seychelles
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| Palm-fringed beaches and smooth boulders are breathtaking features of the Seychelles granitic islands Ref:MKSEC299 |  |
| Paradise islands to the tourist industry, the Seychelles archipelago is not quite an unpeopled paradise. Most Seychellois, including this composed little girl, live on Mahé Ref:MKSEC81 |  |
| High noon seine fishing off a dazzling white island beach Ref:MKSEC300 |  |
| A miniature Queen Victoria on a water fountain in the capital, Victoria, is from a colonial past; the islands have been independent since 1976 Ref:MKSEC301 |  |
| On Mahé, the main island, a street corner in the capital Victoria (2003) Ref:MKSEC302 |  |
| In a broadly Creole population of 80,000 are French, Anglo and Chinese elements--like this storekeeper Ref:MKSEC303 |  |
| Grizzled labourer chopping coconuts for copra in a Praslin island cooperative Ref:MKSEC304 |  |
| Long-legged girl cracks and drains coconuts in a Praslin copra cooperative Ref:MKSEC305 |  |
| In a matriarchal Catholic society a grandmother tends her daughter's infants Ref:MKSEC306 |  |
| Sitting in her doorway an elderly woman works on her stitching Ref:MKSEC307 |  |
| Children rafting unafraid in the shallows of a bay Ref:MKSEC308 |  |
| Owner of Moyenne island for more than 30 years, Brendon Grimshaw waves from a sandy spit; aided by 'Man Friday' René Lafortune, he has developed his island with fruit trees and endemic plants. In 2003 fourteen other islands were private luxury tourist resorts Ref:MKSEC309 |  |
| Capturing the lush beauty of the islands in glowing colour has made Michael Adams renowned as a 'Gauguin of the islands'; Michael lives with his wife Heather and a profusion of cats, birds and other creatures on Mahé's southwest coast Ref:MKSEC310 |  |
| In an extraordinarily lavish array of flora are hedges brilliant with Caesalpinia pulcherrima, localled called 'aigrette' Ref:MKSEC311 |  |
| A young boy displays the wingspread of a captured fruitbat, also called flying foxes and native to the islands. Some are eaten in stews; a few are kept as pets Ref:MKSEC312 |  |
| Numbering more than in the Galapagos islands, giant tortoises like this one, a Bird Island pet, exist in a large population in the Seychelles Ref:MKSEC313 |  |
| Many of the islands are rich in birdlife: Bird Island hosts more than a million sooty terns, in the breeding season whirling in a wild cacophany; the birds lay their eggs without nests on the open ground Ref:MKSEC314 |  |
| Sooty terns are not deterred by a human presence and, on the ground or overhead, are close and noisy company Ref:MKSEC315 |  |
| Easily seen among a range of other bird species: shearwaters bearing up to a breeze on a coral island Ref:MKSEC316 |  |
| Not at all numerous, their numbers watched by wardens, are the big goose-size boobies. Ref:MKSEC317 |  |
| Fluffy baby birds--fledgelings--are beautiful in all species; this one is a tropic bird and, as an adult, will have a long sweeping tail Ref:MKSEC318 |  |
| Cousin Island for many years has closely protected its birdlife, among them brilliant white fairy terns Ref:MKSEC319 |  |
| Only on La Digue, like a darkly thrilling jewel, is the rare black paradise flycatcher to be seen--this one a male of the species Ref:MKSEC320 |  |