Wrapping up

Days 48 to 50 - Patong

We spent the next three days in Patong, there's not much to say as it was just a relaxing time at our hotel, occasionally heading out to visit some of the local attractions and restaurants. 

The days were quite hot so we spent some time in our plunge pool, the hotel we stayed at was a little way out of town so when we needed to go anywhere we booked a Grab which generally worked pretty well.

One day we headed to Bang Tao to see how it had changed from the times we'd spent there previously (our last visit was 2021). The nice peaceful beach area with just a few restaurants was now full of beach clubs, the beach was full of umbrellas and sun lounges, and there was loud music coming a place next to the Aloma restaurant we'd eaten at many times in the past. The area where which before was just a car park was now full of small shops, and it was very very busy. The old Bang Tao we had enjoyed didn't seem to exist any more, that's "progress" I guess.

When we ventured into Patong we were also surprised by how busy it was, perhaps we should have expected it but the number of tourists was incredible. Not only that, we had been looking forward to having some spicy Thai food but we found that all meals we tried were a little disappointing. The flavours were on the bland side, and prices were quite expensive compared to what we'd paid on previous visits. 

This is probably the last time we'll go to Phuket, it was always busy and touristy but now, for us at least, it's no longer worth a visit.

Day 51 - Patong to Bangkok

We had an early afternoon flight so headed to the airport after breakfast. We had a domestic flight to Bangkok, then an overnight stay at the airport hotel, so it was very much just a travelling day.

Day 52 - Bangkok (Thailand) to Melbourne (Australia)  

We left the hotel very early as our flight was scheduled for just after 8am. As with pretty much all of our flights on this trip it was uneventful (fortunately), and we arrived home into cool weather conditions late in the evening.    

Glad we took photos!

Days 46 to 47 - Saint Pierre (Reunion) to Bangkok (Thailand) to Patong (Phuket)

Day 46

Our flight to Bangkok wasn't until 8pm, we had originally planned to check out around 2pm but once again we had to change our plans because of our Airbnb host and ended up meeting them at 12.

We drove back to Saint Gilles for lunch as we wanted to return after our first visit and had a nice lunch near the water.

Then it was back to the airport to return the hire car, strangely with this company we had to clean the car before returning it, the only other time we had to do that was in Albania! It was a relief to hand the car back, especially with some of the cheap local providers. In this case they found issues with the car but fortunately we had photos from when we picked it up so were able to provide the issue wasn't caused by us.

Day 47

Our overnight flight was uneventful and we arrived into Bangkok around 7am the next day. After collecting our luggage and passing through customs we went to the domestic terminal for our flight to Phuket. 

We had allowed some time between landing and our flight in case of our plane being delayed, so we had a long time to wait. We went to the Thai Airways office at 7.30am to see if we could change to a flight earlier than our scheduled one at 11.30am, but no places were available so we cooled our heels for a few hours until we eventually took off just after 12pm.

We took a Grab from the airport to our hotel, which has a great view of the Patong bay and a nice little plunge pool.

It's not that scary once you get used to it

Days 43 to 45 - Saint Pierre

Day 43

We had to be at the airport for our helicopter flight by 7:30am, while driving there we could see a lot of the mountains in cloud but it appeared to be clearing. There were only two flights scheduled that day, we were on the second one. The first one was delayed about 45 minutes and by the time it was our turn we couldn't fly over the Piton de La Fournaise volcano (one of the most active volcanoes in the world, last erupting in August 2023) because of cloud. We did however manage to see the amazing landscape of the island, with views that could only be seen from the air, into areas that can only be reached on foot after a long hike. 

The helicopter was going close to the mountains and cliffs, manoeuvring through crevices and hovering near waterfalls, in the beginning it was a bit scary, by the time we relaxed and started to really enjoy it our 45 minutes was over. Everyone had a great time and it was well worth it, even if we couldn't see the volcano.

It was only a 15 minute drive back to our apartment and by the time we arrived it was raining very heavily, we were so lucky to get the helicopter ride in. We went across the road to a nice bakery, bought some baguettes and cakes and ordered a cappuccino, no idea what went wrong but we ended up with what seemed to be a hot chocolate! 

  

Day 44

As we'd missed flying over the volcano we decided to take a drive up there. We drove for about an hour and a half, up some very windy roads, though they were surprisingly good quality (except when Google maps got lost and took us onto some goat tracks). The landscape changed from green pasture and cattle to desolate lava fields at the Plain des Sables.  

