Diving into adventure on Seychelles' remote, wildlife-abundant islands

"I wade through the undergrowth of Astove's abandoned copra plantation, a Seychelles' island, where giant tortoises hide out like a platoon of jumbo army helmets beneath the palms. The ground is otherwise the domain of hermit crabs and fallen coconuts, a tiny shell-scattered atoll. Encircling eight square miles of lagoon, land here is just a thin border between sky and ocean: a landing strip for migratory birds and nesting ground for green turtles who plough tractor-like tracks through coral sand as powdery as virgin snow."

"Astove is one of the most southerly of the 72 uninhabited atolls and cays that make up the Outer Islands of the Seychelles. It is flung 647 miles - and two plane rides - southwest of the capital, Victoria, on the Inner Island of Mahé, into the empty lapis lazuli expanse toward northern Madagascar. Its sand flats are as smooth as mother-of-pearl, steeped in an oyster-shaped reef in the western Indian Ocean -"

Astove is a windswept, remote atoll in the Outer Islands of the Seychelles, encircling eight square miles of lagoon and lying 647 miles southwest of Victoria. Giant tortoises shelter beneath palms amid hermit crabs and fallen coconuts, while green turtles nest and migratory birds use the land as a landing strip. The island's mother-of-pearl sand flats sit within an oyster-shaped reef in the western Indian Ocean, where the former Sea of Zanj rolls and roars under southeast trade winds. The reef has wrecked ships since the 16th century, leaving shores colonised by seabirds and maritime legend.

Read at CN Traveller