Copolia Trail - Mahé Island, Seychelles

This walk ascends through shady fauna and flora until the top, where you emerge onto a large, granite shelf that overlooks the north of the island.

How to get there: No.14 bus from the terminal at Victoria (destination Port Glaud)
When to get there: Well before midday
What to take: 1 or 2 litres of water, sun cream, mosquito repellent
Duration: 2 hours' round trip

The Copolia trail is on Mahé, which is the largest and most populous island of the Seychelles. Mahé has stunning beaches, pretty much exactly as you see them in all the glossy holiday brochures (though most of these photos are actually taken at nearby La Digue island). But what you don't see as much of is the lush interior of the islands, which is equally beautiful. Mahé is one of a group of granitic islands (the rest are coralline), formed from the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. As you venture further inward, the land rises, pushed up by vast slabs of granite, all the way to Morne Seychelloise, the highest point on the island and part of the Morne Seychelloise National Park. These monolithic rocks can be found in the most unexpected places - jutting out of the earth above a house seeming to balance on nothing, lining the shore, or slumbering in the shallows to be eternally lapped by the sea. Rainfall is fairly frequent on the islands, creating a luscious, emerald blanket of tropical forest.

Copolia

Although much of this walk is in the shade, the climate is humid and when you reach the viewpoint there is no shade at all. Being a non-driver, I had to get the bus and made the mistake of setting out a bit late. Buses are decent when you can get them but I occasionally found them a bit unreliable. I waited for an additional hour for the no.14 as it was late, which meant I didn't get to the start of the trail until a little before midday - so make sure you set out early.

No.14 bus drops you opposite the Copolia Lodge, Sans Souci Road

This road is the Sans Souci Road, the main thoroughfare that cuts through the national park. After hopping off I paused to take some shots of the view from there down to the sea, which in itself is lovely before plunging into the undergrowth. As I expected, there was a guard in a makeshift hut at the start of the trail, posted there due to security issues in the past. He was having a good snooze and thankfully, possibly doesn't usually have much to do as he looked pleased to see another human being.

The trail takes a dip towards a stream before ascending fairly steeply for the rest of the trail, which is reasonably easy to follow, with some interestingly complex tree roots and the odd negotiating of boulders.

Huge, shady palm leaves provide welcome shade

When you come to this wooden sign, take the left fork and then another sharp, steep left to continue following the trail. Being someone who always finds the way that I'm not supposed to go a bit more interesting, I did try going right and could only progress another 20 steps before the foliage became too thick and prickly to negotiate so I came back. But I did get a nice alternative view out over the canopy.

Copolia outcrop viewed from the other path

I also tried the path straight ahead of the sign, again, not making it very far but getting a sneak peek from a small ledge of the view I'd get later.

A sneaky peek

So, retracing my steps, I took that left I should have taken earlier and quickly found myself in front of a thoughtfully placed ladder.

Almost blinded in the brilliant midday sunshine, I emerged onto a vast, granite overhang with the 360- degree view, which gives the trail its name.

You can see all the way from the airport and Victoria nestled on the eastern side of the island...

...to Morne Seychelloise in the north. Mahé is a mere 17km at its widest, so it's possible to see both sides of the island from Copolia.

Noonday heat

I would recommend taking this walk early in the day because it's nice to spend time up here, taking in the view and the solitude. As it was I was there at the hottest part of the day, so I had to retreat after a while and head back down the way I came.

When I reached the road again at about 2pm, I walked back to where the bus had dropped me and waited a while, until a man passed by and told me that I'd just missed the last bus back to Victoria. Figuring that I had enough water, I decided to follow the road all the way back into town, figuring that although the island is very hilly, the distances are not far. However, there is no pavement and you are sharing the road with cars sometimes around hairpin bends so it's best to avoid if possible.

I came to another bus shelter further down and seeing two guys sitting there, concluded that perhaps the other fellow was wrong and perhaps there was indeed another bus, so I perched on the seat. After waiting a while, I thought it best to carry on walking and was joined by one of these fellows because he needed to get to the fish market in town and back in time to cook dinner at one of the hotels up there. We fell to chatting as we made our way down - he was a pastry chef at heart but also a chef in general and had worked in hotels all his life. Along the way he told me about his family, what he thought about the government, where he lived (Eden island) and pointed out his mother's old house, a new nursery school being built, a government minister's house and the old hotel he used to work in. He also showed me a short cut that took us off the road via a footpath to the edge of town which saved us a bit of time.

It was one of those funny situations where we chatted like old friends and yet, when we parted at my bus stop in Victoria, I realised we'd never exchanged names.

I loved the Copolia trail - I met very few people on it and had the rock at the top to myself and could easily have stayed there all afternoon if it hadn't been as hot.

Other walks on Mahé

There were too many great walks to fit in alongside all the sightseeing and scuba diving while I was there but I managed two others - the trail from Bel Ombre to Anse Major (an all too short but beautiful walk above the coastline down to a secluded beach. Make sure you have some way of getting back, whether by pre-booked water taxi or with enough daylight to walk back) and to the top of Morne Blanc, another walk of two hours, again, through tropical forest to a lovely vantage point. This is a more popular trail so we encountered quite a few people on the way. I understand that you can also hike Morne Seychelloise but it's not too easy and it's advisable to hire a guide - I have earmarked this for my next visit.

The Seychelles

The 115 islands in the Indian Ocean that comprise the Seychelles were uninhabited until relatively recently. Arab traders are thought to have been among the first to land before the Portuguese mapped the islands in the sixteenth century. A century later, the islands were colonised by the French, followed by the British, both of whom brought African and Indian slaves with them. When abolition reached its shores in 1835, the Seychellois population decreased as wealthy slavers left the islands, taking their slaves and households with them. The British pursued a policy of raiding Arab slave ships, freeing the slaves in the Seychelles and apprenticing them to plantation owners. Later, people from China came seeking work, adding to the diverse demographic of the Seychelles. The richly diverse population from Asia, Europe and Africa, is celebrated in the three-winged Bicentennial Monument in Victoria's town centre.

My family and I were on something of a homecoming holiday on this trip to the Seychelles. Although my mum was born in Kenya, her mother was Seychellois and, in the 1950s, took mum and her siblings over on the old British Indian oceanliner, the SS Kampala, from Mombasa to Mahé island. Mum remembers that they spent time in Victoria with my great grandmother in her house on stilts, which is now long gone.