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The Island Piazza

Wellness Centre

Standing on Beau Vallon Beach on Mahé, if you look due North East you can see a tiny hump on the horizon, just to the right of the mountainous Silhouette Island. In the early years of habituation and exploration on Mahé, people would have done exactly that - stood on Beau Vallon Beach and looked out to sea at Ile du Nord and its' sentinel, Silhouette Island.

In 1784 a Portuguese ship was wrecked on North Island. After spending some time marooned on the island, a small handful of the ship's crew built a makeshift raft and risked their lives sailing to Mahé to find rescue. We know for certain that there were no inhabitants living on North Island at the time of the wreck, but through that event, settlers from Mahé would have received a good description of North Island. Its plateau, fresh water supply and ample presence of fish and fowl would have drawn the first inhabitants. Officially, the Island's first concession was given in 1826 to a woman, Madam Marie Josephine Celerine Beaufond, a descendant of French settlers from Bourbon (now Reunion). The Island remained in her family's name for the next one hundred and fifty years, as a plantation for growing fruits and spices, mining Guano, fish oil and finally producing copra - the oil pressed from the flesh of a coconut.

North Island Picture

There is very little documentation of life on North Island during the first century of its habituation. Having uncovered such little information about the Beaufond's life on the Island during that early era, it seems an impossibility that we should ever know anything about the lives of their slaves and later their plantation workers. How much of their African origins were they aware of? And how many nuances remain within them as a collective Creole people?

In the early days North Island would probably have been planted full with vanilla, patchouli, cinnamon, ylang-ylang, citronella, nutmeg, cloves and all sorts of fruit. From the aromatic plants grown on the Island, they would have been distilling the essential oils and it is believed that the museum building was once the distillery, built before the turn of the century at the time when that industry was flourishing in the Seychelles. With its wide coral stone walls and narrow arches, it would have been a cool, cavernous space, perfect for the purpose of distilling.

With the abolition of slavery, the industry moved towards the production of copra. Even though North Island was planted predominantly with coconut, it remained more fertile than most islands, and proved to be an excellent farm for fresh produce - Mahé's chief supplier. The elaborate size and quality of the produce grown on North Island is still remembered amongst many older Seychellois people on Mahé - who extrapolate with widened, humorous eyes and animated hand gestures.

After the Island was sold in the seventies, it remained an old farm, but not a commercial one, and without all the farm workers to tend to it, it fell into an overgrown state, the farm buildings quickly rotting to the core in this steaming climate and the domestic animals running wild.

North Island, Seychelles, Romantic Honeymoon Getaways

The 'pack' of cattle stalked in secret places on the mountainside and became so wiley and elusive, that it has taken two years to catch those that were there. The coconuts were left to take over the Island, dropping their nuts continually, a new burgeoning canopy rising up every few years. The lantana - an invasive alien weed - was also blanketing the plateau and crowded any clearings left open by the coconuts. Thriving on the uncollected fallen coconuts, the rat population also ran amok, the feral cats shortly on their trail. Then North Island was bought and the new "Noah's Ark" idea was hatched.

The purchase and development of North Island heralds a new birth for this exceptional island that resonates with potential and with the promise of a bright future.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF NORTH ISLAND
North Island's majestic profile has long beckoned to onlookers on Mahé's famous Beau Vallon Beach as they gaze out to sea in a north-easterly direction to where the Island's rounded contours are visible next to its close neighbour Silhouette.

One of the most northerly of all the granitic Inner islands, North Island, which measures 2.5 km x 1km and with a surface area of around 210 hectares (462 acres), lies approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) north west of Mahé and five kilometers north of Silhouette.

Three granitic mountains dominate the Island - Grand Paloss (180m/585 feet) to the north, Bernica (120m) to the southwest and Conglement (100m) to the southeast. These outcrops drop directly into the sea, bordered by giant boulders and between them lie three areas of flat coastal plain or "Island plateaux".

There are four beaches on the Island, one of which will always be sheltered from the prevailing winds at any given time.

• Grande Anse Beach, located on the Island's western side, is about 1.5 km long and fringed by extensive coral reefs. The Sunset Bar is located at the northern end of this beach.

• At the southern end of Grande Anse, a rocky outcrop has formed a small private beach, Bonnet Carré, where the vegetation is at its most pristine and where the Island's only Barringtonia Asiatica trees drop their exquisite pink, feathery flowers onto the soft white coral sands. Bonnet Carré is the French name for the Barringtonia Asiatica whose Creole name is Bonnen Kare.

• The one kilometer long beach, Anse d'Est is situated on the eastern side of the Island. This is where North Island lodge is located. Anse d'Est houses a wide bay flanked by two granitic mountains.

