"...until someone comes to visit."

With Laura's family visiting us in Mauritius over the past few weeks, we've done of a lot of the tourist stuff we wouldn't normally normally do (except the beach visits,we would normally do that!)

The botanic garden in Pamplemousses worth seeing for anyone that comes here, especially if you get the guide to take you round. It seemed like almost everything growing there was either medicine for something or a seasoning to cook with. I also saw the tortoises there. I'm never quite as interested to see animals out of a natural habitat but it was interesting all the same. 

The snorkelling was definitely a highlight, we did it almost every day. The family gave us an action cam as an early Christmas present so we managed to get plenty of footage and photos of all the underwater life. If you ever do it, take bread... the fish will swarm to you to feed (don't hold me responsible for anything else the jumps up to feed, mind you!) the best place was Coin de Mire: we took a cruise around there and Ilot Gabrielle, and at one point we stopped and all jumped off the boat around the shore of Coin de Mire. Genuinely some of the best snorkelling you could imagine. The rest of the cruise was fairly spectacular too; good food, great views, a new beach... A grand day out.

Lizards not allowed

One of my favourite things about Mauritius is the reptiles (which I recently discovered no longer exist, evolutionarily speaking). Most of them don't belong here; they got carried on boats over the past few hundred years or so from various corners of the Earth, but have established some substantial populations here. A nocturnal house gecko is the one you'd see the most. See and hear, they are damned noisy little things. ("What's that bird sound?" "It's a gecko." "No way, they don't make noises!" "Yes they do." I've had that conversation many times, with the same person.) I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this one trying to get into the bank. Apparently he wasn't welcome, though he remained determined. I think it's an agamid lizard, which was introduced around 100 years ago from Asia. They do change colour for specific seasons, but are most commonly this brown/olive and sometimes grey colour. 

We went for an exploration through a small forest area not far from home. Small forest areas represent what was once the majority of the island, but now relegated to a few small patches, another example of the human impact here, something which is always very, very apparent. Anyway, it was the first time I saw the Mauritius ornate day gecko. It's a distinctly colourful little thing as you can see, and apparently quite common. It's also endemic, Mauritius is the only place in the world you can see it.

The whole trip was part of a weekend exploration down to the South of the island, and we ended up in Blue Bay. It's a nice place, but quite a loud, obnoxious tourist hub on the beach. Fortunately, the guest house we stayed at gave us access to another patch of beach around the corner, which had almost no-one on it. I spent a LONG time in the evening reading, and after a sound sleep woke up looking out of the window at this coconut palm, a worthy cliche icon of life on a tropical island. 

The weekend wouldn't have been complete with a walk along the beach at Grand Bay after getting home, and another photo looking out to the boats and the great beyond.

Ornaments on the Beach

When you go to the beach here there are 3 things you are guaranteed to see: water, sand and Hindu ornaments. There are a lot of small prayer spots cemented into place along the coast, in amongst rocks at times, which are evidently a common place to go and pray. There are also lots of these small loose ornaments (pictured) here and there. It relates to the story of how the God Ganesh got his elephants head (an unfortunate incident in which his Father tried to kill him), which happened next to the water (I don't really know the story well enough to be any more specific than that). This proximity of this event to water, coupled with a rule that these ornaments cannot be thrown away as rubbish when they're finished with, means people tend to throw them into the ocean or a river. Apparently, it seems someone decided this beach spot would be best for this one.

Marooned on Ile Maurice

It's about two months now since arriving on Mauritius. Marooned is a poor choice of words, I admit. It suggests there's some attempt to leave, but so far I've found no reason to. The humidity and sunburn doesn't warrant complaining, I don't think, though I assure you they're both very much apparent at times!

I'm writing this with a view of Grand Bay to my right. Very much immediately to my right; the sand is one metre away, and the turquoise water only a further two metres away. It's 26 degrees C, with a perfect breeze to make it comfortable, and a pint of the local beer, Phoenix, topping it off to a nice afternoon.

Beaches and cycling have been the main priorities since we arrived here. Going to the beach is like going for a pint back home; when you've finished work and you want to go somewhere to talk about work (for some reason) the beach is where you go. We've spent a few Friday nights watching the sun set on Mon Choisy beach with people from work, and spent a few (but not enough) daytime hours soaking up the sun and getting tanned (burned, in my case. Sun cream doesn't work). As for cycling goes, we bought mountain bikes and take them around the island a lot. We don't get far, around 50km at a time, but enough to explore the North. The rides are a mix of roads and sugar cane field rocky paths, which our mountain bikes were perfectly designed for.

We managed to explore as far down as port Louis, the capital. I was suprised to find that there's not much there apart from government offices, cheap import shops, and a slightly run-down looking waterfront. Nonetheless, we did have a fun few hours exploring the area under some very colourful umbrellas.

