Mont Gratte Fesse and Mont Pot à Eau

For a walk to Mont Gratte Fesse or Mont Pot à Eau it is difficult to be back at the hotel for lunch, it is better to ask for a pick-nick, so you have enough time to spend on the ridge, and to enjoy the scenery. These two walks you only can undertake when it did not rain the last days, because uphill Jardin Marron the path becomes steep and very muddy. Here you have to use both hands to hold yourself. Special walking shoes are necessary, certainly shoes with a good grip and deep profiles.

At the last of the coco de mer trees the path starts immediately to climb, and instead of a rocky underground, it becomes more and more sandy, and with the result just mentioned, when it is raining. This is the most difficult part of the whole trip. The ridge is much flatter, and easier to walk on. When you walk West South West you find a glacis, with a nice view on the Mont Dauban. To the Mont Gratte Fesse, follow the ridge in Southern direction, when the ridge seems to stop, trough the vegetation you have a nice view on Grand Barbe. Here you go down on your left side, and at once you’re standing at the foot of a huge rock, which is Gratte Fesse. When you look up it is overwhelming. On the ground between the dead leaves lives a little tiny frog (Sooglosus gardneri).

To go to Mont Pot à Eau, when you reach the ridge, you have to follow the ridge to the North until you come on the summit, at the North East side you can see the Mont Pot à Eau, and here you ‘ll find a small path, going about 60 meters down (very steep and slippery) en 60 meters up to the summit of our goal. You have a fantastic view on the Eastern side of Silhouette, as on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue. Here you also find the Seychelles pitcher plant.

Picture Dr. Ralph Budzinski

Picture Dr. Ralph Budzinski