Anse Source d'Argent

Anse Source d'Argent is the beach that stands for the Seychelles in the world's mind: a string of small coves on the south-west shore of La Digue, where boulders of pink granite, rounded by a hundred million years, stand in a shallow turquoise lagoon under coconut palms and takamaka trees, and where the light in the late afternoon does what the photographs promise. It is reached through L'Union Estate, the old coconut plantation with its ox-driven copra mill, its planter's house, its vanilla and its pen of giant tortoises, and it is one part of an island that has almost no cars — La Digue is crossed by bicycle and by ox-cart, from the jetty at La Passe where the ferry from Praslin lands in fifteen minutes, past the church and the guesthouses, to the wilder beaches of the east — Grand Anse, Petite Anse, Anse Cocos — where the sea is not for swimming, and to Anse Sévère and Anse Patates in the north for the snorkel. Nid d'Aigle, three hundred and thirty-three metres, is the island's summit; the Veuve reserve keeps the black paradise flycatcher that lives nowhere else; and Anse Marron, at the southern tip, is reached only on foot with a guide over the rocks.

The traveller comes by ferry from Praslin or from Mahé, takes a bicycle at the jetty, sleeps in a guesthouse in La Passe or on the west shore, and goes to Anse Source d'Argent twice — early, before the boats bring the day-trippers, and at low tide in the late afternoon, when the lagoon is a mirror and the boulders go pink; walks the plantation on the way, the mill and the tortoises; rides across the island to Grand Anse for the wild side and the walk over the headland to Petite Anse and Anse Cocos; climbs Nid d'Aigle for the view of Praslin and the islands; snorkels at Anse Sévère; eats fish curry and breadfruit at a Creole table; and, on the last morning, takes the guided walk to Anse Marron, which is the beach the postcards have not found.

The Guide's honesty: the beach is famous, and famous means visited — the day boats from Praslin arrive at ten and leave at four, and the traveller who sleeps on La Digue owns the mornings and the evenings; the plantation entrance is paid, and the fee is the price of the path; the east beaches have currents that take swimmers every year, and are for walking; the Seychelles are expensive by any measure, though La Digue's guesthouses are the honest end; the seaweed of the south-east trades sits on the east coast from June to September; and a granite boulder standing in half a metre of clear water with the sun going down behind it is, plainly, one of the most beautiful sights on Earth, which is why the Guide sets this page where it does.