Northern Island Seychelles Tourist Information, a guide to the Northern Island Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.

Northern Island Tourist Information - Seychelles Islands

North Island Lodge was designed by architects Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens, a husband-and-wife team from South Africa, whose portfolio includes Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania, Jao Camp and Makalali Lodge at Kruger National Park. Although conceived and executed with an aim towards casual, but refined luxury, the intent of the North Island project is wildlife restoration. North Island, one of the inner granitic islands of the Seychelles archipelago, is located approximately 32 km northwest of the main island, Mahé and five km north of its nearest neighbour Silhouette. The island is about 2.5 km long by 1 km wide. There are three main beaches on the island and at any time one of these beaches will be sheltered from the prevailing winds. These outcrops drop straight into the sea but are bordered with giant boulders at their inland bases. Between the three granitic outcrops that dominate the island lie three areas of flat coastal plains or plateau. Run off from the granitic outcrops has resulted in two freshwater lakes being formed in the middle of the Island. During the wet season the water table in certain areas rises to ground level or above.

The North Island project seeks to restore the natural habitat of the island after its commercial exploitation dating from 1826 when the Island as granted as a concession to Madam Marie Josephine Celerine Beaufond, a descendant of French settlers from Reunion. Since then the island had been used as a plantation for growing fruits and spices, mining Guano, fish oil and finally producing copra – the oil pressed from the flesh of a coconut. Aromatic plants grown on the Island, would have been distilled into the essential oils and it is believed that building now used as a museum was once the distillery, built before the turn of the century at the time when that industry was flourishing in the Seychelles. Even though North Island was planted predominantly with coconut, it remained more fertile than most islands, and was Mahé’s chief supplier for fresh farm produce. In the 1970's the island fell into an overgrown state, the farm buildings quickly rotting to the core in this steaming climate and the domestic animals running wild. The coconuts were left to take over the Island, dropping their nuts continually, a new burgeoning canopy rising up every few years. The lantana - an invasive alien weed - blanketed the plateau and crowded any clearings left open by the coconuts. Thriving on the uncollected fallen coconuts, the rat population also ran amok, the feral cats shortly on their trail.

The programme for the rehabilitation of North Island is to create a marine reserve that will help to protect Seychelles' coral resources and provide damaged corals with a protected area in which to regenerate. There are extensive coral reefs around the Island of which certain species are on the CITES endangered list. Examples of bleached coral can be seen off the shallower sections on the western shores of North Island. However, the corals in the deeper waters remain healthy and are home to a huge variety of marine life. Protection of the island's water resources through the removal of alien vegetation is a critical part of the rehabilitation process, and cultivating and replanting native plant species is a major part of the project.

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