Word: aldabra
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...faut aller voir" (We must go and see) was the motto aboard legendary sea explorer Jacques Cousteau's boat Calypso. With his 1956 Oscar-winning underwater-adventure documentary The Silent World, Cousteau transported millions of viewers to the Indian Ocean islands of Assomption and Aldabra?one of the world's largest coral atolls. Today it's possible to go in person. The Island Sky is a small expedition ship that departs from Mauritius, taking 100 passengers on 12-day-long cruises on these turquoise waters. Wading ashore on Aldabra, home to the world's largest population of giant tortoises...
...faut aller voir" (We must go and see) was the motto aboard legendary sea explorer Jacques Cousteau's boat Calypso. With his 1956 Oscar-winning underwater-adventure documentary The Silent World, Cousteau transported millions of viewers to the Indian Ocean islands of Assomption and Aldabra - one of the world's largest coral atolls. Today it's possible to go in person. The Island Sky is a small expedition ship that departs from Mauritius, taking 100 passengers on 12-day-long cruises on these turquoise waters. Wading ashore Loh and Behold Avant-garde murals and imaginative furnishings characterise a new Singapore...
...Onboard marine biologists lead passengers on snorkeling expeditions that set off from the beach and reef walls close to shore. Cousteau described Aldabra as "the last unprofaned sanctuary on earth," but it wasn't always so. In the 1960s, Britain and the U.S. wanted Aldabra for a nuclear test site, but environmental pressure groups thwarted their plans. It's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and only 1,500 human visitors are allowed per year. But be warned: there's still crime. Frigate birds, the pirates of the skies, steal their fish from red-footed boobies. Catch this high-flying...
...DIED. ADDWAITYA, around 250 years old, giant tortoise thought to have been the world's oldest living creature; in a zoo in Calcutta. One of four Aldabra tortoises brought from the Seychelles to India by British sailors in the 1700s, Addwaitya (Bengali for "the one and only") first belonged to Robert Clive, whose East India Company helped establish colonial rule in India. Clive died in 1774, but Addwaitya stayed on in the garden of his estate, only moving to the zoo 100 years later...
...former crown colony's new President, James R. Mancham, 36. A handsome, black-bearded lawyer who revels in his reputation as a playboy, Mancham is also a shrewd politician. He helped negotiate a $20 million loan from Britain. which also granted the new micro-nation title to Aldabra, a world-renowned tropical bird sanctuary, and to two other islands. The Seychelles are halfway between Africa and Asia, and Mancham is adamant about keeping the Indian Ocean "a peaceful lake." He has assured United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim that "we will do everything we can to avoid getting involved...