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Michelle Wranik-Hicks explores the fantastically remote
Desroches Island in the Seychelles, where giant tortoises
roam and the preferred mode of transport is bicycle
UNTAMED
ISLAND

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waying palms, vivid sunsets and five-
star resorts where loved-up couples
etch their names in the sand – it’s
hardly surprising the Seychelles was
the chosen honeymoon escape for
the likes of the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge and George and Amal.
But as stereotypically beautiful as the more
frequented paradises of Mahé, Praslin and Digue
are, the less visited outer islands offer a more
remote style of escapism.
One of these islands is Desroches. Set among
a cluster of 28 coral islands, cays and atolls
in the wild Amirante Archipelago, discovered
by Portuguese Admiral, Vasco da Gama in 1502,
the island is located some 230 kilometres
south-west of Mahé. A former palm plantation and
producer of Copra, a coconut by-product, today
S
it is home to a single luxury resort, which is
managed in a partnership between the Islands
Development Company (IDC) and Desroches
Island Limited.
Well-heeled travellers will find all the luxurious
indulgences expected of a five-star resort, but
Desroches Island isn’t anything like the cultivated
glamour found on island hideways in the Maldives,
for example. It has a marvellously unmanicured
sense of castaway. Even the arrival seems to be an
event, with only one charter flight landing on the
island’s airstrip in the afternoon. Staff standing in
a line wave enthusiastically as the plane touches
down, welcoming wide-eyed guests with warm
handshakes and chilled towels. “You’ve arrived,”
says Wicus Prinsloo, Desroches Island’s general
manager, by way of greeting. “Now it’s time to relax
with your feet in the sand.”
Wild Beauty
It usually takes guests a day or two to acclimatise
to the Desroches pace of life, according to Wicus.
Each guest is handed a traditional kikoi, a type
of African sarong – meaning you may not even
wear that bedazzled kaftan you so carefully packed.
“You could actually wear the kikoifor three days and
no one would care,” he says. Staff pad about mostly
barefoot and the mood is relaxed and convivial.
Driftwood sculptures created by father and son
artists, Tony & Shaun Fredriksson, are scattered
around the grounds. Even the gardens, a wild
tropical tangle, are left to grow at their whim; only
the lawns are mowed.
At sunset, guests converge at the beachside bar,
sharing stories of their day’s adventures over tropical
cocktails. But those in search of solitude won’t have
to try very hard. With 14kms of beaches, there is
little chance of feeling hemmed in on Desroches,
let alone bumping into another guest – particularly
if you lash out and upgrade to one of the resort’s
26 luxury beachside villas, which line a stretch
of the island’s northwest beach. With a private
plunge pool and a secluded courtyard area to the
rear, along with an outdoor shower and bathtub, my
beachfront villa is hued with neutral tones, natural
textiles and ornaments made from carved stone and
seashells. The bed, fitted with the sort of crisp sheets
that beg you to lie down, faces a decked veranda
overlooking the ocean, where two kayaks are parked
on the sand.
You could amble directly from the bed to the sand
in a few seconds, the path concealed by thick walls
of tropical foliage. In fact, you could easily spend
the entire time holed up in this luxurious private
abode and want for nothing or no one. Seeing one
of your neighbours is so rare, it’s almost a surprise.
You end up waving to one another as if to say, “Isn’t
this magnificent?”
Guests can be shuttled around the island by
buggy, but it’s far more fun to make use of the pair
of bicycles assigned to each villa. Pedalling along the
sandy tracks leading through virgin forest, feeling
the breeze against your skin is one of the best ways
to discover Desroches’ many angles.
One morning after breakfast, I pedal to Madame
Zabre, an idyllic beach framed by a bustle of low
bended palms. With the sea and sand shimmering
in the sunlight, it’s the sort of scene that could be
plucked from the front page of a tourism brochure,
but yet again, there’s not a single soul in sight.
Heaving a kayak into the water, I paddle out to the
snorkelling buoy and explore the corals, with only
the parrotfish for company.
this luxurious abode and want for nothing or no one”
Exploring the waters off Desroches
Island’s blissfully pristine shores
(previous);
Island-inspired décor in the
Madame Zabre villa (above); A
gentle bicycle ride down shaded
roads is an ideal way to explore
Desroches (top right); Treatments
at Escape Spa take place within an
environment designed to blend
with its natural surroundings
(lower right)
“You could easily spend the entire time holed up in

