Curieuse Island, where giant tortoises roam right past you

Curieuse is a small island off the coast of Praslin, a national park you can only reach by boat, and it is famous for one thing: giant tortoises. Not in a pen, not behind a fence, just living there, dozens of them, roaming wherever they like.

We went over on a day boat, tracing the coast of Praslin, past the sweep of Anse Lazio, with a snorkel stop in clear water on the way. Then Curieuse appeared ahead, a low green island on its own in the water, and we stepped off onto a beach already dotted with tortoises.

They are enormous, the Aldabra giants, some of them well over a hundred years old, and they could not care less about people. They plod across the sand at their own ancient pace, stretch their necks out to be looked at, and let you crouch down beside them. We took hundreds of photos. It is hard not to. There is something genuinely moving about an animal that was alive long before you were and will be there long after.

There was more to the day, a BBQ lunch, a boardwalk through the mangroves to the far side of the island, small reef sharks cruising the shallows, but the tortoises are what you remember. They are the whole reason the island is protected.

You can see a tortoise in plenty of places in Seychelles. Sharing a beach with a herd of free-roaming giants, on an island that exists mostly to keep them safe, is a different thing entirely. Curieuse is worth the boat.