© Nova Fisher, www.novatravels.net

 Our 3,000 mile cruise from the

Seychelles to South East India

A voyage of contrasts

Our journey across the Indian Ocean incorporated explorations of the natural world with an expedition focus, followed by a fascinating look at southern India and Sri Lanka, visiting a number of ports which are off the usual cruise route. Before our exploration cruise, we spent 6 wonderful days on the island of Sainte Anne Marine Park snorkelling, trekking and exploring. Our cruise started with the exploration of the Seychelles and Maldives, two of the world’s most pristine and picturesque archipelagos. Taking the small Zodiacs we were able to go to otherwise inaccessible beaches, explore vast lagoons and coral reefs and encounter some extraordinarily beautiful tropical scenery with turquoise blue seas. We then headed off to India where, in contrast with that natural world exploration, our itinerary shifted to a more cultural focus. Our first port of call was Cochin, an ancient city of islands, in the Indian state of Kerala. Cruising south down the Kerala coast, we moved on to Trivandrum, then across to Colombo in Sri Lanka. We then moved around the southern coast of the island to take in the Dutch colonial town of Galle and Udawalawe National Park, home to over 400 elephants. After a visit to Trincomalee in the north east, our last port of call was Chennai with a visit to Mamallapuram, an ancient port city on the Coromandel Coast that is an extra-ordinary place for art carved out of granite. A lasting memory of beautiful, turquoise blue seas with abundant marine life contrasted with Buddhist Sri Lanka and the hussle of colourful but dirty India. Click on any photo to see a larger image

MS Island Sky

Onboard the luxury MS Island Sky the crew, chefs, waiters and housekeeping staff under the command of Captain Henrik Karlsson provided an exemplary service of the best quality. The quality and range of the cuisine were excellent. We were a group of just over 70 people making it easy to get to know our interesting fellow passengers.