Seychelles beaches

Each of the main islands is copiously provided with classic tropical beaches: fine, clean sand sloping gently into the blue sea, fringed by overhanging palm and takamaka trees. There are only about 4,000 tourists in the Seychelles at any one time, and most of them are sitting around the hotel swimming pools. Therefore, even the most popular beaches are only lightly populated, and some are completely deserted.

The Seychellois seem to have no interest in sunbathing, and little interest in swimming; I was told that many of them can't swim. Therefore they're rarely seen on the beaches, except when launching fishing boats.

Some of the beaches have quite a high population of small crabs, so pale as to be almost invisible. They make holes in the damp sand just above the waterline. They're timid and seem harmless.

Sometimes the sea is calm; sometimes there are small but powerful breakers — which knocked me over several times. It is possible to cope with them, but you have to learn how to do it. The previous time I swam in the sea was in the Gambia, about twenty years before my Seychelles holiday.

The sea is, of course, a comfortable temperature for relaxed swimming, once you're in it. I was rather surprised to find that the first touch of it against sun-warmed skin still felt cold.