Alphonse, Bijoutier &
St Francois

The Alphonse Group lies directly south of the Amirantes, 90 km from Desnoeufs. It consists of three islands, Alphonse, Bijouitier and St Francois. Alphonse is shaped like an arrowhead, with trails of white foam flying out behind it. It offers amazing opportunities for diving on the wall, with forests of Gorgonian fan corals, sharks, rays and huge schools of predatory fish such as barracuda. St Francois and Bijoutier are uninhabited and separated by a large lagoon. The enormous flat plain of sand, left dry at low tide, is a feeding ground for hundreds of  waders. With Aldabra Expeditions, you will get the chance to explore this beautiful landscape on land and beneath the sea.

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The Islands

Alphonse

Alphonse is a beautiful island. Once a thriving plantation, features from the old way of life have been preserved, including some of the houses in the settlement and the copra drier. Today, there is a small hotel, one of just two resorts in the outer islands.

Bijoutier

5 km from Alphonse is a dream island, Bijoutier. Perfectly round, capped with bright green vegetation, fringed with the whitest of coral beaches and encircled by purple reefs and turquoise sea, this is the closest any island comes to the paradise-ideal. ​

St François

Surrounded by a fearsome reef, where the deep-water roars over the corals as the tides come and go, this long, narrow island is girdled by gaunt shipwrecks. At least 6 are still visible on the horizon, and are a grim reminder that the waters in these parts should be treated with respect. The enormous flat plain of sand, left dry at low tide, is a feeding ground for hundreds of waders.

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History

After 1562, the group of three islands now known as the Alphonse group are sometimes shown as San Francisco, explaining how St. François was given its name. Alphonse was sighted by the crew of Le Lys, who reported an uncharted island whilst voyaging from Juan de Nova on 27th June 1730, and was named to honour the birthday of the ship’s captain, Chevalier Alphonse de Pontevez. Ownership changed hands several times, and by 1936 it belonged to a Seychelles merchant, who farmed the island for profit. A good harvest of 100,000 coconuts a month was usual in the 1930s, principally because the island was then free of the coconut pests and diseases which affected other plantations. The plantation was later abandoned.

Marine Life

A short distance off the Alphonse Group, the seafloor plummets to a depth of more than 3 miles. The Alphonse wall is one of the best dive sites in the Indian Ocean, where the underwater topography brings reef fish and pelagic species together.

Flora & Fauna

Like most of the outer islands, Alphonse was a coconut plantation for more than a century. However, native woodland survives and a conservation rehabilitation programme is being implemented to expand the areas of native vegetation. In addition to seabirds, Alphonse is also an excellent location to see rare migratory birds, its isolated location acting as a magnet. St Francois hosts a breeding population of Black-naped Terns and huge numbers of Saunders’s Tern, Whimbrel, Crab Plover and Turnstone.

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