Steen G. Hansen launches new botanical and historical leaflets for hikes in Victoria |10 October 2020

After recently having sent new appealing and very well done nature trail leaflets on the market, Steen Hansen has now turned to the city of Victoria itself to produce similar well done leaflets aimed for a botanical or historical hike in town.

The leaflets are done in the usual high overseas print quality and are lavishly loaded with photos of plants or historical monuments respectively and informative texts accompanying each of the photos. These historical leaflets have been done in cooperation with well-known local historian Tony Mathiot of the National History Museum.

The botanical leaflet gives the English, German, French, Italian, Creole and Latin names of the plants plus information of whether the plants are endemic, indigenous or introduced and more-over whether they are poisonous or used as medicine. The historical one tells you among others about the year of construction or inauguration and the occasion or purpose of the particular buildings or sculptures.

The idea with those photo guides – as well as with the nature trail photo leaflets – is to have something at hand that explains what you see when passing by on your tour or hike.

“Although the leaflets were thought to mainly address first time visitors to the Seychelles, it has in the process become clear, that they most probably will appeal to locals as well,” says Mr Hansen.

“First time visitors might not be fully aware of the tropical and exotic touch and atmosphere that surrounds them while strolling around in town,” continues Mr Hansen.

As for the mayor of Victoria, David André, she said “the many striking and outstanding plants that over the years have been planted in our capital give, however, a unique firsthand experience of visiting the tropics and that, without being forced to visit a botanical garden or the like. The plants, mainly trees, are there just next to you along the streets and contribute in a crucial way to the most wanted green image of our town.”

Imagine passing by a small outstanding, bottle shaped palm with the obvious name Bottle Palm (or Palmis Boutey in Creole) introduced from Round Island off the coast of Mauritius and being critically endangered in the wild, but which is quite frequent in Victoria since especially it has been planted in front of the new Nouvobanq House and round the former Supreme Court building. Or the Orchid Tree (or Sabobef in Creole) on the corner of the Peace Park and Oceangate House introduced from south east Asia with its stunning mauve flowers but being very rare in town.

Or a touch of our exciting history when passing by the oldest but still most beautiful building from 1885 and continuously exuding the proud past, built by the New Oriental Bank Company, but from 1892 till early 1930s owned by the Colonial Government, hereafter seat for the Supreme Court till 2013 and now houses the National History Museum.

So, take your time and enjoy the many botanical and historical hotspots the smallest capital in the world has to offer.

The leaflets are available in book shops in town and at Mifa Publications mifapublications@gmail.com'.

Contributed