The bird life makes for interesting viewing. In the garden everyday you see the Indian mynah, mauritius fody and red whiskered bulbul, and it's common to see (village?) weavers and waxbills in the right place. The other day I saw parakeets, which is a world first for me. I still haven't seen the famous pink pigeon, though they are rare to see, I'm told.

More to tell, but I need to get my eyes off the screen and into my book. And onto the bay from time to time, of course.

The final days in SA

In Mauritius, our new home, now but won't get into all that until I've recounted the rest of the South Africa trip. We stayed in Laura's family home in Polokwane and when we weren't doing all those little obnoxious errands that have to be done before you move countries, we were definitely making the most of it. We took a casual trip to Polokwane nature reserve and had an epic bike ride. It's quite symbolic of the culture here, get a few hours free in the afternoon and all you have to do is take a 10 minute drive into the nearest "safari park" (you'll get hell if you call it that here, and laughed at), and you'll see species of animal you've never even heard of before. 

We took a visit to see Laura's family's domestic worker ("maid" is not politically correct, apparently) in Laatstehoop (sp?), a township around 30 minutes drive from the house. Her name's Maria and she's clearly quite the matriarch in the community. A terrific lady who knows anything and everything about who's who and who's doing what. We met a young lad called Miko (sp?), who didn't have any parents and was living with Maria. She makes sure he's fed, does his homework etc., while he takes care of her when she's not well. He wasn't the only one she looked after, and apparently she always has taken care of various kids over the years, in addition to having her own kids. 

The other member of the household was her mother-in-law, who was terrifically old, and could not stop smiling. She seemed quite excited at having her photo taken.

A thoroughly great 6 weeks, I can't wait to go back. Now... To the beach!

Cape Town - Penguins and Prison

African Penguin

Cape Town was the last leg of the Journey before we headed back to Polokwane. After several weeks of small seaside towns, it was weird being back in a  big city. While the Waterfront was great, and there was plenty to do around Cape Town, there was a weird feel about the place. Nonetheless, we had a good time and made three days' worth of fun out of it. The first day, we strolled from the backpackers to the V & A Waterfront, had some coffee by the water, looked around the shops and all that tourist stuff. The second day we took the train down to Simon's Town, and walked along to Boulders Beach, a famous nesting ground for African Penguins. Watching them on TV doesn't give much impression of how comical those things are. Watching them work up the momentum to take just one step forward was enough to make it worth going to see them.

Mandela's prison garden

The final day of the trip we went to Robben Island, sight of the prison in which Nelson Mandela spent most of his sentence, now more of a historical monument. Some of the stories written by ex-prisoners were enough to make your stomach turn. It was interesting to stand in Mandela's own garden, where he apparently hid his papers for A Long Walk to Freedom, which he'd apparently been working on for many, many years. When the prison decided to build up the concrete wall as you see it here in the photo, they dug up the ground and discovered the papers, which earned Mandela an extra four years on his sentence.

Nelson Mandela's prison cell

When you see what his cell looks like, the idea of even four days in it would be a struggle for most of us.

South Africa (Part 2)

The next part of the trip was one of the highlights; Knysna. A great little town with a crackin' waterfront. We tried the oysters, which Knysna's famous for, but they didn't compare to the Kudu we put on the Braai the following night!

We also took a township tour, something that was recommended by some magazine article I read before we headed out on the trip. It turned out the be a good recommendation; great to see a whole side of the nation that you'd be excluded from under normal circumstances. A group of kids latched onto us at one part of the tour, clearly intrigued by us. One girl was very enthusiastic to pose for us, and proceeded to organise the other kids into place ready for more photos. One boy in particular stood out, he stood still holding his little toy train in his hand, his expression never changing from that sad look, barely moving at all from his pose the whole time. I wish I could know what he was thinking.

Next stop was Oudtshoorn. We got off the bus at George and had to catch a shuttle up to the hostel. The town (a very Afrikaans type place, apparently) was famous for ostrich, which we tried immediately, and, being a town in the mountains, it was a great place for bike riding. We didn't cycle upwards but instead got a car ride up to Swartberg pass, a high-point in the strip of mountains near the town. We spent the next 50-odd kilometres riding downwards back to the hostel. Needless to say, we saw some fantastic views on the way down, not least of all being the stop at Cango Caves we did on the way down. The caves were formed by acidic water obliterating the rock several hundred million years ago, and later, when the water dried up, made a perfect home for a group of Khoisan people; an indigenous group of people of Southern Africa (and later the rest of Africa, and then the world, though physiologically very different by then). After seeing some great stalagmites, stalagtites and pre-historic cave paintings, we carried on free wheeling down the road.

Hermanus was where we went shark cage diving. I can't advise you enough to strike that one off your bucket list, huge disappointment. The coastal walk and whale watching, however, made Hermanus another fantastic stop. You would struggle not to see whales on the coastline there, and, as always along the garden route, there were plenty of nice restaurants and cafes to chose from, little of which we sampled but instead chose to eat picnics with red wine next to the water. What else could you want?!