Dusty pink hermit crabs scurry across the creamy sands, lichen-covered green turtles come for air so close we can hear them breathing, and giant tortoises make their way through the palm trees behind us.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful, so exotic and so tropical. In fact, this might be the best beach in the world. And we have it all to ourselves.
I’m in Desroches, a small patch of jungle-covered land on the outer islands of the Seychelles. It’s so remote that it would take 15 hours to travel here by boat from the main island of Mahe, which itself is 900 miles from the nearest continent (Kenya, to be precise). The only ship that makes that trip arrives only four times a year with the essentials to supply its residents.
The only way for tourists to get here is to board a small propeller plane, which my husband and I happily do to escape the humidity and 30°C sun.
The Four Seasons at Desroches Island is the only hotel on this small island, which measures just 3.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide. After the plane lands on the palm-lined runway, which crosses the entire island from south to north, we are transported in buggies to our room (our suitcases appear two minutes later). It is the most luxurious and pleasant transfer from plane to hotel.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful, so exotic, so tropical. In fact, this might be the best beach in the world. And we have it all to ourselves,” writes Harriet Sime of her visit to the beach mentioned in Desroches Island.
The Four Seasons at Desroches Island is the only hotel on the island
Bicycles with our initials wait outside our thatched cottage. A push through the gigantic wooden door brings us to a four-poster bed that overlooks our own pool and leads us to a small strip of beach and the reef-dotted ocean.
We’re desperate to explore, so pack our maps in the wicker backpacks in our room and get going.
Towering palm trees whiz by in a blur of tropical green, bending like works of man-made art, as our bikes move sand in our wake.
Castaways: Harriet, with her husband Dan, and George the tortoise, the oldest resident of Desroches.
Dusty streets take us through dense forests, leading to strips of sand with silk-textured water, each more beautiful than the last, until we settle for the day at Aquarium Beach, in the northeast of the island. Despite being home to such a famous hotel brand, Desroches still has a desert island feel: broken trees linger over turquoise waters and unraked sand, locals travel barefoot or on bicycles while giant, leathery fruit bats hang in the jungle.
The island’s oldest resident is George, a free-roaming 120-year-old Aldabra tortoise, who we found resting under the shade of a guttarda tree on our first morning.
It’s huge, with dents in its thick shell from falling coconuts and white marks from where it’s been scratching a tree. We cut a branch and place it in front of him. He slowly raises his snake neck and blinks his moist, emotional eyes. A local conservationist told us that George loves gentle pets from him, so we stroked his neck, which made him get on all fours, a sure sign that he’s happy.
Harriet’s tour of the Seychelles takes her to Mahé, the largest and most populous island (pictured)
On Mahe, Harriet stays at Anantara Maia, where she stays in a villa “high in the palm-covered mountains.”
After three days living the luxurious castaway life in Desroches, we returned to Mahe, the largest and most populated island in the Seychelles, and our second hotel, Anantara Maia.
We are taken to our villa, high in the palm-covered mountains, which is more like a mini hotel. We have a swimming pool, a huge bathtub built into the terrace and a small kitchen where our butler, Gihan (each villa is assigned one who is available 24/7), cooks and serves us breakfast, lunch and dinner most days. There’s a reason the hotel has attracted the rich and famous for decades.
One morning we woke up early to drive 30 minutes to Victoria, the world’s smallest capital, home to about 25,000 people, to get a taste of local life. The counters are packed with vibrant fruits and vegetables as fishermen shuck red snapper and cut shark fins, their T-shirts folded over their chests to air out their bellies. In one corner, a stork perches behind a man rubbing fish on a wooden board with a grater and jumps when he walks away to nibble on the leftovers. Upstairs, women in impossibly tight shorts and crop tops sell turtle-print T-shirts and shot glasses.
Harriet concludes her vacation with a stay at Six Senses Zil Pasyon, Felicite Island
The only way for tourists to get to Desroches is to board a small propeller plane.
Our last stop is a 15-minute flight from Mahe on a propeller plane to the small Felicite Island. It’s like we’re hopping from island to island. Our base is Six Senses Zil Pasyon. It’s honeymoon heaven: 30 elegant villas with sparkling infinity pools and fun swings in glass-fronted bathrooms, overlooking palm forests tumbling into the ocean.
We quickly got into a rhythm, waking up early for breakfast before jumping into the water to explore reefs filled with corals in all shades of pink, purple and orange.
On our last afternoon we noticed footprints leading from the sea to the sandbar on the beach. We followed them and spotted a hawksbill turtle using its rear flippers to dig a vase-shaped hole. We watch in silence for a minute or two as it prepares to nest. “Let’s hope her babies live as long as our friend George in Desroches,” Dan says, as we tiptoe away and leave her alone.