If you come here for the dreary, black and white photographs of a rainy Ireland, you might want to look away for the next couple of posts as this will be the first recording my visit to the Seychelles last week.

Still here? Then put your headphones on, hit play and take a walk with me around the wonderfully named Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market. The market is in Victoria, the world’s smallest capital city, on the island of Mahé.

The recording above was made on a Monday morning in November and there weren’t too many people around to buy the magnificent Red Snapper (bourgeois) fish that, despite the flies buzzing around them, looked really fresh.

The market is named after Sir Percy Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke KBE, CMG, MC, MD, FRCP, DPH, DTM&H, CStJ Barrister at Law and Governor of the Seychelles from 1947 to 1951. It’s a popular tourist attraction and there were almost as many visitors as locals during my visit.

The town, and the Seychelles more generally, are a melting pot of cultures with populations with East African, Chinese and Indian heritage, as well as plenty of reminders of its colonial (both French and British) past. It’s hot, sweaty, noisy, colourful, smelly and exotic.

Possibly the worst job in the market, in the 30 degree heat and extremely high humidity, belonged to this guy who was gutting fish and keeping the egrets at bay.

Along with fish, stalls sold spices, vegetables, tea, cotton and massive knives.

This lady appeared to be selling just two bunches of bananas, but in the hour that I hung around, was unsuccessful.

Gubbins:
All pictures taken with a water damaged Ricoh GRiii. The sound was recorded using a Zoom H5 recorder with Soundman OKMii microphones in my ears. That means that if you listen with headphones, you should get a binaural effect, with sounds all around you.