Sunday, July 26, 2015

Seychelles



One hundred and fifteen granite islands in the Indian Ocean, home to some of the world's greatest marine life, including the armour-plated Eclipse, the platinum Dubai, a four hundred and fourteen foot long Octopus, and the diesel-powered Savarona; all of these can be found, in tourist-season, at any one of the dozens of marinas which make the Seychelles the place to be, just north-east of Madagascar, where global warming is killing off the natural marine life, but the yachts appear to be invincible.

The islands were ceded by the French to the British in 1914. Independence came in 1975, and was followed immediately by repeated coups, an army mutiny, and an invasion led by foreign mercenaries. The birth-pangs of a country! By 1991 things had become stable, with multi-party democracy established and the slow process of putting health, education and the eradication of poverty at the top of the priority list, thus far with some considerable success.




Alongside the world's largest Octopus (see photo above), there are other rare fruits to be found, including the largest seed in the world, known as the Coco-de-mer (photo left), as well as the jellyfish tree, of which only eight examples now survive, the Seychelles’ paradise flycatcher, and the Seychelles warbler. Rather than dealing with global warming, we could just get more big yachts made and name them after all these dodos. I have dibs on "Coco-de-mer" as the name of mine.


Marks for: 115

Marks against: 414






Copyright © 2015 David Prashker
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The Argaman Press


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