Almost Passing out in Victoria, The Smallest Capital City in the World

We decided to visit Mahé’s capital city, Victoria. Victoria is in fact the smallest capital city in the world. Victoria is situated on the north-eastern side of the island and has a population of just under 100,000 people.

The Drive to Victoria City

It was a 40 minute drive from our cabin in Baie Lazare which was situated to the South West of the island. Victoria is located in the North East which is almost the other side of the island.

We started our drive enthusiastically enough. Because we’re lazy, we didn’t set off until around 12pm, the hottest time of the day. Well, at least we had air-conditioning and water.

I was so excited that I spent practically the entire drive with my hand out the window, filming the drive on my trusty GoPro. It’s a fantastic little camera.

The drive yielded some incredible views. The main road, West Coat Road, ran alongside the coast. We passed several quiet beaches with turquoise waters lapping at the golden sand. There were many little stalls beside the road selling either fresh fruit or fish, caught that morning.

Something which always made my draw drop was the lack of barriers at the side of the road. This drive especially had some pretty dangerous segments where one wrong move could mean that you tumbled into the crystal clear oceans or down the side of a mountain.

…And Then Things Took a Turn for The Worse

Towards the end of the drive, I started to feel sick. The heat coupled with dehydration was probably the cause. Driving into Victoria, we found ourselves stuck in horrific traffic. It was practically on-moving. Then we ended up getting lost, driving down one-way streets, looking for parking. Eventually we found some parking but by that point I couldn’t get out of the car, I felt so dreadful. I drank the entire bottle of water but had to rest for around 15 minutes before I felt well enough to get out of the car. I had a visual migraine which I get occasionally when feeling stressed. Strangely, I wasn’t feeling stressed so I have no idea why it came on.

I didn’t take any pictures of the city. I just wasn’t feeling well enough. We were in Victoria because we wanted to go to the Victoria market. Eventually, we found the market but were a little confused. At first, we could only see a couple of stalls along a cobbled street. It took us a while to discover that most of the market was in a massive two-story building. There were loads of stalls that sold fresh fish, fruit, vegetables, souvenirs and clothing. I wanted to enjoy it but I just felt dreadful. We ended up sitting down to have lunch on the second floor.

Lunch was an all you can eat buffet. I’m not normally great with buffets as my eyes are bigger than my stomach but in this instance, it was a great opportunity to try lots of different curries. They were unusual but native to the Seychelles which was nice. I bought a freshly-squeezed fruit juice. I felt like trying a fresh fruit juice but then I just don’t know why because I don’t like fruit, so it was a silly decision. I only drank a few sips. It was very expensive too!

After lunch, I was still feeling awful. We stumbled back to the car for a long and painful drive home. Victoria had got the best of us that day but we would be back.

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