Mauritius

We're back! from two weeks in Mauritius.  Our overnight flight got us to the Ravenala Attitude Hotel, Balaclava, on a rainy Sunday morning two weeks ago. While the UK, along with much of Europe, sweltered in a 40c heatwave,  Balaclava was a comfortable 22c with rain and wind, feeling chilly at times.

Our room had a huge window and balcony facing out to sea and on our first morning we woke to this beautiful sight complete with rainbow.

Our first day was spent exploring the grounds and enjoying some food from the various restaurants.  At the beach (above) were street food 'vans' with delicious Indian/Mauritian snacks of pakora rotti and vegetable curry followed by sliced pineapple and melon.

Evenings were spent at the beach bar which had swinging seats.

One morning we walked from the Bay to the nearest town, Arsenal, to find a supermarket ... it turned out to be about 4 km walk each way on an uneven road with no pavement, fast traffic.  All for a packet of biscuits! but we got to see the landscape and enjoyed ourselves.

Before our arrival there had been winds sufficient to blow hundreds of these little birds nests out of the trees.  There was very little outside the hotel but lots of sugar cane fields and friendly but undoubtedly feral dogs.  The hotel had about 10 semi feral dogs roaming, they were fed 3 times a day from scraps in a designated area, they were friendly and sometimes sat under sunbeds and swam/played, they could be petted with caution.  Although the Island is animal friendly and has a rescue for dogs where puppies are taken and rehomed, they didn't seem to have a neutering program running.  The only dog designated to the hotel was Raju, a very old mongrel who belonged to the security group and always stood at the gates every day at 2pm.

The sun came out on Thursday and stayed out every day into the second week, we saw bats flying every night across beautiful sunsets.

We celebrated our 40th anniversary with a  Chinese meal in the themed restaurant within the hotel and they presented a cake.  Usually we avoid themed restuarants but this one was exceptionally authentic and had plenty of really imaginative food for vegetarians (I had taro/vegetable noodles).

I used the gym every morning for half an hour of rowing and weights and joined the aqua gym class at the pool most mornings too which was a bit of fun.

The beach was small but adequate with a lovely beach bar open all day into the evening.  The sea was shallow and clear.  We went out in a glass bottom boat and also snorkeling although I lost my nerve and stayed in the boat!    As the ladder into the boat broke when someone tried to board, then had to be dragged back in by several volunteers, I was glad I had stayed put!  the reef is slowly growing new coral, it grows at about 1cm per year and after 20 years of damage from tourists and mud flowing in from the river, has a long way to go.  I saw  brightly coloured fish.

We wanted to get a sample of local life so took a day trip to Port Louis.

We would like to have used the local bus service but (as observed on our walk) it was more than an hour walk each way to the nearest bus stop, on dangerous roads with no pedestrian walkways/rough ground,  so we decided to take a local taxi which took about 45 minutes. We explored Chinatown, where the shops schools and houses are very old, authentic and had a British colonial style influence, most buildings were painted red and had wrought iron balconies.  Central Market merges off Chinatown and is vast.

The meat market has separate areas for chicken, beef, pork and fish, then the vast vegetable market sprawls out, packed with colour and aroma with every imaginable fruit and vegetable  plus fast foods such as the popular spicy rothi wraps filled with curried vegetables.  

This was a very laid back holiday apart from the day at the market, sunbathing, swimming and reading.  The people we met and those in the hotel were the friendliest we have ever encountered.  We would like to return and explore the South of the Island.

Apologies for the disorganised pictures, my phone is not co-operating with uploads!