Mauritius

28th March 2014. Having successfully evaded the Pirates we stopped today at one of my most eagerly awaited islands. Mauritius. Even the name to me sounds like a cross between Mysterious and Delicious added to this the fact that we once had a friend who holidayed here year after year and went on and on about how good it was….So with my expectations at such a peak….they were bound to be dashed onto the rocks of disappointment.

Please don’t get me wrong, Mauritius is a lovely island with I’m told, some great diving on the coral reef, they drive on the left, everything is in English although everyone speaks Creole and French…How confusing is that! However I found it very similar to many of the Caribbean Islands, but without the investment since 1968 when they became independent.

Our bit of fun for the day evolved a 4×4 quad bike safari on a converted sugar farm to see all the “native” animals in their natural habitat, like zebra, ostrich, deer and pheasant…yes I know, they aren’t exactly native but the dodo has died out from here, so we had to use our imagination.  Anyway it was fun and the stupid ostriches kept running by us at full tilt. I guess the staff must feed the birds from the quads so they associated the quads with food and end up running towards,as opposed to away from the bikes.

Not an awful lot more to say about Mauritius save that the local taxi firm had banned any form of free shuttle bus to take us the half mile from the ship around the bay to the town. So the free shuttle bus was called “Caudan Waterfront Transfer” for the day to get around union rules.

One last thing, Mauritius is one of those countries where family means everything and everywhere you see these type (above) of houses with rooms and floors added on at various times to the original house. So, as a son marries, he sets up on the floor above the original house, and then his son might set up on the floor above or at the back etc. Presumably when the grandparents die, everyone moves down one level, but I didn’t ask that question but it does make for some strange buildings.