The Pool on High

Karl Ammann, a Swiss-born former hotelier who now lives in Nanyuki, Kenya, has built a splendid villa for rent high above the turquoise seas of the Seychelles. Few people who stay in it probably know that Ammann is also a photographer and filmmaker, an avid conservationist who has helped uncover the terrible truth about the bushmeat trade – which got him named as one of Time magazine’s Heroes of the Environment – and  has made several devastating documentaries about animal smuggling and poaching, among other things. (Watch here.) Ammann uses the money he earns from Residence on the Rocks to finance his film projects.

A Villa as Haveli as Hotel

Situated on Intendance Bay, Mahé, a full 100 meters higher than the last hillside villas  of the Banyan Tree resort, which also manages Ammann’s property, the Residence was built in the tradition of the Indian mansions called havelis. The villa has a gargantuan 450 square meters of living space, with incomparable views – a wonderful hideaway, as Prince William recently found out when he stayed here. The main house, built around a courtyard, has two huge bedroom suites, and there is a third bedroom in the guest cottage. Both buildings, in Creole style, have flat-roofed porches surrounding them.

Much of the materials, décor, and furnishings were – in an attempt to re-create the splendor of the 1920s – collected by Ammann and his wife across Africa and Asia over three decades and include valuable tribal and ethnic art.

One of the Bedroom Suites

“I wanted the place to have a colonial style that would combine decor and furniture from Asia and Africa,” Ammann says. “This led me to India and Burma and northern Thailand. In the Jodhpur area of northern India there were still a lot of reasonably priced items. The region also has a tradition of carpentry – although no trees – and as such a lot of furniture-trading businesses set up shop and repairing old furniture was one of the mainstays of their business.”

When havelis are torn down traders go in and salvage what they can, sometimes collecting enough bits and pieces to spread across yards the size of several football fields. It is from one of these traders that Ammann bought 16 haveli doors, all of slightly different sizes, which meant the villa walls had to be built around them. The floors are of recycled Burma teak. Also from old buildings he got carved beams, a metal staircase, wood- and stonework, pillars, and a gazebo. All the carpets were woven in traditional tribal village cooperatives in northern India.

The Residence

“I presented the architect with the challenge to build these items into the design. I believe it worked and gives the place a pretty authentic and lived-in look.”

Bits of a Haveli Being Reworked in India

In the Seychelles, where minimal impact on the environment is encouraged, large rocks were incorporated into the building’s design and no large trees were cut, and were in fact often assimilated in the design.

The Residence is very high-end, with prices ranging up to 3800 Euros a night for the villa and guesthouse, with all the services (butler service, room service, laundry, housekeeping, wi-fi, turndown) that you would get at a hotel like Banyan Tree, whose facilities are also open for guests’ use. Any income that is generated from the Residence Ammann invests in his film-making ventures.

“With the present lull in the market, this is affecting (the documentary) investigations like the one in Egypt and Tanzania,” he says. (See below for link.)

Ammann, as anyone who has watched his searing 60-Minutes-like documentaries knows, does not shy away from controversy and showing what many people don’t like to see. After viewing The Cairo Connection, which won the SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year in 2008, you will never look at Egypt – or a small zoo – the same way again. (Beware: This film is graphic and disturbing.) His ongoing investigations include ape smuggling, the China wildlife trade, Sudanese chimp orphans, and Egyptian cheetahs.

Island Blues

Who They Are

“An island where nature thrives and man is a silent observer,” is how Cousine describes itself.

If the Seychelles has a name for conservation-minded tourism, Cousine Island was one of the first to lead the way. The 64-acre island is recognized internationally as one of the most ecologically important private islands in the world. It is a bird paradise, free of alien mammals, with all but five percent of the vegetation endemic, and Hawksbill and green turtles are regular visitors.

The Only Thing Not Endemic, Your Villa

The four exclusive villas near the water’s edge, while done in the old French Colonial style and luxurious, have attempted to keep human impact to a minimum. The island, which looks across to Cousin, Praslin, and Aride islands, is limited to 10 visitors at a time and can only be reached by helicopter.

What They Are Doing

Forming part of the Seychelles’ unusual granitic archipelago, islands like Cousine came under severe pressure over the past two centuries, caused mostly by activities such as coconut farming, with the result that many species disappeared.

In 1992 Cousine was bought and turned into a nature preserve, its management style focusing strictly on conservation. Many species have returned, even the giant Aldabra turtle, and the island’s conservation work is so respected that it also assists national and international groups. Numerous other islands have followed its example, creating high-end small resorts that help pay for an island its on to turn back the environmental clock.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz000kan0wI

Cousine created a trust to fund all the island’s conservation projects, of which there are at least 64 in progress. It was also involved in the construction and management of the Island Conservation Center on neighboring Praslin island.  This center promotes environmental visits to the region and provides a focus for all environmental and ecological work in the area.

Guests are encouraged to participate in the conservation work, be it through the simple but important act of planting a tree from Cousine’s nursery of indigenous species or assisting the resident ecologists to monitor critically endangered turtles and land birds. Even if guests choose to not get involved, they are still supporting the conservation and restoration programs by simply being on Cousine.

To minimize its impact, the island has rainwater catchment, some solar power, and it removes non-biodegradable waste from its shores to Mahé and Praslin.

In Their Own Words

Safe at Last

As far back as 1994, Cousine declared its mission was:

“To promote and practice nature conservation and the wise use of natural resources of the island and its surroundings and to share this philosophy with our guests. We believe that ecotourism is not about sitting and watching but rather it should involve direct and tangible benefits to the environment.”

The Pavilion

Bird Island is a coral cay of 70 hectares surrounded by five kilometers of beach and is the most northerly island of the Seychelles archipelago, situated 100 kilometers north of the capital Mahé.

Chalet on Bird

Bird Island Lodge, opened in 1973 by Guy Savy and his wife Marie-France, is the island’s only ‘hotel’ (24 individual, comfortable chalets) and prides itself on not being obsessed with rating five stars. Each chalet has a king-size bed, large shower room and separate toilet, lounge corner and spacious patio overlooking the gardens to the sea. Apart from guests and staff, there are no other human inhabitants.

Simple, Bright, Like Bird Island

What They Are Doing

Bird Island is arguably one of the best conservation areas in the world – certainly one of the earliest – and today the birds are not even scared of humans. With the eradication of everything foreign, including rats, rabbits, and all alien plantlife, the sooty tern breeding area has increased from 18,000 pairs in the 1960s to over a million pairs today, making it one of the largest colonies in the world.

Hatchlings Head Seaward

The cessation of turtle harvesting on the island has led to healthy populations of Green and Hawksbill turtles and is part of a larger turtle-monitoring program in the Seychelles (as are its bird-monitoring programs).  In 2002-3, Hawksbill Turtles made over 150 nests and about 20,000 baby turtles made it to the sea.

A Pair of Angel Terns

Ground-nesting birds are so comfortable here that many species of noddy and other tropical birds have returned in huge numbers since the Savy family moved here in 1967. The island has actively supported research of aspects of its bird and plant life. Bird Island has also set up a weather station providing regular information to the Seychelles meteorological office. Upon arrival, guests are immediately given a talk about the island and told to take everything they brought with them when they leave, including any trash they have made. The island has a dedicated conservation officer, who also encourages visitors to get involved.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5OcpbMAvsI

In Their Own Words

“There are no pretensions here. We are very clear about what we offer, and what you will not find on Bird. No televisions in the rooms, no air conditioning, no telephones in the rooms, no swimming pool, and no intrusive service.”