MUM’S THE WORD
It once played host to the man who created the world’s most famous spy: follow in Ian Fleming’s footsteps as we investigate the Seychelles
THERE’S no time for hesitation as I rush towards the waiting helicopter, clinging tightly to my panama hat as the spinning blades whip up a breeze. Once I am safely buckled into my leather seat, we soar above Mahe, the largest island in the Seychelles group, and head across the shimmering Indian Ocean to our chosen target, Silhouette Island.
A 20-minute helicopter ride and 20kms northwest of Mahe, it’s just the sort of place James Bond might choose to moor his power boat in between secret missions.
Author Ian Fleming holidayed in the Seychelles in 1958 and even used the sun-splashed paradise as a source of inspiration for some of his famous 007 novels.
Two years after his visit, he published a collection of five short stories entitled For Your Eyes Only – three of which have been made into blockbuster Bond movies. The final villainous tale in the pentalogy, The Hildebrand Rarity, is set entirely in the Seychelles on-board a luxury yacht named The Wavekrest.
Fleming based himself at the Northolme hotel on Mahe, a secluded hideaway on the northwest coast with picturesque views of Beau Vallon Bay and Silhouette Island.
Originally built by an eccentric, retired English colonel, the Northolme has been revamped several times and is now a boutique resort. Each villa is hidden in the midst of tropical greenery and reflects the Creole architecture of the island.
The Seychelles is a sanctuary for rare flora, including the impressive cannonball tree, which shades paths to the suites.
As I stroll through the gardens, I imagine a beautiful Bond girl dipping her toes in the water and staring out to the Indian Ocean. Its warm, tropical waters are home to more than 400 species of reef fish and 300 species of coral. From the tranquillity of our sun deck, I spy a hawksbill turtle not far from the shore, where waves lap the granite rocks.
As Fleming noted in The Hildebrand Rarity, the marine life here is “a riot of colour and movement”, especially in the Northolme’s secluded beach cove.
As I wade into the calm, azure sea, I don’t need a snorkel to see the green parrot fish, schools of reef fish, a baby reef shark and a curious stingray that seems drawn to my lily white legs. Keen to explore more, we take a kayak out for a paddle across the cove and as we skirt the edge of the coral-fringed granite boulders jutting out from the sea, we spot armies of red crabs basking in the sun.
Eager to learn more about the history of the Seychelles, we temporarily leave our beach idyll and take a tour of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles located on Mahe.
The smallest capital in the world – I count only two sets of traffic lights – it was named after Queen Victoria during British colonial rule. There are still plenty of nods to those years,