I’m well and truly heading home now but why not spend 4 nights in Mauritius on the way home. The 2 nights on the way over was way too short. Sadly the hotel/resort i booked right on the beach that I thought would be peaceful, is in fact a party resort. Last night they had a “White” party, not as racist as it sounds, but who travels with white clothes, the easiest colour to get dirty and least likely colour you could get away with wearing twice without washing. Then again the people here don’t also seem to be aware of the dangers of skin cancer or drinking too much either. I put my noise cancelling airpods in my ears and listened to podcasts and fell asleep!
I was easily convinced on doing the Rum, Tea and Vanilla trail, but as I had a car I did the DIY version of the trail and started at the Cheri Bois Tea factory. I sampled quite a few teas, but most were just not as good as the original black tea they produced. I had hiugh hopes for the vanilla black tea, but there just wasn’t must there to smell or taste in the tea. Then some monkeys turned up and totally distracted me from sampling the tea.
It was already after noon so i attempted to have lunchat the restaurant there. However the table crammed in beside the entrance door to put all the solo people on just was kind of offensive so I said no thanks and headed to St Aubin Rum distillery, which was the much better option. I got a nice table on the balcony of an old homestead built in 1812 and a very attentive server ensured I knew eveything about the 3 course meal with extras. Most had vanilla as part of the dish, but rarely was it the highlight. I really delightful meal set in a lovely house with lovely gardens. I followed that up with some rum tasting, then some vanilla tasting and hanging out with the farm animals also including a few giant tortoises.
Today i was off on an island adventure to Île aux Aigrettes, a short boat ride from the coast to a protected island with a few endemic birds plants and introduce giant tortoises. The tortoises introduced here come from Aldabra in the Seychelles, in fact all the giant tortoises on the Indian ocean islands are now Aldabra because the other species are extinct. The giant tortoises though help pollinate the plants which is why they were introduced here. This was a really good short tour that I booked directly with the Mauritius Wildlife foundation. The only issue I had was people bringing small kids who just screamed for 90 minutes. Still I saw a rare Pink pigeon at a bird feeder they had set up for the birds. There was another species I didn’t see and saw plenty of the male Mauritius Fody and their bright red head (females don’t have this).
