Mauritius September 24th, 2008

View Mauritius in a larger map

Melbourne Airport does not have a curfew and it is not unusual to leave around midnight, but our plane was delayed and we did not leave until 2.45 a.m.  Perhaps it was just as well we were pretty sleepy as Air Mauritius Economy is real cattle class! We had 200 km/hr head winds which made Melbourne - Mauritius a 12 hour flight, but being so tired I was able to sleep.

The airport is in the south of the island, but our hotel, Trou aux Biches is in the north, so we started with a drive through sugarcane fields as we made our way from the south east to the north west of the island. There was a good motorway from the Airport to Port Louis the capital.  However once we reached Port Louis there was an amazing amount of traffic. Perhaps I should not have been surprised as although the island is only ~2000 sq kms, the population is over 1.25m.  We drove past the Prime Minister's Office. There was a notice on the door identifying it and no barricades, which I took to be a good sign - indicating little tension. I understand Mauritius is one of the best governed countries in Africa, although that is faint praise!

Trou aux Biches is a nice older style resort hotel with thatched cottages set in lovely gardens which run down to a long sandy beach.

After lunch we visited the Pamplemousses Gardens (more correctly, the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens at Pamplemousses), so named because they were established with the aim of growing grapefruit to supply passing ships. Now amongst a host of plants and trees they have an outstanding collection of palms.

In the evening as the sun set we were entertained by La Sega dancers on the beach. African slaves introduced this dance. The music is provided by goatskin drums, rattles and triangles.

On Thursday after a breakfast by the sea and a stroll along the beach we left on a tour of the island visiting the memorial to Matthew Flinders at Baie du Cap and then onto Chamarel and lunch at a restaurant with a spectacular view. We continued on up into the Central Plateau. The only coffee plantation in Mauritius is here. Other crops around here are pineapples, bananas, heart and oil palms. We noted some wealthy colonial homes. The climate on the Central Plateau is more pleasant and hence those who can afford it, live up here rather than in Port Louis

Unfortunately the rest of our sightseeing was rained out. We could see little through the mist and rain.

Luckily, Friday was a better day and we went to the markets in Port Louis before we left for Madagascar.  There was a wide variety of good fruit and vegetables as well as dried fish and lots of spices.

 Coming into land at Mauritius. Joseph Conrad called it a pearl of the ocean and Mark Twain wrote that heaven had been copied from Mauritius (or words to that effect). Matthew Flinders probably did not share these sentiments during his long imprisonment on the island.

 

 In 1810, the British wrested control of Mauritius from the French. So today, the traffic drives on the left and the road signs are in English, but Creole is the most widely spoken language and newspapers and other media are mostly in French.

 

 Looking along the beach at Trou aux Biches

  

 Sega dancing at sunset. Traditionally the feet do not leave the ground

 

Palms in the gardens of our hotel 

 

 Giant Victoria amazonica water lilies in the Pamplemousses Gardens

 

 Madagascar Fody.

  

 Chamarel coloured earths

 

 Chamarel Falls

 

 Hindu deities at Grand Bassin. Shiva and his wife Parvati were dazzled by the beauty of Mauritius and spilt some water from the Ganges in this crater lake and up to 500,000 Hindus make a pilgrimage here every year.

 

 Street scene near the Central markets

Fresh vegetables in the Central markets

 

 Icecream for anyone?

Home again

We actually arrived home a fortnight ago and already Canada seems long ago.  Yesterday I even went to Flight Centre looking for brochures for another trip!

This might be a suitable place to add some maps to show where our travels took us

Although we drove almost 9000 kms in five weeks, Canada is vast and you can see from the box on the map above, that we only explored a very small part of it.

View Canadian Holiday in a larger map

We spent our last two days driving from Quebec to Montreal initially along the Chemin du Roy  - completed in 1737. This road hugs the north bank of the St Lawrence and passes through some very early settlements such as Trois Rivieres where we stayed overnight after walking around its historic district admiring the grand old buildings.

We left the Chemin du Roy at Trois Rivieres and headed west towards Mont Tremblant looking for sugar maples in full fall foliage and then south to Oka and on to Montreal Airport.

I ran out of pages in my notebook and now I have left it a fortnight I am a bit vague, but I think it was somewhere near Oka  we drove through a town which appeared to be largely First Nation people (I think that is the politically correct term). It was a bit down at heel and all along the road near the town there were humpies selling cheap cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos with the occasional fireworks stall.

We had allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to Montreal Airport but it nearly turned into a disaster, what with rush hour traffic, roadworks and the GPS losing the petrol station. Security at Montreal was chaotic. They were trialing some new scanners (gas chromatographs?).  Air Canada does not provide food on domestic flights and as Montreal Vancouver is a five and a half hour flight we were not the only ones with our own sandwiches. The food was all detected and so they then had to go through everyone's carry on luggage. However on the plus side - while we waited for the delayed flight we were able to get 2 cups of good coffee for $2.50 total (our old friend Tim Horton again).

Fortunately Vancouver Airport is very well planned and although we were an hour late we had no problem making our connection and even requesting and both getting aisle seats with a vacant seat beside us which made the 15 hour flight to Sydney much more bearable.

I have enjoyed keeping this Blog and am glad to have the record of our trip. It has inspired me to attempt a retrospective Blog of the trip we made to Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion last year. Hopefully that Blog should start on this site within the next month. Thanks for reading.

Manoir Boucher-de-Niverville in Trois Rivieres. The building dates from 1729.

 This house is next door to the manoir in the previous photograph and there were many more impressive old buildings in the neighbourhood.

 Elaborate Halloween decorations. I was intrigued by these. They started appearing at least a month before Halloween, October 31st. It seems Halloween comes from an old Celtic festival and I wondered why we have never really celebrated it in Australia, when our forebears also included large numbers of Scots and Irish. Maybe it is because it is partly linked to autumn and in Australia, October is in Spring.

 Halloween again

 You guessed it - Halloween

Sugar maple grove

 A sugar shack. Spring is the time to visit one of these. I gather you get a party together and eat all sorts of traditional maple syrup fare and are entertained with music and dancing and even sleigh rides

 A critter. I associate unspecified critters with North America and so I had to include one.

 Glorious Fall

 The last fall photo on a very grey wintry day

 The Oka ferry across the Ottawa River not far from Montreal. The way Michelin described this ferry we were expecting something like a Madagascan ferry, but as you can see, the reality is far more sophisticated. Keep reading and soon I will post a Madagascan ferry for comparison.