Mauritius ( June/ July 2012)

We have been in Port Louis, Mauritius for 2 weeks now. We are berthed in the marina, enjoying the facilities on our doorstop and getting repairs done to our radio and sails.

Port Louis markets

The Mauritian Dodo birds

There are many majestic mountain peaks. The one in the picture is Le Pouce ( The thumb) which we plan to climb. This picture is taken at the Citadelle or Fort Adelaide

I couldn't miss taking a photo of these shop fronts

We love these pedal powered motorbikes

We did a tour of the island with Rasheed who is a taxi driver/facilitator who is based at the marina while my brother Ralph was here.

He took us up the coast stopping at several public beaches, then to the top most bay in the North (Grand Baie) where there is a yacht club

Looking out to the islands of Coin Demire, Ile Plate and Ilot Gabriel. This area between the mainland and islands  can become very rough and as we sailed in from Chagos 2 fishermen were drowned after their boat capsized in big seas.

Ralph Eric and Cathy outside the sugar factory museum. We didn't have time to do a tour this day but a week later we caught the bus to Pamplemousse and spent the afternoon perusing the relics and history of the island of Mauritius

From Troux aux Cerfs we had a wonderful panoramic view of the many mountain peaks

This dormant volcanic crater is 80m deep. Mauritius was formed from the lava of this volcano. As you can see the caldera was well covered in dense foliage and there was a large swamp area at the bottom from which belched a loud melodious croaking

The next stop was the model ship building workshop and showroom between Phoenix and  Curepipe

It was very interesting seeing the stages of production. There were skilled workers, some having been with the company for 40yrs. The manageress of the factory told us that they were experiencing difficult times, possibly due to too much competion.. .. Ralph has one now displayed on his mantlepeice in NZ

We lunched at Kashmiri restaurant where the manager kept our glasses full and the food kept coming. We enjoyed the local rum punch 

How hard we look at this picture Ralph just doesn't look like a Mauritian even after the many rum punches!!

We visited the Hindu temples and were surrounded by monkeys

Cathy amongst the tea bushes

Rasheed, our tour driver to the right in this photo, took us to Pont Naturel ( Natural bridge) to the SE of the island. Many locals do not know of this place we have discovered.. The road in is through sugar cane fields and is a very rocky rough road. The coast line is very rugged and when the seas are rough it is spectacular as the swells  roll under the bridge causing a gheyser to spray upwards

There was too much to see in a day so Rasheed took us the next day to the South west of the island on the way to the airport where Ralph flew back to NZ

This is Tamarin which is a popular tourist spot. The beach on the outer side of this lagoon and reef attracts dolphins each morning. we plan to sail there and swim with the dolphins as the tourists do..

 Riviere Noire (Black beach)

Ralph at the lookout

Chamerel falls. .....In December to April when there are heavy summer rainfalls the waterfall is more active.

Coloured earths...This is a natural phenomenon caused by decomposed basalt gullies. We were told that each year when there is heavy cyclonic rain the earth here is washed away but always reappears  in mounds again.

Black river Gorges national Park... It was just on dusk when this was taken and within minutes it was dark.

We continued down the steep, winding road and on to the airport to get Ralph aboard his flight home

Cruisers Notes
See previous blog for Mauritius