Cousin Island, Seychelles

When we booked our taxi boat to Cousin, we were told it was only an 8 minute motorboat ride away. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the sea was a lot less calm a few mornings later and we had quite an adventure (and soaking) when boating our way through the rough choppy sea - luckily our boatman had a waterproof back and we'd brought extra large carrier bags for the camera bag! The journey actually took us about 45 minutes. To land on Cousin's fine beaches, you have to board a speedboat (in the sea) on which you are told to hold on tight - the boat is driven at full speed, cutting through the waves like a jet ski, onto the white sandy beach. Why? In order to reduce human imprint on the beach itself. 

After disembarking, everyone is strongly advised to put insect repellent on, properly -  there were dozens of Odomos tubes (indian insect repellent cream) provided. Will had also given us mosquito suits but we thought we'd brave it as Seychelles seemed moderately mosquito-free compared to the lake-town of Kisumu. In fact, I've never had to reapply the mosquito repellent every half hour like I did in Cousin's dense vegetation. 

Cousin Island is a stunning bird island, designated as a special reserve and it was bought by Birdlife International while managed by Nature Seychelles. With no development and totally reserved for conservation, Cousin Island has the highest density of lizards per hectare in the world (although it didn't seem like this!); it is home to 300,000 nesting seabirds, the longest millipede in the world and an important nesting site for Hawksbill turtles. We had never seen such a place teeming with wildlife, and even more so, birdlife. With no natural predators and only conservationists and visitors, the birds are completely unafraid of humans - we could walk right up to nesting chicks at the base of trees  and they would barely bat an eyelid - they felt so safe and secure! We were extremely lucky to see one of the first nesting Hawksbill turtles of the year - photos below capture some of the wildlife we witnessed.

Technical details: Olympus ZD 70-300mm lens; all unedited  and  straight  from the camera.