In the original Garden of Eden

Travel notes:

Praslin, Seychelles: The schooner that ferries passengers from the neat Seychelles capital of Victoria, to the second largest island in the archipelago, Praslin, takes only l50 minutes for the voyage. Yet it is a journey to a different world. General Charles George Gordon, later to die defending Khartoum, thought so. For him, the island contained the original Garden of Eden.

Praslin is pronounced Prah-lin, just like the sweet. In fact, that confection was named after the French soldier de Plessis-Praslin, whose cook created the sweet by browning nuts in boiling sugar. It was nuts of a different kind, though, that fascinated Gordon and caused him to consider them as the forbidden fruit.

For it is in Praslin's Vallee de Mai that we find the voluptuous looking coco-de-mer. It may have been the double nut's resemblance to a female pelvis that roused Gordon. It is certainly doubtful whether Eve could ever have bitten into the four-inch thick husk of this enormous fruit which grows wild only in Praslin.

The approach by sea to Praslin to land in the Baie St Anne is enchanting enough, without having to believe Gordon's hypothesis. The pristine beaches and gentle, lushly forested hills whose highest peak rises to 1,204 feet above sea level, sparkling blue sea and balmy atmosphere, fulfils visitors' dreams of a tropical Eden.

Praslin doesn't disappoint. As well as laying on the thrill of strolling through primaeval forest, the island has a well-developed holiday culture.

The jetty where passengers land is located in what translates from the Creole into "Love Point" . It gives you the right idea of this romantic cove. You catch the bus there for the 20-minute jaunt across the spine of the island to Grande Anse. Here a beautiful bay has been turned into a laid back beach resort, a sort of upmarket Hikkaduwa. Praslin even boasts a casino.

But it is the Vallee De Mai that lures visitors, who are as fascinated by the jungle as Gordon was.

Since 1983 the Valley has been a world heritage site; up to 1930 it existed as pure virgin forest. Misguided attempts under colonial rule to tidy up nature by cutting down trees for firewood and introducing ornamental plants to beautify the forest, have left their mark.

Now jak fruit, ylang-ylang trees introduced from the East Indies, and other exotics, are gradually being eliminated to return the Valley to its pure, Eden-like character.

Visitors can stroll at leisure through the Valley which has the status of a National Park.

It is more than one square mile in area, in an island that is itself only seven miles long and just over three miles wide.

You get to the park by the same bus that heads for the pleasure spots, a 12 minute ride from the jetty, but the buses themselves seem to run only when the driver feels like it. The drive passes a couple of general stores, a bakery and the picturesque Roman Catholic Church located on a headland overlooking the bay.

Praslin has a population of 5,000 and the somnolence of the island is part of its charm. It puts you in the mood to explore the Park, thoughts of paradise easily entering your head. The entrance is flanked by giant coco-de-mer palm trees whose Latin name of Lodoicea Maldivica suggests a connection with the Maldives.

My theory about why this extraordinary Seychellois nut came to be named after the Maldives is simple. When the nuts were washed ashore in medieval times, before the Seychelles was discovered, merchants who traded in them (and the biologists of the time) did not know where they came from. But they did know the Maldives as those islands were famous as the source of cowrie shells which were used for currency then. Since the nuts had a great trading value, it must have been assumed they also came from the Maldives.

The odd-shaped nuts were certainly in demand. They gained a reputation variously as the fruit of the tree of knowledge or as an aphrodisiac. Potentates who believed them to be both paid highly in gold for the nuts. When French mariners discovered the Vallee De Mai in 1768, they must have been intrigued by the male coco-de-mer as much as by the female.

The male, according to a tourist authority leaflet "has a seed that resembles a huge male organ."

A walk through the Park leads to a real valley which has some of the best developed mixed palm forest in the world. Many millions of years ago, scientists believe that large parts of the tropics were dominated by palm forests. This small valley gives an impression of an environment that preceded the evolution of man. It was a period when there were few mammals and few song birds. Almost the only sound then, as today, in this magical forest of Praslin, was the gurgle of streams and the swish of palm leaves waving gently in the wind.

Even if Gordon got it wrong, Praslin certainly seems to be paradise.

Travel notes:

You can fly by small plane to Praslin from Mahe, but the sea voyage by the daily schooner ferry sets the right mood.

There are hotels and guest houses although be prepared for high room rates. There is a weekly flight to Mahe by Air Seychelles from Dubai, which connects with AirLanka or Emirates flights from Colombo.

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