Seychelles

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THERE WAS A TIME, not so long ago in my carefree youth, when I was a dedicated backpacker.

It went beyond the gapyear routine and most summers I could be found in some distant corner of the globe, living the life of an adrenaline junkie.

Extreme sports, bungee jumping included, were my thing and, as far as I was concerned, boring beach holidays could take a hike.

But then, slowly, I grew up. For one thing, friends introduced me to Dorset. Its quiet lanes were hardly hotbeds of white-knuckle adventure, but I fell in love with its calm, undulating countryside. It offered a respite from the circus of my city life and when I met my future husband, Simon, we discovered a shared passion for it.

He’d spent his school days in Dorset and returning to find a second home there – we settled on a white, thatched cottage – was our joint dream. We walked for hours, carrying our two-year-old son, Wilf, in a backpack.

Castaway quality

There’s something about the smell of the land that makes you want to put down roots. Gradually, our holiday plans changed, too. We were finally ready to hang up the backpacks and opt for a more laidback brand of holiday. It was time to get lazy.

Even so, the Seychelles were not on the top of our wish list. To me, the islands smacked of conveyorbelt luxury – a bland, holiday brochure slice of the tropics.

How wrong I was. What we found there was an exotic version of Dorset. We felt right at home. Just as well. You have to think twice about travelling with toddlers, and if you’re going long-haul (it’s a ten-hour flight to Mahe, the largest island) the destination had better be worth the hassle and the tears.

It was. On arrival, we took a ten minute boat ride across a turquoise stretch of sea to the private island of Sainte Anne.

I’ve always been slightly underwhelmed by the cliched beauty of beaches but I was stunned when we arrived at our hotel, Villa Sainte Anne. It had a magical, castaway quality with pristine sand and water like a paddling pool.

The Seychelles is made up of 115 tropical islands (you can stay on 15 of them) scattered through the Indian Ocean, 1,000 miles east of Africa. Some of the outer islands are little more than slivers of sand and coral, but the inner islands are rocky and more dramatic.

All have the serene beauty of a film set. The Seychelles is one of the most environmentally-conscious nations and is practically one large nature reserve. Amazingly, there’s even a protected breeding ground for sharks off the coast of Sainte Anne, so be careful where you take your morning dip.

The previous year had been a whirlwind of work, from Spooks to Wire In The Blood. Simon’s company was producing the Kingdom TV series, starring Stephen Fry.

We were worn out and I was relieved that I hadn’t travelled halfway around the world to carry a rucksack and do a bungee jump. While there is plenty to do at Villa Sainte Anne, which has tennis courts, a gym and a fantastic pool, we actually just spent time reading and playing on the beach.

We were happy to have oldfashioned family time, to paddle and to feel the warm tropical water lapping against our toes.

There is a wonderful miniclub for children under 12, but I wanted to spend as much time with Wilf as possible and couldn’t bring myself to drop him off there.

Airlifted into eden

I was four years old when my father left me, my mother and my three sisters. My mum, a health visitor, was amazing. She coped on her own and I still feel that you should spend as much time with your family as possible. But being a working mum is hard.

My natural instinct is to be with Wilf and yet I know I would go crazy if I didn’t work. I feel constantly torn, which is why holiday time is so important.

One of the greatest joys of having children is just sitting back and watching them dig in the sand with a bucket and spade. It’s one of the greatest shows on Earth.

Of course, eating is another great joy. There are two excellent restaurants on Sainte Anne and they cook up a fabulous mix of western and local Creole food. When we fancied staying in, a butler would bring dinner to our room – we felt like royalty.

My wilder days may be drawing to a close but there’s still plenty to do in the Seychelles when you tire of playing at being Robinson Crusoe with a cocktail.

Snorkelling, scuba-diving, sailing, windsurfing and glass-bottom boat trips are all available, or you can explore the islands on foot.

This is well worth the effort because the islands offer stunning scenery set to a soundtrack of exotic bird calls and rustling palm fronds.

Here, you hop between exquisite islands in a light aircraft, or by boat across coral seas. The islands each have their own character and as soon as you have had enough of one, you can simply move on to the next.

We decided to take an indulgent three-day trip to the North Island. It was a 20-minute helicopter ride and Wilf was wild with excitement. He whooped with glee as the tiny island, which looked little bigger than a punctuation mark in the blue water, appeared through the window.

It was like being airlifted into Eden. The island was abandoned by its local residents in the Seventies when the coconut industry went into decline. Now it is a conservation project. There are just 11 individuallydesigned villas – each has a bedroom, a lounge and a plunge pool. They are carved into the rock and constructed around trees so as not to destroy the environment.

There are coves with white sand and coco-de-mer palms line the shore. The only other inhabitants are the plodding tortoises.

Things are just as untouched below the waves. Simon enjoyed amazing diving opportunities as the islands are surrounded by coral reefs and huge shoals of flashing, colourful fish. Most are unafraid of divers and hang around like you are one of them.

An amazing backdrop

For the less fish friendly, the angling is great, too. Head to the islands of Denis, Alphonse, Bird and Desroches for kingfish, yellowfin and skipjack tuna, barracuda and black marlin – one of the most sought-after game fish.

There are no specific children’s activities on North Island but Wilf and I enjoyed a break from lounging around on the beach and got to know the island’s oldest resident: a giant and extremely slowmoving 100-year-old tortoise.

It was amazing for Wilf to be able to reach out and touch something he would otherwise see only in a picture book. As a child, I never went abroad on family holidays. We went on breaks to Cornwall and Devon.

I was 15 when I first went abroad, on a French exchange, and didn’t dare eat anything on the plane because I thought I’d have to pay for it. Now, sitting with Wilf and a huge tortoise on an island paradise, I had to pinch myself.

It all seemed too good to be true. At night, we’d spend time together in our villa before strolling down to the bar for a predinner drink. There, the Indian Ocean lapped against the beach as the stars popped into life above us. And in the morning, I’d slip into some sandals and stroll down to the spa for a massage.

There are no televisions and there is no mobile signal. The rest of the world is well and truly beyond the horizon.

Wilf will come with us on my next filming trip and it will be great for us all to be away on the set together but we will all miss the Seychelles, the most amazing backdrop of them all.