Waiting for non-existent transfer was not completely wasted. I took a few nice photos of port and surrounding hills.

Accommodation in Anse Kerlan

We selected Anse Kerlan due to its proximity to Anse Georgette and Anse Lazio. (They will be subject of future post.) We did not realize it is quite close to airport and planes will be flying nearly above our heads. Fortunately local airport can handle only small planes and they were not very noisy.

I am not sure if it is related, but this was our cheapest accommodation - only 60€ per night. It was very close to "supermarket", actually 2. And not very far from bus stop.

We liked our stay and Seashell Self-catering a lot.

Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve

Valle de Mai is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. It is palm forest with six endemic palms, from which the most famous one is Coco de Mer - a palm with the largest nut in the world. Not only that, it has really crazy shape! It takes 6 or 7 years for nut to ripe and it weights 15-30kg!

Entry fee is rather high: 20€. This is unique place and probably deserves such a price. But I would not go there for the 2nd time. Maybe due to price...

It offers a few routes, from longest one taking about 3-4 hours, to short one 1-1.5 hour long. It is quite easy walk.

It was quite dark in the valley, I am glad I took my tripod with me. What I am not happy about is that regardless I bracketed every single shot, it was not helpful a lot. -3EV was insufficient for getting blue sky on most photos.

There are also other funny trees. Like for example this tree with roots supporting trunk as best as they can. Crown of this tree is also interesting, looking like a umbrella. At least according to description, because I could not see much of it throught canopy of other smaller palms around it.

Finally I am showing identifiable Coco de Mer palms. Male tree with big flower is on the left, female with nuts on the right.
    

Oh! Nuts

It is time to show photos of Coco de Mer nuts. I decided against showing photos with us, so you need to use your imagination to judge its size.

A nut leaning on step.

This one is available at the entrance, so visitors can handle it and take photos.

Seychellois are crazy about Coco de Mer nuts. And I don't blame them. They are really special and unique.

They use it in logos, all marketing flyers, there are sculptures based on it and many other applications.

Fountain at entrance to Praslin Airport.

This is my favorite application of Coco de Mer hype. Every visitor leaves with pair of the most intriguing stamps in their passport.