Silhouette: the pirates and treasures island
1. Silhouette Island
Silhouette Island lies 20 km northwest of Mahé. It is the third largest granitic island in the Seychelles.
I really loved Silhouette. It is very close to Mahé but it seems light years away from it. Mahé is bubbling, with shops, cars, people while Silhouette is totally the opposite. It is virtually unhabited (it counts only 200 inhabitants). From what I have seen most of the inhabitants live near the port, La Passe, in small cozy wooden houses. The golf buggies are the only transportation available on the island and they are used to bring the guests from the port to the Labriz hotel.
Going inside the island to the hotel you enter a fairytale world full of green lush vegitation and sweet aromas. The forest peak – Mont Daudan, is like a giant presence before you, most of the time covered with clouds. Very often, while exploring this island and walking through the forest or along the beach, I thought of what pirates and shipwrecked sailors would have felt when they happened upon this deserted island.
Many stories surround Silhouette. In Anse Lascars for exemple there are old graves (14th century) that have been identified as tombs belonging to some mariners who were buried on the island. For many years the island remained unhabitated and used only as a base for the pirates to raid merchant ships. The story tells that the French corsair Jean Francois Hodoul chose this island as his base for a certain period. Here it seems that he buried a treasure that many looked for but nobody found.
Silhouette takes its name from the French Minister Etienne de Silhouette who named the island in 1771. The Dauban family was the major landowner of the island for many years, from mid-sixteen century until 1960. They acquired most of the island where they cultivated cinnamon, vanilla coffee and cocunuts. During those years, the family built a beautiful colonial house, close to La Passe, that has been renovated and used now as a restaurant. Tehy also owned a Mausuleum that is an elegant memorial to the their past.
2. Hilton Labriz Hotel
The main hotel on the island is the Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort and Spa, a beautiful 5 star hotel built in 2006 and perfectly inserted into the island landscape. After you disembark the boat from Mahé you are greeted with cold tea and a wet towel, then a golf buggy will bring you to the hotel. The journey takes you through the old plantation house and a small cozy village. Here you will see the islands primary school full of colored drawings attached to the walls, some small shops and houses and the islands tiny hospital. Then you will cross a bridge arriving at the most beautiful open reception I have ever seen in my life!!!
The room I booked at the Labriz Seychelles was really amazing, a big chalet just in front of the sea. The bathroom had a bath inside and a shower outside in a small courtyard, that you could reach from a glass door in the bathroom. The beach in front of the Labriz is protected by the reef so the water is shallow, very clear and very warm. For a couple of days I could not swim there as the water was too low to do so. However the landscape was so beautiful and it was enough laying under the tree or sitting on the veranda looking at the infinite sea.
The beach chalets are equipped with sunbeds where you can relax and spend your day. One of the most amazing thing I experienced there was to get up in the morning and just jump into the sea. Most of the time the beach was empty and with the sun shining in the sky, the birds flying in the sky and the green trees all around me I felt like a modern day Robinson Crusoe 🙂
The breakfast at the hotel was one of the most amazing food experience I have ever had. There was everything you wanted to eat: fruits, jams, pastries for all tastes. I booked half board but to be honest, dinners were not as wonderful as brekfasts. I did have lunch only once as brekfast was so fulfilling that you could not even think to get lunch after that. I ate at the restaurant near the pool, nice but very expensive.
However, what I really found an amazing plus of this hotel is the SPA. The entrance is magnificent and the whole place gives you a sense of calm and relaxation. I booked a facial and the lady repsonsible for that brought me along a path on the hill and into a small wooden cabin with a glass wall. Through that wall you could see the trees and plants… I felt suspended in air deep in the forest. Perhaps that was the sensation they wanted to create and honestly it was an amazing feeling. I had a fantastic treatment and I really would have liked to go there again to repeat the experience.
The beach in front of the hotel is really amazing. The water is clear and warm. The tide there follows the moon and changes during the year so water can be extremely shallow with the low tide. That beach does not have seaweed and it is protected by the coral reef. It is also 2 km long and offers many activities such as snorkeling, swimming and sailing.
3. Activities
Silhouette offers very attractive walking trails if you like to explore the forest around. More details on that on the newworldnomad blog. I also visited the Giant Tortiose conservation centre where I played with the giant turtles hosted there. Here you can see two species of turtles that were once considered extinct. They were ridescovered in 1995 and released. From the Conservation sanctuary we walked to a trail in the jungle, over the mountain, until reaching an amazing deserted beach. It was spectacular to view the beach and the shimmering sea from that high location.
Silhouette is surrounded by the finest marine life. In 1987 the waters around Silhouette were declared a Marine National Park and the rest of the island was protected as the Silhouette National Park in 2010. The island is also covered by verdent evergreen vegetation which is the habitat of various animal species. One of the easiest to observe is the fuit bat that flies around during the day. I saw many of them while swimming in the sea during the day. Other animals includes geckos, spiders (there were many spiders and web in the tree but they are innocuos), chamaleon and of course, turtles.
I booked a sunset tour through the hotel. I must honestely say that it was a fantastic experience. The beauty of the evening, the calm of the water and the colours of nature made my evening unforgetable.
If you interested in the discovering Silhouette and the wonderful Labriz Hotel, see below:
