Mahé from Coast to Coast

Victoria is often called one of the smallest capitals in the world, and you can take in most of it from the clock tower at its centre: a small silver copy of one in London, put up in 1903 in memory of Queen Victoria, and still the point everyone gives directions from. The guide starts here, and the history comes quickly: French planters, British governors, and the Africans, Indians and Chinese who made the country what it is.

A few streets away is the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market, named for a governor and busy from early. Fish comes in on ice, tuna in dark slabs and red snapper whole, and the stalls behind are piled with chillies, vanilla and rolled cinnamon bark. It is where the island does its shopping, and the point of going is to see what people here actually eat.

Then the road climbs. The Sans Souci road crosses the mountains in tight turns through forest, past tea bushes on the steep ground and cinnamon growing wild, often up into cloud. Near the top are the ruins of Mission Lodge, a school built in the nineteenth century for the children of Africans freed from slave ships, and a viewpoint over the west coast that explains why anybody chose the spot.

Lunch is a Creole buffet, the island’s everyday cooking laid out for you to work along. If the food turns out to be the part of Seychelles you came for, the Creole table is how to take it further.

The afternoon is the south: a road that runs along bays with granite at either end, and a herb and spice garden where a guide walks you through cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and plants found only in Seychelles. The last stop is a craft village, a cluster of old Creole houses with makers at work inside them, and a good place to buy something made on the island.

It is a long, gentle day, much of it spent looking out of a window, and it makes the rest of a Mahé week make sense. The walk to Anse Major goes into the same mountains on foot.

Good to know

• It runs on set days of the week, so we match it to your dates before you travel.
• Lunch is included. Tell us about dietary needs when we book, not on the morning.
• Cash for the market and the craft village. Cards are not taken everywhere.
• Mission Lodge and the spice garden mean short walks on uneven ground. Shoes with grip.
• Ask before photographing people at the market. Most say yes, and asking is the point.