Saturday, 14 December 2013 00:10
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Exploring the legendary Valle de MaiText and pix by Daminda Harsha Perera
Our visit to the Seychelles was filled with exciting excursions and on the second day of our trip the team of journalists and I – participating in a special media trip organised by Mihin Lanka and the Seychelles Tourism Board – boarded the Cat Cocos, which sailed to Praslin Island.
After an hour’s sea journey we were transferred to a tour bus which took us to the second UNESCO World Heritage site located in the Seychelles.
‘May Valley,’ better known as Valle de Mai, is a nature resort that houses six endemic palms, among which the largest palm seed in the world ‘Coco de Mer’ (Lodoicea maldivica) which is an island endemic palm can be seen. The resort is rich in biodiversity and home to the rare ‘Seychelles Black Parrot’.
Excursion in the resort
Legend says that this was the ‘Garden of Paradise,’ the garden of plenty in which Adam and Eve lived before they fell from grace and were asked to leave the garden by God.
A visit here will convince anyone that this could indeed be that garden, as it is filled with beauty, tranquillity and plenty.
Coco de Mer
The Coco de Mer was one of the amazing sights that we witnessed during our visit. Named the ‘Queen of Palms,’ it is the biggest seed in the world. The tree grows 25 to 34 metres tall while its leaves are fan-shaped and can grow up to seven to 10 m long and 4.5 m wide.
The male and female plants are distinctly different and resemble certain male and female parts of the human anatomy, which have made them quite the erotic sight.
The female Coco de Mer fruit takes about seven years to mature and encloses in its husk the largest seed in the word – the erotically shaped Coco-de-Mer nut. A Seychelles legend says that during a full moon the coco-de-mer trees walk around the forest in order to mate and this is the reason they produce their erotically shaped ‘love nuts’.
Any visit to the Seychelles would be incomplete until one takes a look at this very unique flower.
Seychelles Black Parrot
Another wonderful sight in the Seychelles is the country’s black parrot. We saw the parrot in the Valle de Mai Nature Reserve. It is only seen here and in one other island in the world.
The Seychelles Black Parrot, Praslin Parrot or Kato Nwar (Coracopsis nigra barklyi) is a sombre-coloured, medium-sized parrot endemic to the Seychelles and is the national bird of the Seychelles.
The population of the Seychelles Black Parrot is on the decline with about 200-300 birds, with fewer than 100 breeding pairs, as the result of both persecution and habitat loss.
Seychelles is indeed an island that offers visitors very rare sights and leaves one with memories for a lifetime.
