It’s hard to put into words the amazing and memorable experience I had at Four Seasons Resorts Seychelles at Desroches Island. I went to Desroches for two weeks and left the island full of beautiful memories. My first day, fellow Marine Educator Hannah and I joined the Island Conservation Society team (Matt and Annabelle) for a turtle night patrol. It was my first time going on a turtle night patrol and had no idea what to expect. Annabelle made Welsh cakes, courtesy of Hannah’s mom recipe (they were delicious!). We walked along the beautiful beach of Desroches, and suddenly Annabelle said: “Did you hear that?”. It was a big green turtle starting to dig her pit to lay her eggs. I thought the process was quite fast, let’s just say it took some hours. When the turtle started laying her eggs she went into a catatonic state, and that’s when I had the chance to watch the mama turtle lay her eggs. It was an unforgettable experience. My first night in Desroches and what a night.
The snorkelling at Desroches was just incredible, every 10 minutes I would see a turtle in the seagrass. They are such majestic species that I could have watched them all day. One of our snorkel sites is called Madame Zabre, it has these beautiful contours of the reef and a huge diversity of fish. I love snorkelling there. Next door to my office was Blue Safari who handles the boat activities and the diving on the island. It was great talking to the Blue Safari team and thank you to them for helping me out with weather conditions.
You might be thinking, well what do you do on your day off on an isolated island. Let me tell you, there is too much to do and I was not able to do all of it. On one of my days off, I joined Annabelle for a beach survey. I was so excited and had no idea what I was getting myself into. We ended up walking for 6 km on the beach in the hot sun for 3.5 hours, let’s just say the rest of my day was me sleeping. I learnt about how to identify up and down tracks of turtles, bird, ray and shark species. I did not know my brain could absorb so much knowledge so fast, but I also had a very good teacher.
I also had the chance to meet the baby Aldabra tortoises, the level of cuteness was too much. Matt and Annabelle were kind enough to take me out on a boat and we went for a lovely snorkel. Thank you to both of them for making my experience so memorable.
I have so many favorite memories of Desroches but here are just a few.
One of my favorite parts of the island was biking from one place to the other. I mean, I did weave around with my bike quite a bit when I started but I got used to it. The bikes did not have normal brakes so you had to backpedal (I had a couple of crashes in random bushes).
A very fond memory of my experience was waking up before work and going to watch the sunrise and observing the seabirds. On one side of the lighthouse was the sun and the other side was the moon, unforgettable sight. And for the cherry on top, I loved that on my day off I could drink coconut water and eat passion fruit.
The community at Desroches was one of the most welcoming places I have ever lived in. Everybody made me feel at home and I feel fortunate to have made some lovely friends in such a short amount of time. There is so much more I want to say but the most important thing is to say thank you to Adrian, Anthony, Hannah, Matt, Annabelle, Niki, Vanessa, Mauricio, and many others for making feel like I never want to leave the island.