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Friendly giant Aldabra
tortoises have been
reintroduced to the island
There are 18 classified
dive sites to explore in
the waters surrounding
Desroches Island (right)
DEDICATED CONSERVATION
Just as Desroches staff are diverse, hailing from India, South Africa, Belarus
and beyond, so too are the island’s plants and wildlife.
I rise before dawn one morning to walk with Pep Nogués, a conservation
officer from Barcelona who manages the Island Conservation Society. Along
with protecting green and hawksbill turtles nesting on the shores of the
island, Pep has had great success breeding giant Aldabra tortoises – wrinkled,
prehistoric-looking creatures whose only natural habitat is the Seychelles,
specifically the remote Aldabra atoll. I’m shown a pen of tiny baby tortoises
that fit in my hand before meeting Ralph, a giant, wrinkle-necked male
estimated to be around 90, and nearly triple his age in kilograms. Once fully
grown, the tortoises are released to roam the island freely. Some lumber
around the resort’s grounds, including a rascal named George who often
wanders into the restaurant to beg for a piece of toast.
In between windsurfing and diving, Pep is also spearheading a revival of
the island’s indigenous flora. He shows me a plant nursery where the team
is hoping to reintroduce native vegetation, eradicating alien species like the
island’s tall Casuarina trees, introduced decades ago to provide timber.
We stroll through the island’s organic garden, where the island’s vegetarian
Indian workers have spent the past decade cultivating the majority of their
food. Pep too, has experimented with farming, but neither the mango or
banana trees planted bear fruit, he says with a mournful expression, though
he brightens up as we pass a fig tree. Plucking a few low-hanging pieces from
thebranches,wemunchonthesweet,softfruitaswewalk.“AllIneedissome
goats’ cheese,” I quip, to which Pep replies: “Or a glass of wine.”
Pep also shows me the interior of the island’s original manor house. With
tall,vaultedtimberceilings,it’sundergoingrefurbishmentandoncecomplete,
will house a Creole restaurant. There are also talks to create a coconut oil
museum and an arts and heritage museum with more driftwood works by
the Fredriksson duo, while plans to farm chickens and livestock, to make the
island more sustainable, are well underway.

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Desroches Island cuisine
includes impeccable dishes
like herb-crusted lamb loin
with a terrine of potatoes
and bacon, confit tomato
with crumbed egg yolk,
spinach and veal jus (above
right) along with island-style
desserts (above left)
A romantic sunset setting on
the beachfront at Desroches
Island (top)
CULINARY CRUSADERS
For such a far-flung destination, the culinary
offerings on Desroches are a genuine surprise –
whichisexactlythesortofreactionfoodandbeverage
manager Guillaume Aublet strives for. Tall, blond,
Swiss and handsome, Guillaume traded in an urban
post at The Dorchester in London for a castaway
life. He free dives in his spare time beyond the
island’s lagoon, and over dinner one night regales
us with tales of face-to-face encounters with
lemon sharks. Passionate about delivering a first-
class gourmet experience for guests despite the
odds stacked against him, like weight restrictions
and the eye-wateringly high expense of air freight,
Guillaume sees it as a personal challenge to meet
guests’ requests – hunting down even the most
obscure items. “I only need 24 hours,” he says,
grinning with confidence.
It’s difficult not to be impressed, particularly
after learning about the logistical efforts involved.
Food must be flown in with passengers on
each flight, and the island soil is too alkaline to
create a reliable kitchen garden. Echoing Pep’s failed
mango and banana efforts, the tomatoes aren’t up
to scratch for Guillaume’s tastes, though the basil
is fantastic – apparently, there’s enough growing to
feed an army (“Would you like some? Take some
home with you.”).
Even after four days, there’s little chance of
becoming bored with Chef Jonathan Duiker’s
array of cuisine, from succulent South African
beef tenderloin garnished with delicate threads
of watercress and pea foam to mushroom terrine
and freshly prepared sashimi. Desserts also vary
every day, ranging from lemon tart with shards of
meringue to rum and raisin ice cream.
With so much eating, the resort mixes things
up with different dining settings. One night,
we wiggle our toes in the sand at a table set
up directly on the water’s edge; at lunch the next
day, we lounge on blankets at a beach picnic
at Muraille Bon Dieu, on the island’s south-west
side. It’s also a gourmet feast, with farmhouse-style
sandwiches, Greek salad, washed rind cheeses
and lovingly crafted pastries and chocolates.
Once staff zip away by buggy, there’s precious
little to do except stuff ourselves, watch hermit
crabs dawdle along the sand, catch sight of a fish
leaping from the water, and listen to the trade
winds sigh in the trees.

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Almouj Golf at The Wave (above) follows the lines of Muscat’s coastline; The Beach restaurant at The Chedi (below)
The resort’s main swimming
pool sets an idyllic scene for
an evening meal (above)
ISLAND LIFE
With such fine food, stacking on a Desroches kilo
or two is a real possibility but there are plenty
of activities to partake in, should you be able to
tear yourself away from the plunge pool. Cycling
around the island will put colour in your cheeks;
a midnight pedal around the airstrip to gaze at the
stars is memorable, while the waters surrounding
the island are crammed with kaleidoscopic fish,
including the sort of deep-sea species game
fishermen quiver over, though strict conservation
controls ensure most are catch and release. There’s
tennis and yoga, and the scuba diving is also meant
to be superb but the south-east monsoon has
brought nutrient-rich plankton and low visibility
for a week or two in May. Instead, I drift around,
snorkelling from beach to beach.
On my final day, I cycle to the spa, where the
pampering takes place in a series of private, raised-
timber bungalows facing the sea. Energised by
my massage, I clamber onto my bike and begin
pedalling back to my villa with the abandon of a
little girl, zig-zagging across the sandy path.
Instead of heading back to my plunge pool, I
catch sight of another path leading to a deserted
beach. Facing the more exposed southern side
of the island, it’s less groomed than the island’s
northern beaches and it feels deliciously wild and
remote. For a moment, I relish in the solitude,
imagining how Vasco da Gama must have felt to
voyage through the archipelago back in the 16th
century. He would have landed on a deserted beach
much like this, the shores littered with dry turtle
grass and tidal flotsam and jetsam, waves breaking
in the distance and a fresh, ocean breeze.
Spotting something bobbing in the water,
I wade into the shallows and fish out a single
plastic bottle – I’m genuinely surprised there’s no
message inside.
Desroches Island
+27 82 496 4570
www.desroches-island.com
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