Strange Tales of World Travel by Gina Gaille

Author:Gina Gaille
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Travelers' Tales
Published: 2019-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

Seychelles Beach

26. Prehistoric Forest

Seychelles Islands

The Seychelles are an archipelago of one hundred fifteen islands located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Of these, forty-five are granite, the remnants of a lost continent that was ripped apart and sunk by plate tectonics millions of years ago. These ancient mountaintops are home to lost species, including the largest tortoises in the world and many unique plants.

Gina’s Story

We were in the Seychelles on business—presenting a proposal to the Minister of Finance for how the nation could explore for oil and gas in its waters. While the Seychelles have no oil or gas wells, oil continues to wash ashore on its beaches. The oil is believed to be seeping out of the Indian Ocean seafloor, finding its way from an oil field buried within the sunken continent. While at dinner with the Minister of Finance and his wife, I asked him what was the strangest thing on their islands.

The Minister described a magical forest of giant palm trees within a secluded valley on the island of Praslin.

“The fossil records show that the earth was once dominated by these palm trees,” the Minister said. “It’s the same forest the dinosaurs lived in sixty-five million years ago. Giant palm trees thrived then, but as the air changed, conifers and deciduous trees out-competed the palms across the planet. But the remnant population here was free from these competitors. They are living fossils.”

“The most amazing palm is the Coco de Mer,” said his wife. “The tallest recorded was one hundred eighty-six feet high. Each leaf is twenty feet long and twelve feet wide, and its fruit is the largest nut in the world.”

“The nut takes almost seven years to mature,” explained the Minister, “eventually weighing thirty-five pounds and having a diameter of one and a half feet.”

“You have to go there,” the Minister’s wife urged.

The next day we went to the airport and flew to Praslin Island, hiking off into the Vallée de Mai.

The Minister and his wife were right. It felt like stepping into another world. The giant trees and their leaves dwarfed us. So, too, were the palm leaves and trunks strangely shaped. The differences were not merely visual, either. The leaves made spooky rustling sounds as the sea breeze blew through the valley. The forest smelled funny, too. We were walking through a valley of living fossils. As the winds picked up, we kept an eye skyward, wary of the possibility that one of the giant nuts might come crashing down.

When we finished our hike, we visited the park’s museum, which had several nuts for sale. Some were bigger than basketballs. While we examined one, the curator approached.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“America,” I said.

He was clearly surprised. “Not many Americans make it here. It’s good that you saw it now, though. In another couple of decades, this all may be gone.”

“They’ve survived sixty-five million years. Why are they threatened now?” I asked.

“The Coco de Mer is suffering the same fate as the rhinoceros.

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