Back to Mauritius

Red sky in the morning over the mountains east of Port Louis

Public beach with reef in background

Le Mourne and the World Heritage Site park

We saw many colourful birds

Kiters in a protecterd bay

Lunch stop with Klaudia, Norm and boys from Tahawus

Chamarel rum distillery - very beautiful gardens as part of it

 

Black River Gorge viewing location - lots of monkeys looking for food!

Another great public beach

Picnic lunch at north end of the island - islands faintly seen in the background

Back to Mauritius

August 28, 2016

We are now back to the boat, still tied up in Port Louis. We enjoyed the visit back to Canada, especially visits with family and friends. It was also a chance to order parts and supplies. We flew with two suitcases each plus the two carryons. We have finally found a home for all those things and given away the bags. We left Toronto Wed morning Aug. 17 and arrived here Fri afternoon which included two overnight flights, a stopover in Paris and the time change. We treated ourselves to a night in a hotel next to the marina to start the next day rested and clean.

The first days' work was to reinstall the sails and canvas. They had been sent in for repairs. The winds were calm last week in the mornings for that. Another boat, Indigo, was rafted outside us and Tom Tom was inside. The fenders and toe rail took a beating being the sandwiched boat. A few days later, Chris and Linda left for some cruising around the island. It was a major shuffle to get Tom Tom out, Indigo against the wall and us rafted on the outside. Fortunately there were many hands available to fend and hold lines.

 Tahawas had arrived the day before us. It has been good to catch up with them since last seeing them in Thailand. Another boat, Calypso,  had checked in to the net during our Indian Ocean crossing here. They are from South Africa but Maureen is from Oakville originally. They will be finishing a 13 year trip soon. We learned some more about the trip to and along SA from them. Both those boats have been busy with repairs.

One of the major projects of the week has been to reprovision the freezer for the trip to Africa.  Most cruisers do that job here as the prices are lower than in Reunion and the stores are closer to the boats. It has turned out to be an expensive mistake. There is an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in Mauritius and starting this week all fresh food will be confiscated in Reunion to prevent its spread there. Boats have emailed back that they are taking all meat, fish, dairy, and produce. This even includes UHT milk cartons and a thorough search through the boat for hidden supplies. This has cost some boats several hundred dollars.

Our plan is to leave for Reunion on Tues Aug 30. The BPO schedule is for us to arrive in Reunion the 31st. Luc will be there for several days of help and organize activities. Zeke and his next crew on No Regrets arrived this weekend. Joyful has decided to ship their boat to the Med, so we are down to three boats. Joyful was still in Australia's Christmas Island so they will have to get the boat to SE Asia instead of here. The weather has been fine all week until today. There is a low pressure system coming from Africa that is causing higher winds and seas all this week. It is supposed to be slightly better on Tues for the 120nm trip. We'll see.

We could have left sooner but didn't want to leave Mauritius without seeing its most famous sights. On Fri and Sat we rented a van and went touring with ourselves and Tahawas. It was worth seeing how beautiful this island is. Fri we drove down the west coast to the south and back through the highlands. Along the coast are many resorts as well as huge public beaches. There is a reef surrounding the island, so the beaches on all sides are protected from high seas. It is stunning with the mountains as a backdrop to the turquoise water below.  In the SW corner there is a high rock outcrop called Le Morne. It is now a world heritage site commemorating the fight against slavery here. Runaway slaves hid in this area and sometimes jumped to their death rather than be recaptured. There are large rock carvings donated by various countries in the park.

Driving up into the mountains, there is the Black River Gorge National Park. From there you can see over the deep gorge and around the island. If you had the time there are many trails, and lots of monkeys and unique birds about. We also stopped at one of the waterfalls and a Hindu religious site. Also in the highlands was Le Chamarel rum factory with its great setting in sugar cane fields and gardens. We enjoyed the tour and sampling.

On Saturday we drove part of the northeast coast, north and northwest to Grand Bay. This was not as mountainous, although you can see them all around. There was a forest national park with visitor centre and trails. There were miles of sugar cane fields and large loose rocks from previous volcanoes. We stopped for a picnic at one of the many beaches. We finished the day in the tourist town of Grand Bay. We met the crew of one of the boats we had met in Rodrigues in the grocery store. A number of that group of boats are anchored there or already in Reunion. It was a good two days of sightseeing that has made us appreciate the island more. Rob did an admirable job of driving on the left side in a manual gear car.