Tortoise Cuddling at Curieuse Island
Starting our Boat Tour
Today is the rescheduled date for the Curieuse Island & snorkelling tour we postponed due to my food poisoning.
I see a number of rare black parrots as we wait In the lodge parking lot for our morning pick-up.
Our shuttle van arrives at 9:00am sharp. The French couple sitting beside us seem quite concerned with the steep and narrow road access road to the lodge. John and I have grown used to it.
The van drops us at Anse Volbert beach where we wade into the water and onto a waiting boat. As we pull away from shore, we have a gorgeous view of Mango Lodge on the hillside.
Anse Jose
It is a ten minute boat ride to the uninhabited island of Curieuse, named after the French ship that “discovered” it in the 1700s. The island is a national park.
Once there we have an hour on the beach. Dolphins are jumping nearby in the water. Try as I might, I can only get a picture of a tail.
Hike to the Other Side
We start a hike to the north side of the island. Right away we see Obama, a 90 year old huge male tortoise named Obama. He loves having his neck rubbed.
For reasons unknown, Obama took 6 months to travel from the north side of the island where all the other tortoises live to the south side where he is alone.
Park staff moved him back to be with the other tortoises but 2 months later Obama was back again on the south side where he remains.
We hike the 1.7 kms across the island to the north side. It is rocky with a 30 metre rise and fall in elevation so definitely a difficult trek for Obama. We see Coco de Mer palms, a Paradise Flycatcher, numerous kinds of crabs (both big and small) and mangroves on the beach.
Tortoises on Curieuse Island
Curieuse & the other Seychelles islands used to have their own species of giant tortoise but they were hunted to extinction by sailors in the 19th century.
The island then became a leper colony until 1965. In the early 1980s a conservation project began to relocate some Aldabra Giant Tortoises from the Aldabra Atoll to Curieuse Island. There are now over 250 tortoises on the island.
The tortoises are friendly and love to be fed and have their necks scratched… except for #17 (aptly nicknamed Tyson after the boxer) who is an aggressive tortoise. Fortunately we don’t run into Tyson.
These are huge tortoises that can live up to 200 years and their average weight is 250 kilos. One steps on my foot. Fortunately it is one of the females and all their weight isn’t on that one foot. I can vouch, they are heavy.
There are tortoises all over the place. Click here for a short video.
I am in seventh heaven scratching tortoises necks and feeding them leaves and hisbiscus flowers. One of them even starts to follow me. Click here for a short video.
There is a baby tortoise nursery to keep them safe from predators until they are too large to be eaten by birds, crabs or lizards.
A lot of tortoises are hanging around the bbq pavilion. The tables in the pavilion are decorated with fresh hisbiscus flowers which the tortoises love. Lots of Madagascar Red Fody, Zebra doves and other birds hang out in the rafters, in hopes of snagging some scraps.
Snorkeling at St. Pierre Islet
After lunch there is more tortoise interaction before we head over to the nearby island of St Pierre Islet for snorkelling. There are lots of fish, including parrotfish and we even see a sea turtle.
Our Last Praslin Evening
We spend our last evening on Praslin on our balcony watching the parrots, mega bats and geckos hunting for insects. Click here for a short video. The bats are making a huge racket in the trees. Something has their shorts in a knot. I will be sad to leave Mango Lodge tomorrow.
