Coco Island

                                                                On  Coco Island

We saw lots of pretty fish, shells, Hermit Crabs, giant bats and birds. 

We sailed back to Praslin at sunset and had champagne. Good day at sea.

This week has been half term and I’ve not spent much time at home:

I spent Saturday chilling at my local 5 star with a friend, drinking cocktails (yes, darling). We then flew over to the main island (Mahe) for a couple of days and hired a car. I got to go shopping for the first time since arriving in Seychelles, as there isn’t much to buy on Praslin. I bought make up and perfume and suddenly felt human again! Although the capital city, Victoria (one of the smallest in the world) is about the same size as my hometown, Lichfield, it felt like we’d stepped into London. I realised that, in the ten weeks I have been here, I have become very used to living on a small island and it felt very hot and busy in Victoria. Shopping exhausted me to the point of collapse so we went to the beach for a few hours. Three of us slept on a 24-man catamaran that night. Although this boat was huge, my claustrophobia forced me to sleep on the deck. I spent most of the night watching stars and spying on others in their yachts. Whilst we stayed on Eden Island, I went to the spa to have my hair done. I had my hair washed in a sink (as in a tap in the bathroom) and was told that I ‘have many hairs’. Now, I am going to give my French hairdresser the benefit-of-the-doubt here, and assume she was referring to the hairs on my head and not my top lip (joke for James Riley).

I spent Wednesday at my local 5 star again. This time I was on my own and fell asleep on my poolside king-sized bed (who wouldn’t?!). 

This is the day that I discovered my skin requires more than factor 30 in Seychelles sun. I scooted home feeling a bit tingly, only to get home, have a shower, look in the mirror and realise that I was, in fact, on fire! This was unfortunate, as it happened to be Halloween (Happy Birthday, Dad) and I needed to go at nightfall to buy some refreshments. Glowing and radiant, I went to see a neighbour, who thought for a couple of seconds that I was a trick-or-treater wearing a hideous mask. It was just my red face, with a severe case of ‘panda eyes’ (at least I know my sunglasses work)! 


 
All this was a shame as the following day was the day we had all been looking forward to: Island yacht party on the Catalina boat. I spent the day in my rash vest, covered in sun block and eating chocolate muffins. I tried very hard to stay out of photos as some people seemed to think my face was some kind of attraction! 

I didn’t let this stop me jumping into the sea and swimming to the island beaches. We went to Coco, Felicite, Grande Soeur (my personal favourite) and ended at Anse Lazio on Praslin, a beach about a 15 minute scoot from my house and voted one of the top ten beaches in the world. You may know it for the shark attacks last year, but I was brave and swam off the boat there anyway. I survived, despite someone thinking it was funny to play the old ‘swim under Nash and yank on her leg to drag her underwater and make her think she’s being mauled by a shark’ joke! 

                                                 We swam to Grand Soeur Beach 
 

I have spoken to Mama and Papa for the first time on the phone this week and a couple of close friends. It’s always so nice to hear a familiar voice, and although I wouldn’t want to leave Seychelles even if you paid me a lot of money, I still miss people. Five weeks until Grandma Liz comes to stay!