Mauritius - Day

Well here we are in Mauritius.  It is 5.30pm and I am sitting on our balcony after a hectic day of touring watching the comings and goings of containers in the port.  We are set to sail shortly after 6pm as that is the last time to board the ship. 

This morning we arrived at 7.15am slightly ahead of the scheduled arrival time of 8am.  We had our normal breakfast delivered to our room and sat on the balcony and watched the ship dock.  We had our face to face “interview” with immigration which went rather smoothly and quite quickly.  We were off the ship by 8.30am and on our bus by about 9am.

We went on a fairly long trek through various villages to the other side of the island where we boarded a large catamaran.  I must say that it was lightly raining when we arrived and looked very overcast and not so good for water activities.  When we arrived at our catamaran pick up point the skies opened and we had beautiful blue skies and sunshine for the rest of the day.  We cruised at a leisurely pace around the lagoon and past some great 5 star hotels with private islands and beaches for the sole use of their guests.  We anchored in a shallow part of the lagoon where we could jump off the boat and swim or snorkel.  We snorkelled and saw lots of fish and some coral but nothing to compare with our very own Great Barrier Reef.  The water temperature was ideal and we had around 45 minutes of swimming around.  Whilst onboard we were served the local beer (Peter) and I sampled the local rum made from sugar cane and light coke which was quite drinkable. 

After our boat trip we were taken by bus to our lunch stop which was at a beautiful restaurant on a river and with beautiful gardens and grounds.  The lunch was buffet style and included wine which was very enjoyable.  One poor guy must have got stuck into the local rum because by lunchtime he could barely stand up… thankfully he wasn’t on our bus back to the ship.  After lunch we were taken by bus back to the ship which took about one hour.  We opted to be dropped in the town to have a bit of a look around but quickly came to the conclusion that we would be better back on the ship so here we are!!

The port is still very busy and extremely noisy with large containers being unloaded and banged around and noisy machinery whizzing around the place.  Thankfully we are on the shady side so it is quite pleasant sitting on our balcony.  Tomorrow we are in Reunion where we are doing another full day tour to an active volcano.  Will report back after that.  Love to all. xo