Several months ago, my lovely friend Jill sent me a link to a cheap airfare for the Seychelles and said I should go. I love a beautiful beach* but replied back to Jill that now really wasn’t the time to be planning that trip, my vacations for the school year were mostly booked already, I should stay home, blah blah blah.** And then I must have had a long day at school that put me home late and stressed me out because the next thing I know it’s midnight and I’m booking the flight for February break and sending Jill texts about what a horrible influence and wonderful friend she is.
And from now on I will always do what Jill tells me to do.
The Seychelles are a quick hop and a jump halfway across the world in the Indian Ocean, just east of Kenya and Tanzania. I left school on Friday and overnighted to Paris and then overnighted to the Seychelles and arrived bright and early Sunday morning. 6:30am is the perfect time to head to the beach!
I checked into my Airbnb and Nicole, my incredibly helpful host,*** let me know there was an excellent beach about a five-minute walk away. I headed out with a one-track mind to get to that beautiful ocean.
And I did! And it was so lovely! The water was gorgeous, the beach was pristine, it was now almost 9:30am and there was hardly anyone there. I took a few pictures and headed straight for the water to rinse off all the flying.
And truly, 30 seconds into the ocean, I stepped on something and cut my foot. I’m a pretty calm person so I thought, okay, I cut my foot on something, no big deal. I bobbed in the ocean a bit and it seemed to still be hurting quite a lot so I drifted ashore to check it out. It was bleeding but not miserable, so I rationalized it would stop soon and I’d move on. The bleeding did stop but the pain kept getting worse. I dragged my beached whale self to the shore and was looking at it but it really looked fine. But the pain kept getting worse and then felt like it was in my whole foot and moving up my leg and my leg started to turn a little red and now, obviously, I was going to die on a beach by myself in the Indian Ocean.****
I had noticed there was a lifeguard stand at the beach so I limped over there and flagged down the crew inside. They looked at my foot, poured warm water on it to clean it, but told me I should get to the hospital to have it looked at. This did not seem like an easy task but they called Nicole and she HANDLED IT. Within five minutes, she had sent someone in a car to get me and they drove me to the medical center a few minutes away. When I arrived, they were already expecting me and took me straight into a room. A nurse was with me after about 10 minutes and everyone concluded I had probably stepped on some type of coral that was causing, essentially, an allergic reaction.***** There was a general “who can tell what’s in the ocean?” vibe that I was not appreciating through the pain but some shots, take-home medications, and a foot wrap later, I was sent on my way.
And so, the first full day at the beach was spent sleeping off the pain and super swollen foot. The big takeaway here is Nicole definitely saved my life. She left me lunch at some point while I slept and when I saw her the rest of the trip she always asked how I was doing. I tried to tell her I’m not usually so high maintenance but she just shrugged and said something like, “it’s the tropics, something like this happens all the time,” and now I’m worried about what else she’s seen from my fellow vacationers.
Not one to be defeated, I did get myself out later that day to a different beach and a sunset. By this time I had figured out I would limp for a bit but generally not have to amputate so all was well!
The next day I knew I had to keep my foot wrapped up so I drove to the other side of the island and saw the capital city, Victoria, and some of the beaches on that side. Driving was its own excitement- the island is beaches all around the edge with mountains in the middle and the only way around is through. There seemed to be only two types of road signs on the entire island.****** The first was a 40 km/h speed limit sign as you approach a town that is preceded by signs telling you to slow down. With driving on the left******* and intense mountain roads, I have no idea what the speed limit outside of towns was. One time I got up to 50 km/h and thought to myself, “Whoa, Kelly, people love you. Slow it back down.” Needless to say, locals usually passed me. The second road sign was pictures of upcoming hairpin turns. And we’re talking like drawings of snake coils. And they were consistently very accurate. Kudos, Seychelles. It was moderately terrifying but did afford views like this.********
I had one very cautious beach day in which I kept my foot in a bag when I walked on the sand. You can also see the classic “your feet at a beach” shot that has long needed an update.
But, truly, it was worth it.
The remainder of my days were, thankfully, highly uneventful. I found new beaches to camp out at and marveled at the incredibly beautiful water. My foot remained slightly swollen but I thought keeping myself hot and out of the ocean was a worse punishment. By Tuesday I had foregone the wrapping. You’re now in for many beach pictures that I swear are all different places and are all not as beautiful as real life.*********
You'll notice there are no beach chairs and everywhere looks super empty. All of the beaches are public and there were a handful of people on every beach but not very many. If you wanted to find the people, they were either bobbing in the ocean or all the way at the tree line for some shade. This was my personal favorite lounge spot and view.
On my last day, I took a ferry to a different island, Praslin, to see their beautiful beaches. One involved a trek up and then back down the mountain that did, ultimately, pay off.
All in all, after the first three hours, it was an amazing trip to a beautiful chain of islands. I will happily go back if Jill sends me there again! Until then, can we get a snow day back home?
-KT
*Everyone spends their time looking at internet lists of the world’s best beaches, right?
**Ugh, my emails are so boring.
***I had no idea exactly HOW helpful she would be.
****But what a way to go!
*****Later, the internet confirmed for me that that was absolutely what must have happened and kudos to the beach lifeguards and hospital crew, because they did everything that was recommended. Obviously. They were professionals.
******Neither is pictured because #death
*******I have found that driving on the other side of the road is something your brain quickly adapts to. Using your other hand for the turn signal is a different story, however. It rained only once while I was driving but I managed to turn on the windshield wipers at almost every turn.
********That I pulled over and got out of the car to look at because, again, #death
*********If anyone needs me ever again, I now exclusively do beach photography.
