The Seychelles' slow island — ox carts, bicycles, and Anse Source d'Argent
La Digue is the Seychelles' third-largest island and its most charming — a place where ox carts still outnumber cars, bicycles are the primary transport, and time moves at the pace of the tide. The beaches here are famous worldwide: Anse Source d'Argent, framed by the most photographed granite boulders on earth, appears in countless travel campaigns. The island takes 30 minutes to cross by bicycle and rewards those who simply slow down.
La Digue was named by the French explorer Marion Dufresne in 1768 after his ship. It remained one of the most isolated of the Seychelles islands well into the 20th century — electricity arrived only in the 1980s, and the island resisted motorisation longer than anywhere else in the archipelago. The L'Union Estate copra plantation (still operating) dates to the colonial era and gives the island its distinctive ox-powered character.