From there to here

Incoming flight from Mahe, Seychelles

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Every moment is unique. Every sunset is unique. My moment on this beach right outside my room in Praslin was that of “I’m so tired I simply have no energy to carry my gear to a sunset location with awesome granite boulders, only to take a quick look right outside my room. Just me and the universe. No gear this time.”

As always beauty is right at your doorstep if you care to look a bit closer, and so I ran back to my room for my camera and tripod. I found that I could sit comfortably on the warm sand with the tripod between my legs and the trigger in my hand. And so the amazing moments unfolded right before me without any effort on my part. Except triggering the shutter every now and then.

The reflections of the sky on the coral rocks was really beautiful, and Venus was getting clearer by the minute. Then, as I was shooting my last exposure I noticed a plane approaching from Mahe. I thought this exposure would not be what I wanted – just nature – but let the exposure finish as scheduled. To my surprise, the plane made a perfect arch in the picture, and on approach its lights made great reflection in the coral rocks.

I think this moment is a beautiful capture of island life here in the Seychelles archipelago, where going places is either by plane or ship in amazing beauty. What I find really amazing here is that each island has a strong commitment to protecting the flora and fauna, so although I am a visitor among so many, many of the hotels and islands have resident biologists responsible for protecting nature, and educating guests that are oblivious to what they are amidst. A few days ago this hotel released hawksbill turtle hatchlings, and the number of guests that came to see the release was so great I simply gave up getting a single photo!

On my next island, La Digue, there is a critically endangered Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher. Due to human activities it is not doing well. It was decided to take some 20 birds to a neigbouring island to increase the survival chances of the species. This turns out to have been a success. There are many such stories, and is the main reason why I decided to come here.


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