The island is only about three miles long and a few hundred yards wide at its narrowest. It is a coral island, part of the Amirante group. The main Seychelles are high, granitic islands. Desroches is the only island above water, of what is a ring of coral islands that formed a huge lagoon. The high point on Desroches doesn't look to be more than 20-30 feet out of water.

   This is Robinson Crusoe kind of country and a movie of that name was made in the Seychelles. The side of the island we landed on had no visible human presence from the sea. Just past the vegetation along the beach were the first signs of humans - a couple of tin roofed sheds, concrete fence posts and a dirt road.

    A number of us snorkeled around rocks at one end of the beach. The coral was not as interesting as at Nosy Kamba, but there were a lot more fish. There were yellow ones, blue ones, black and white striped ones and a lot of others. It still seems funny to see tropical fish swimming around in the ocean, but this is the tropics and they have to call somewhere home. The water is clear and our tour director said these are some of the most perfect beaches in the world.

    I walked the road along the length of the island to a small settlement which contained a few houses, a school, the headquarters and processing center of the coconut plantation that takes up most of the island and, one telephone booth. It may be connected to the outside by radio. We can make calls from the ship to anywhere, but the radio call cost is $15.00 per minute.

  There were a few sheep near the settlement, mottled white and black, and some have small horns. Along the road there were a couple of birds, about the size of a wren, that had heads and bodies of a brilliant red. On the beach at the settlement were dozens of small, green crabs with long, spidery legs. When disturbed, the crabs headed for the sea or burrows they had dug in the sand.

    The island has a population of only about 40, mostly workers for the coconut plantation and the Desroches Island Lodge, the only guest house on the island. There is a small airstrip servicing the lodge and island. This is a place for really getting away from it all.

  The couple that left the ship when the wife became ill at Lamu, Kenya, were to fly in to Desroches and rejoin the ship for the last couple of days of the cruise. Apparently she is recovered. 

  Tonight our ship is to weigh anchor for the 166 nautical mile trip to Praslin (pronounced as if the "s" wasn't there), the second largest of the Seychelles.