We drove across to the crater viewpoints when the clouds descended and the rain started. In between showers we managed to peer over the rim and see a vague outline of the crater in the mist, it is possible to do the 5 hour return hike to see it close up, but we had decided not to do it.

On the way back our navigation played up again, taking us back to Saint Pierre via a rough, narrow, winding road in the fog and rain.

Day 45

Our last full day so we headed east to visit the town of Saint Phillippe for lunch, however we discovered it wasn't quite what we'd expected, there wasn't much in the way of cafes or restaurants on the water, rather it was more like holiday houses and rentals with all the shops on the main road some distance from the coast. 

We drove back towards Saint Phillipe, stopping at Cap Machant along the way, where there are some interesting rock formations on the water caused by lava flows. There was a nice (and quite busy) restaurant here so we had lunch, then walked along the coast to see the lava cliffs, smoothed over time by the crashing waves.

Back in Saint Pierre M explored the town, finding that there were lots of small beaches and informal bars heading north from where we were.

We didn't expect to see kangaroos here!

Day 42 - Saint Gilles to Saint Pierre

Before leaving Saint Gilles we went for a walk, and in the daylight we discovered that on the other side of the marina was a surf beach where we could watch people catching the waves from a café on the promenade.

We drove on to Saint Pierre as the Airbnb we had booked, which we thought was self check in now required us to meet someone, and they wanted to do it at 11am. We are really over Airbnb's, sometimes it's not easy having to keep to specific times for check in and check out, especially when we are covering large distances and no common language .

When we arrived there was a lady waiting for us who by using google translate asked us to wait, after about 10 minutes we were wondering what was going on, and she just took us up, no ideas why we had to wait. The car park was a problem, we had the smallest most awkward spot which we had to park in while other cars were constantly arriving and leaving.

It was a very busy area, right on the main road running along the coast and close to some busy beaches, probably compounded by it being Saturday. Although it was hot the humidity didn't feel as bad as Mauritius.

There was a nice restaurant across the road, fortunately the waitress spoke English, and they also had kangaroo on the menu! 

So far the cyclone season had been kind to us, it was humid but we'd had very little wind or rain. We were interested in a helicopter flight over the island, but the weather forecast looked like it was going to turn, with storms expected over the next few days, and the only clear morning being the very next day. It was short notice and we contacted a few companies, luckily managing to book a flight the next morning. 

Are we in Europe?

Day 41 - Mahebourg (Mauritius) to Saint-Gilles (Réunion)

We had an early afternoon flight so M explored Mahebourg before we left for the airport, checking out the waterfront promenade as well as the lively local market. 

The flight to Réunion was 50 minutes, we spent more time at the airport than in the air, though we we were able to take advantage of the Air Mauritius lounge which was modern and a relaxing place to wait.

On our arrival into Roland Garros airport we went to pick up our hire car. The girl serving us had just spent a year in Australia and was interested in know what we were doing in Réunion.

We drove to a nearby shopping centre to get a sim card, what a cultural shock! We felt like we'd been transported to Europe. It was very modern and the supermarket was one of the largest we'd ever seen. K when shopping for bearnaise sauce, her go-to purchase whenever she's in Europe. We found the supermarket so busy that it was quite overwhelming. As we still had a 40 minute drive ahead of us and we didn't want to arrive in a new place in the dark we left to get to Saint Gilles.

We were very surprised by the size and condition of the roads  and the modern buildings. We had expected Réunion to be like Mauritius but it appeared very different. We took the Nouvelle Route du Littoral (New Coastal Road) which was over the water and parallel to the coast, quite an impressive road (and Melbourne can't even get a train from the airport to the city!).

We arrived into Saint Gilles at dusk after negotiating narrow, one way streets and a carpark designed for matchbox cars. We checked in and decided to have a quick look around, we turned right from our hotel to find that we were staying right next to a delightful marina with lots of bridges, restaurants and bars. 

We chose a low key place near the water where the menu specials included kangaroo! Using google translate K explained to the waitress that in Australia it's not something we eat ourselves, instead we feed  it to our pets!

The sun setting over the ocean and the pretty twinkling marina lights were a beautiful setting for the best pasta carbonara that K had ever tasted. We felt that we had stumbled upon a tiny pocket of the French Riviera.

We are not the target market

Day 40 - Gran Baie to Mahebourg

We reluctantly departed Grand Baie to drive to Mahebourg near the airport as we had a flight the next day to Reunión.

