Accommodation: Constance Ephelia

Our trip is essentially split into two one week trips, the first week had us staying on the main island of the Seychelles, known as Mahé which houses most of the population and the capital city, Victoria. Our accommodation at the Ephelia is located on the southwest side of the island so getting to there from the airport was about a 50 minute car ride through the national park.

The beginning of our trip in country was scheduled around my diving activities where I was fortunate enough to spend the first three days of our stay working with my dive instructor to finally (after 10 years!) get my open water diver certification.

For anyone wondering, I took my scuba certification class while I was at Creighton but never completed the open water dives to actually get the lifetime cert. Over the years, I’ve done a number of pool dives and refreshers but always never competed what was necessary. With the help of my instructor Lilian, we proceeded with the coursework and the open water dives.

My third dive included a shipwreck which was incredible as a lot of salt water creatures tend to make these wrecks their home. Sea turtles, sharks and a school (?) of rays we’re all seen on these dives and created an absolutely surreal moment. There was an aura of spookiness as well that surrounded the ship as we were swimming and maneuvering in and out of the inner recesses of the hull. What kind of crew called that ship it’s home? Were there any survivors? How long ago did it sink? These questions were answered shortly thereafter when our dive master indicated that the boat was sunk specifically for the dive, which killed the romance right out of the dive.

What was Lauren doing while I spent three mornings diving? Like myself, she had a host of things planned and prebooked which included a spa treatment, a few workout classes and spent a few hours reading by the pool.

Our afternoons were a little less planned and we were doing whatever we felt like doing at the moment. One of those I afternoons included an hour of zip lining through the rainforest-esque interior of Mahe. This was both our first time doing such a thing and after the first run, it’s extremely easy to feel comfortable and confident in subsequent runs. I was going down the runs backwards, jumping off the platform and hanging upside down over cavernous areas, nearly 50m high. Sadly due to the nature of the activity, no photos were taken. Besides, Lauren likely would’ve killed me for publishing a photo of her wearing her helmet, gloves and harness.

The area we were staying included two main hiking trials that trekked from the small beach of Lans Angel on the south side to the northern side of the peninsula, a hike of 1.6km with an elevation gain of 133m. This was a hike dripping with diversity as we encountered everything great about the Seychelles, including the beach of Lans Angel, wild cinnamon trees and stunning vistas.

At the end of the nature hike, there was a second trail labeled Ros Lepa, knowing that the hotel takes guests on this trail regularly, we decided to give it a shot. This one was significantly shorter with minimal gain and after about 30 minutes, we were at our destination, Ros Lepa.

The other days we spent mulling around the area, taking a dip in the water here and there, a workout class or two (my abs still won’t forgive me for my ABsolution class), a yoga session and an hour of guided meditation. All of which added to the tranquil spirit and objective for relaxation. Oddly enough, the hotel has adopted a handful of tortoises that they take care of which are very reminiscent of the ones we saw during our last abroad trip (pre-covid) to the Galapagos. Very dog like and a bit over amorous.

Our weeklong Mahé adventure ended on Friday where we transferred back to the airport for our domestic flight to the island of Praslin where we will spend the rest of our trip.

Sneak peak: small planes…very small planes.

Featured image: a peek of a small strip of Port Launay we had to wade to due to the high tide. This was in the middle of the hike to Ros Lepa