She crosses the trail without haste, indifferent to visitors who step aside: a giant Aldabra tortoise, shell gleaming and neck stretched toward a low leaf. On Curieuse, the scene repeats at every turn. This granite island with hills covered in characteristic red earth, separated from Praslin by a stretch of sea, forms with its waters a marine national park where expedition ships and excursions call for an immersion in the Seychelles of before the hotels.

Baie Laraie: The Kingdom of Turtles

Landing is generally at Baie Laraie, near the park guards' station. Around the buildings, dozens of giant tortoises move freely: the island shelters about 300, descended from individuals brought from Aldabra in the 1980s as part of a breeding and conservation programme. The guards present the enclosure of young tortoises, tiny replicas of their century-old elders, and explain how each animal is tracked. Approaching these placid giants, hearing their slow breath, remains one of the highlights of a cruise through the archipelago.

The Mangrove Trail

From Baie Laraie, a prepared trail on wooden walkways crosses the island's interior to Anse St José, on the far coast. Budget about 40 minutes of easy walking through surprisingly varied landscape: granite blocks sculpted by erosion, mangroves where aerial roots emerge from mud at low tide, hills where the coco de mer grows. Curieuse is indeed, with Praslin, the only place on Earth where this legendary palm with the double nut develops naturally. Fiddler crabs wave their outsized claw as walkers pass, and the most attentive spot, in pools left by tide, juvenile fish and shells that profit from the shelter of the roots.

The Doctor's House and the Memory of Lepers

At Anse St José, an elegant restored Creole villa recalls a little-known chapter: Curieuse served as a leper colony for more than a century, and the house sheltered the resident doctor in the 1870s. Transformed into an interpretation centre, it tells the daily life of the sick, whose dwelling ruins can still be glimpsed in the vegetation. You measure, beneath the veranda facing the beach, the contrast between the place's beauty and the isolation of those who lived there.

The Coco de Mer: Seed of Legends

Impossible to leave the island without stopping before a coco de mer. Its double nut, the world's largest seed, fed for centuries the legends of sailors who found it floating offshore without knowing its origin. Park guards show the male and female palms, explain the extreme slowness of growth—several decades before the first fruits—and remind that each nut is numbered and protected. Seeing these palms in their valley of origin, not in a pot in a botanical garden, gives the visit particular value.

The Port-Call Practically

Last Look from the Tender

When the boat moves away, Curieuse's russet hills stand out against the channel's blue, and you can still distinguish, squinting, a domed silhouette advancing slowly into shade. This island tells both nature's resilience and the forgotten lives of an island leper colony. Few port-calls offer so much to reflect on in half a day's tranquil walk.