As Remote as You Can Get...

 

Astove forms part of the Aldabra Group of Atolls and is one of the most remote inhabited islands in Seychelles.

 

Astove Atoll features a rugged and dramatic landscape with limestone rock and sand dunes rising against the horizon. It’s an environment which has had very little human impact placed on it in recent decades and is teaming with bird and marine life just waiting to be explored!

 

Astove Atoll has a rich but desolate history and has been the cause of countless shipwrecks dating back to 1 500 AD. It has been said that ships used to pass by in the hope of rescuing and then enslaving abandoned souls on the island.

It’s also a famous atoll because Jacques Cousteau filmed some of the acclaimed underwater documentary The Silent World along the edge of “The Wall».

 

The “Wall” of Astove is breathtakingly beautiful and is best described as looking down into the Grand Canyon. It consists of the flat and reef dropping a vertical 90 degrees from ankle deep water to over 1000 metres over a short distance.

The “Wall” is still known as one of the best snorkelling and dive sites on this planet. The terrain varies from hostile shore breaks on the windward side, to flat calm coral flats on the outside and snow white sand flats inside the lagoon.

 Its unique lagoon system is home to countless aquatic seabirds as well as the Caspian tern, dimorphic egret and red-tailed tropic bird along with a population of over 150 giant Aldabra tortoises.

 

 

FAUNA & FLORA OF ASTOVE

Once the island was abandoned, the natural vegetation and inhabitants slowly made their way back. Nowadays the rugged terrain of Astove holds coconut palms and mangrove forests in the shallows. The undisturbed landscapes have seen the return of various bird species like crab plover and caspian tern along with other migratory waders and breeding seabirds. The island also holds a healthy population of giant Aldabra tortoise that are being monitored by the ICS Teams