 |
| Calm evening |
 |
| Monument celebrating freeing of slaves |
 |
| Island landscape showing extensive reefs offshore |
 |
| Julian, our bus driver, at memorial to former slaves |
 |
| Beautiful beach - best on the island |
 |
| Carol and Tim ready for the cave tour |
Island Tour
June 7, 2016
Tuesday should have been
spent cleaning and organizing the boat. But No Regrets had planned an island
tour with a van and guide and room for us. That sounded too good to pass up.
Chris also joined the 6 of us. Rodrigues is only about 5 nm across and 10 nm
long, but is high in the centre. The area of surrounding coral reefs is as
large as the island itself. From the heights you can often see the ocean on
more than one side. I really enjoyed seeing what the landscape was like. It
reminded me of the wild coasts of England, Ireland, or NZ. There was a beautiful cool breeze blowing, a
treat after all the heat.
We took an hour guided tour
of a long, dark limestone cave with its stalactites and stalagmites. We also
visited an old limestone quarry, a honey farm, a restaurant, and a beautiful
isolated beach. Two stops were monuments and parks with info on the history of
the island. They celebrated the freeing of the slaves here and the
establishment of agriculture. The island was first settled by the Portuguese,
then the Dutch, then the French. The English took over after the Treaty of
Paris. The English freed the slaves. Their descendants are 90% of the
population and still speak French or a Patois.
We have picked up a map of
the hiking trails all over the island. We look forward to that one day. There
are inexpensive buses to get around. Today, Wed, we are getting at the much
needed cleaning and repairing, as well as vacating the harbour for a few hours.
Glad to see you arrived at Rodriques. We saw on Track the boats that you were in port.
ReplyDelete