Carol and Lina’s Seychelles Carnival Adventure

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I look up as my new journalist friend, Lina, and I are leaving our hotel in the Seychelles and see a blue bus sail past. “Oh, no!” I wave frantically to Lina, who is on the phone with her editor in Mauritius. “The bus!”

I try leaping out in the road waving my arms and shrieking (something I tend to do often) but it’s too late. We’re going to miss the closing ceremonies of the Seychelles Carnival, an event I’ve been looking forward to ever since the opening ceremonies were over. This is going to be a huge event, the firecracker culmination of the 5th largest carnival in the world, the Carnaval International de Victoria.

 

This is our last chance to spend time with the journalists we’ve met, like my friend Bea Broda and new pals Wolfgang, Elvis and Kitty, it’s our last chance to see the carnival dancers and performers from all over the world, our last chance  to experience Seychelles culture at it’s liveliest.

“This is the worst day of my life,” says Lina.

“I’ve had worse,” I say.

 

We try flagging down a car, waving our press badges, shouting, “Help the press! Help the press!” This gets us nowhere fast. But we will not be defeated.

And that’s what this travel video is about, Carol and Lina’s Seychelles Carnival Adventure, so watch, laugh and forgive my shaky video – some day I’ll buy a tripod.

We’ve arrived! Now where?

 

Once we finally arrive in the Seychelles capital of Victoria, we need to find the carnival stage. We can’t see it but at least, we note, from seeing the muddy ground in front of us, it appears that by missing the bus we also missed a downpour. No raining on our parade.

Seychelles Carnival adventure continues with a radio interview

“Do you speak English?” a woman asks us. “Can you do a live radio interview of your views on the carnival?”

“Sure,” I say. Always glad to help out. The music is playing loudly so I scream into the microphone, “I love the Carnival! It’s the Carnival of Carnivals celebrating diversity and unity among cultures! It’s amazing …”

“Okay, thanks,” says the reporter before turning to Lina.

Lina gives a very eloquent run down on how wonderful the carnival is. I’m wondering why she can get her message across without shouting like a banshee like I’d been doing, then I realize that it’s because the music has stopped.

“So, if you could sum up in one word what the Seychelles Carnival is to you, what would it be?” the reporter asks Lina.

Silence.

We all watch Lina, as she struggles to come up with a word. ONE WORD, Lina, YOU CAN DO IT!

“Fantastic?” says the reporter, trying to move the interview along.

“No,” says Lina.

“Great?”

“No.” The dead radio air continues for another moment before Lina bellows, “Legendary!” (And we all cheer and breathed a sigh of relief.)

Where’s Lina?

No sooner do we finish our radio interview than I turn around and Lina has disappeared. I finally spot her sitting up in the corner of the stage. How did she get there? Wait, can I go? I want to go to.

 

I creep up to the edge of the ramp and gesture to her. “Can I go up there? Is there room?”

“No,” says another journalist. “Yes,” says Lina. Guess which answer I go for?

I scramble up, try to make myself small and end up with a front row view of the amazing closing ceremonies. The day might have started out rough but it’s turned out to be the best Seychelles Carnival adventure ever, even when I drop my leopard umbrella off the stage and have to clamber down after it in front of thousands of people. What’s a journalist to do?

So let the Seychelles Carnival adventure continue!

Now that I’ve found my spot, I can relax and enjoy the show. We watch the award-winning Brazilian dancers.

 

Then we watch the award-winning Chinese dancers on stilts. Then my new favourite singer, Benjam, from Reunion Island comes on the stage and my Seychelles Carnival adventure happiness is complete.

 

(It’s even more complete after the ceremony when I meet a journalist from Reunion and he introduces me to Benjam. Oh, happy Carnival Day to me!)

And Happy Carnival day to you, too. Seychelles, I couldn’t love you more. It’s been a great trip! In fact, it’s been LEGENDARY!

For more information on the Seychelles visit 10 Essential Seychelles Travel Facts