The islands

Two geologies

The Seychelles is unlike any other ocean. Most island groups in the Indian Ocean and Pacific are volcanic — born from the sea floor, young in geological terms, and uniform in character. The Seychelles inner islands are none of these things. They sit on a fragment of ancient continental crust, separated from what is now India roughly 75 million years ago. The granite that erupts from the sea at Anse Source d'Argent on La Digue, or from the boulders at Beau Vallon on Mahé, is the same rock that once lay at the heart of Gondwana. It has been here far longer than we have.

The outer islands are different in every way. Flat, coralline, and recent — built from the accumulated skeletons of reef organisms over tens of thousands of years. Aldabra, the largest raised coral atoll in the world, sits 1,100 kilometres from Mahé. It has no permanent human population, no tourist infrastructure, and 150,000 giant tortoises that have never learned to be afraid of anything, because nothing has ever threatened them here. It is one of the last ecosystems on earth that is functioning as it did before human contact.

We know both geologies intimately. Our guides have walked the granite paths and the coralline flats, dived the inner reefs and the outer atolls. The islands below are a starting point. The conversation will tell us which ones are right for you.