• Petite Anse, located on the south east of the Island, is a small beach bordered by granitic outcrops on each side. A path for boats to access the Island was cleared through the coral many years ago to enable the previous owners to transport, initially, guano and subsequently agricultural products from the Island.

Run-off from the granitic mountains combined with the geological structure of the plateau itself has resulted in two freshwater lakes being formed in the middle of the Island. During the wet season the water table in these lakes rises. Protection of the Island's valuable water resources through the removal of alien vegetation has been a critical part of the rehabilitation process.

Marianne North
Originally, it was thought that North Island was named after Marianne North, a renowned botanical artist in the 1800's. However, this is not so, it is just coincidental. Marianne was a very well travelled woman, which was quite unusual for the era that she lived in. She used to travel all over the world looking for material to paint and one of her preferred locations in the Seychelles was North Island. Her drawings are on display in the Botanical Gardens in Kew, London.

One of the owners of Travelwizard.com just returned from an inspection, and stay at North Island. See what she said:

Dear All,
I think I am in love with North Island in the Seychelles!
Maybe it is the giant tortoises that bumble about the island nibbling on grass and eating the fruit that falls from the trees...maybe it is the sea turtles coming to the beaches and laying their eggs, perhaps it is the perfect weather with sun and evening rain almost every day with temperatures pretty much the same year round and the islands lay just outside the hurricane belt.

Best of all is the sea life...
Sailing in to the main island of Mahe through the shipping lanes I looked down off our balcony and saw a sea turtle. A few minutes later I looked down and saw a manta ray which I later found out was an Eagle Ray. We saw a fish skipping on it's tail just like a rock skipping along....and that was all just in the shipping lane!!

Our first day on North Island I went snorkeling.
The water was quite rough so we were taken to a secondary site via the dive boat to find calmer waters. We were at a dive site so the reefs were quite far down but we could still see a lot of amazing sea life. Visibility nearly perfect. I saw a giant eel, white tipped reef shark, sea turtles, small schools of large fish, and large schools of small blue fish. So many different fish that I cannot even recall them all!! Suffice it to say that the seal life here looks very healthy! ... Oh !! Oh !! did i forget to say we were even greeted by a small pod of dolphins they stayed just long enough to give us a good look over ...and as suddenly as they appeared they vanished into the open depths of the Indian Ocean.
Greg and Rupert went deep sea fishing while i was bobbing with the dolphins and in under 2 hrs had caught 2 small Tuna 1 dorado, 1 30lb Barracuda + another fish that i had never heard of before 5 in total and when we all landed back on the beach at about the same time there was a lovely lady to great us and to hand us a scented clean cloth to wipe with and as we all exchange stories of our adventures. She asked us if we would like to have a barbeque where the chef would come to one of our villas to cook our fish and some other delicacies as we all dined under the stars just off the beach under a full moon ... white linen table cloth soft flickering torches place as to draw us down a path to this perfectly set dinning table just for US !!!

North-Island itself is an experience that I feel very privileged to have experienced. Think Robinson Carusoe goes luxury and you will get an idea...firstly the only way to get to the island is by helicopter as there is no landing strip for a plane. If you came by boat you would have to swim ashore as there are no docking facilities. So- back to the helicopter. It is so thrilling to get to go in a helicopter and fly over the tiny tropical islands enroute to North Island. The entire trip from Mahe takes only about 20 minutes and every minute was a thrill!! Seeing the islands from the air gives you a perspective of the beautiful turquoise waters and lovely sandy coves that you cannot see from the ground...fantastic visuals!!

To give you a clue as to how exclusive the island is; there are only 11 villas on the entire island accommodating approx 25 People. There are 110 staff to look after the island facilities and it's guests....Bill Gates was here not too long ago and rented all 11 villas just so he could have the whole place to himself! Brad Pitt and Angelina was on the island while we were there. So there you have it...we vacationed with Brad Pitt (hey, that is our story and we are sticking to it!!!).

Each villa is approx 5000 square feet and is built to accommodate 2 people. It even had a separate den with screening facilities, wifi, huge flat screen tv's, resting area, bathroom and everywhere there are outdoor showers. We had 5 showers in our villa!! There was even a full shower at the bottom of our stairs coming up from the beach area. Each villa comes with a Butler and your own private plunge pool, kitchen, outdoor showers, some rooms completely open to the air and some completely enclosed with air conditioning. All materials used are local sticks, fronds, logs, shells, so that each villa is a unique piece of handcrafted art with carved floors, beauty and luxury at every turn with the most high teck "stuff" all hidden away behind the rustic look.

We have all heard the saying "Paradise Found" ... WELL this truly is it.
Well we've been invited to hthe cocktail party so got to run .

Love to you all

Linda Barber, Travelwizard.com, Seychelles Specialist

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