Cycle Tour on Alphonse Island

May 30, 2016

There's nothing quite like exploring a remote island paradise and what better way to explore Alphonse Island than on a cycle tour around the Island. Get ready to explore the hidden forest trails, mangroves and beautiful beaches while learning all about the Island and its wildlife.

Meeting point is at the activities centre where you will receive a short briefing and introduction to Alphonse Island. Now it's time to head off on the tour with our knowledgeable nature guides. The tour normally takes 1.5 to 2 hours and during the tour you will visit the Pointe Tamatav, Huteau and Dot. Throughout the tour our guides will stop to point out various bird species that are found on the island and shorelines. Expect to see species like Ruddy Turnstone, Brown Noddy, Great Crested and Fairy Tern, Whimbrel, Grey and Green-backed Heron, Lesser Frigate and many more. 

You will also get to visit a Wedge-tailed Shearwater colony to see how they burrow underground and if you're lucky, during the months of January to February you might also spot a chick. Our guides will also be on the lookout for Fairy Tern chicks resting on branches in the Casuarina tree tops. As the tour takes you past the beach, be sure to keep an eye out for Ghost and Hermit Crabs or even Mullet, Bream and Bonefish in the shallows. 

During the cycle tour you will also pass through a relic coconut plantation which now dominates the vegetation of the island. If not for this human intervention there is another native broadleaf species which would have made up most of the island indigenous forest, our guides will gladly point this out to you and explain more about the influence that human settlement had on the area. The excursion continues past one of the island's old cemetery and some of the older structures still standing. 

Following the forest trails, our guides will tell you all about the history of Alphonse Island and how piracy and the slave trade played a big role in shaping the land and the culture. Your guide will also point out the Giant Tortoises which roam freely on the island. Once on the brink of extinction, their introduction on Alphonse has grown a small population under the watchful eye of the Island Conservation Society (ICS). For those interested in the operations of the island, our guides will also show you the impressive hotel garden , radar station and maintenance areas for energy management. 

The cycle tour of Alphonse Island is an ideal way to explore the island while learning all there is to know about your holiday destination. Our local nature experts Sam and Lucy have been doing research and living on the Alphonse Group for the past 2 years, so there is no better guide to tell you all about the wonders that this remote location holds.



We'll see you on the trail! 

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