Seychelles festival of diving

Diving enthusiasts visiting the Seychelles in March will have the added bonus of being able to attend the island's annual diving festival.

The hotels of the Seychelles will host the 'Subios' event, which has free underwater film and image nights, and diving and snorkelling activities during the day.

The diving event, which takes place from March 19th to 25th 2007, will also feature presentations by local and international guest speakers.

Visitors keen to try their hand at taking their own underwater films and pictures can enter the Subios' special competitions for 'Best Image', 'Best Video', 'Best Image of Seychelles' and 'Best Local Video'.

Top prizes for foreign entries include return tickets to the islands plus five days of free accommodation.

The Seychelles, made up of 115 islands, is located in the Indian Ocean, some 1,600 kilometres east of mainland Africa and has number of diving centres across the islands.

There is also a chance to try out a shallow-water expedition in the Ste. Anne marine park, where divers can encounter a number of the islands' widely varied fish species.

More adventurous divers can head for Turtle Rocks, off Mahe's east coast, known for its stingrays, sharks and soldier fish, or Vista or Sunset rocks to the north-west which are home to crayfish, octopus, snapper and scorpion fish.

More advanced divers are well catered for with three wrecks to be explored, where sharks, rays and other open-water fish species can be seen.

Drift diving is also possible, in the diving area known as the Lighthouse, which has coral formations, reef fish, hawksbill turtles and moray eels.

Diving holiday operators with live-aboard facilities will let holidaymakers get out to some of the Seychelles' most remote islands such as Praslin, La Digue and Desroches, the site of a canyon and several caves.

The Seychelles is also the best place to access one of the ocean's World Heritage Sites -the largest raised coral on earth at Aldabra.

Located in a giant lagoon with rivers and channels, there are many diving opportunities among dense populations of marine life.

For more information about the festival visit www.subios.com

By March the Seychelles' international airport on Mahe will also have a major extension, giving visitors a chance to take advantage of more duty-free shopping and less waiting times at customs and immigration.

For more information on the Seychelles, including accommodation and tour operators, see www.seychelles.comXXX