La Digue is the next island east from Praslin and the anchorage is more open to the swell, but there is a small harbour where we could get ashore more easily.  A brief visit ashore on the day we arrived gave a taste of what was to come: we were constantly hassled by men wanting to hire us bikes.  La Digue is a small island, and cycling is one of the main ways of getting around.  Bike hire is a major tourist industry.  The next morning, we went in with Allison and Brian to hire bikes for the day, heading for someone who had been recommended by another cruiser, but two men who had approached us earlier decided we were their clients and the three got into a major argument over us.  It was mostly in Creole, but we could understand the expletives!
Finally sorted with our bikes we rode out to the end of the road at Grande Anse on the southeast coast before returning to the town for lunch, then cycling to the end of the road the other way and finishing at a beach bar with a view of our anchorage.

The road to Grand Anse was through dense green forest and was hilly enough that we needed to push.  The bay at the end was wild with breakers crashing on the beach.  The view at lunch was much calmer

The road in the afternoon was much flatter, winding its way along the coast with empty beaches and amazing granite formations
We returned to Victoria the next day, another great sail with Ozone and Meikyo keeping pace with each other, as we wanted to be back for the Independence Day celebrations at the weekend, this year is the 50th anniversary and so a major event.  The water police had been moving all the anchored boats to the southern end of the anchorage away from the stadium that was the main event centre, so it was a bit crowded, but we found space.  We were quite glad to be where we were as the sound system was dialled up to full volume and they were practicing all day.  Over the weekend events were supposed to end at 2am, but the music went on beyond that. 

Buildings all round town were draped in the colours of the national flag for the celebrations.  Even scaffolding round building sites was covered in these colours

Not to be left out, Meikyo had all her flags flying on the day
We visited the event centre for the ‘Food Fest’.  It was advertised as a showcase for Creole cuisine but seemed to be mostly people barbecuing meat.  We were disappointed as we have struggled to find examples of the local food and had hoped to experience it there.  The main event was in the stadium on the eve of Independence Day.  We decided not to go to the stadium as a 90-minute military display isn’t to our taste, and we didn’t think we could cope with the sound system close up.  We were able to hear the singing and drumming from the cockpit on Meikyo, and probably had a better view of the drone show and fireworks, some of which were let off from a barge to our north.  We were glad of the southerly wind to blow them away from us.

We thought the drone display was amazing.  The fireworks were also great, but we didn't get pictures of them
Difficulty getting ashore had stopped us doing the coastal footpath when we were anchored at Beau Vallon, so we took the bus from Victoria.  It was a short but interesting ride up the switchback road and down the other side.  The walk was about 6 km along the cliffs to the pretty bay at Anse Major and a nice leg stretch after a long period without much exercise.

Looking down on Anse Major, the destination of our walk
We are now planning our departure from the Seychelles, aiming for Mayotte.  It's just under 800 miles and we are hoping for a 5-6 day passage.