Farewell North Island (Seychelles Travel Diary #7)

I enjoyed a bum-raising ferry ride back to Mahé and had a good giggle when “The Tide Is High” by Blondie played. Refusing to take another premium-priced taxi ride, a local told me that I could foot it to my Airbnb in 30 minutes. I thought it would be a good opportunity to see a bit of the main island. Thirty minutes later, another local told me that I was miles away, so decided to have a local bus-ride experience. I crammed myself into a rickety bus with my fat backpack for a few stops before disembarking, bought some Seybrew at a small shop, and asked the shop attendants where the heck I was. They very kindly phoned my Airbnb hosts who came to collect me. Now it started to feel like real travel!

The final leg of my journey was at the home of Luc and Rose – a lovely Filipino couple who welcomed me with a glass of orange juice and asked me what time I would like to have breakfast. They even insisted that they drop me off at the airport, which was literally across the road. There is a car graveyard in the garden, and it’s a humble home, but what a better experience that Chez Lorna! Big belly-laughing Luc with holes in his shirt proudly showed me his herb garden before I grabbed my last supper at the Chinese restaurant across the road – a simple takeaway for R65. I peeked at the menu to get an idea of local restaurant prices. Sautéed pork intestines and chilli were going for only R260.

There was another flight delay before returning home, so I meandered around duty free and bought myself of a bottle of Seychelles rum on promo for R350, and gave myself a free spritz of what turned out to be woman’s perfume.

A final bit of North Island trivia: Luc tells me that the locals who used to ‘own’ North Island were basically sent to Australia as refugees when He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named bought the island, and were only released from exile this week!

It really has been an interesting experience…

Previously: Seychelles #6: Highlights & Lowlights