We took the coastal road along the eastern side of the island, finding it less developed than where we'd been, so less resorts and more natural looking beaches, many of which were empty.

We stopped at another Hindu temple at Sagar Shiv Mandir, this one was right on the water and much smaller than the one we'd seen a few days ago. We witnessed what we think was filming for a music video, where a middle aged Indian looking woman in traditional garb mimed a song with other dressed up men and woman standing nearby. The song didn't sound that great, but I guess we're not the target market!

We stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant just outside Trou d'Eau Douce, which seemed quite busy given the location, but we worked out that we were very close to the point where you could a boat to Ile Aux Cerfs, an island famous for it's beaches and golf course, which might have been worth a visit if we'd had more time.

We made it to Mahebourg by around 3pm, visiting the waterfront before checking in to our Airbnb.

 

Settling in

Days 38 and 39 - Gran Baie

We had two more nights in Gran Baie and wished we'd booked more, it was lovely sitting on our balcony watching the boats and catamarans gearing up to take tourists out for the day and then seeing the groups piling in for their day sailing amongst the islands.

The village feel of Grand Baie was a lot more enjoyable than the resorts and hotels of Flic en Flac. There was a great French bakery in the main shopping centre, and nice cafes and bars quite close to the apartment so we took it easy during the very hot days and ventured out in the evening.

K also took the opportunity to do some shopping, though she found the shops near the marina were quite pushy in trying to get her to buy something.  

Best location ever?

Day 37 - Flic en Flac to Gran Baie

We headed to the north coast of the island, passing through the busy capital of Port Louis along the way. We briefly diverted into the city and drove past the main market, negotiating the heavy traffic of cars, buses and people.

It wasn't far to our ultimate destination of Gran Baie, so we drove a little further on to have lunch at a rooftop bar close to Pereybere Beach before checking in to our great apartment right on the marina in Gran Baie.

This apartment had one of the best locations we'd ever stayed in, with a view of the marina and beach, close to shops, bars and restaurants. It was also very nicely set up, with a great kitchen, and three big bedrooms. 

The cyclone had passed us by and the overcast skies were replaced with bright blue ones. This meant the heat and humidity were now overpowering making daytime activities very unpleasant. As the sun set we visited an outdoor bar in the main street but the lack of air flow made it stifling. We then went to a restaurant on the beach as the sun was setting but even there with no wind the humidity made it unpleasant to stay long, so after a very quick meal we went back to our more comfortable apartment.

 

Not our idea of a "beach bar"

Day 36 - Flic en Flac

Flic en Flac's name comes from an Old Dutch phrase meaning "free and flat land". It's a small popular beach town on the west coast of Mauritius. We were staying at the northern end of the town and beach which meant we weren't as close to restaurants and cafes as we'd like, but there were some decent options  in walking distance and a nice resort where we could have a drink by the sea.

We went for a drive along the coast, passing a lot of high end resorts. We entered one to have lunch at what they called a "beach bar", but it wasn't quite what we expected, and quickly departed when we saw the prices!  

That afternoon M walked quite a long way north along the beach, and once past the main town beach found that much of the coast was taken up by beach lounges belonging to the resorts we'd driven past earlier. The whole area appeared to be geared towards resort holidays, and was also quite busy with some places having no spare lounges.

The evening was spent at the resort bar we'd visited the previous night, where we saw quite a striking sunset. 

Back on the air

Day 35 - La Gaulette to Flic en Flac

Some research indicated the local supermarket in La Gaulette sold sim cards, so first stop for the day was to get that sorted, followed by a pretty decent coffee at a local cafe.

Now that we had internet and navigation sorted we drove to the Le Morne Slave Monument, right next to the imposing Le Morne Brabant monolith. Yesterday was the public holiday for the annual remembrance of the abolition of slavery, so today there were workers dismantling the marquees and seating. 

The slave monument included a series of sculptures that tell the history of the atrocities and how many escaped to the Le Morne mountains and caves.

After some time pondering the sobering history of the island we drove inland to the Chamarel Seven Coloured Earth Geopark. Here there is an area of small earth dunes which are meant to show different colours due to their different mineral composites in a very small area. However, as it had been raining the colours were very subdued.

What was more interesting to us was the Aldabra tortoises, the second-largest species in the world. These were imported from the Seychelles, a cousin of the extinct Mauritian domed and saddle-backed giant tortoises. 

There was also a nice twin waterfall in the area, with just a small climb needed to get to some good views. 

Then we visited the Grand Bassin temple, a massive Hindu temple complex on the shores of a small crater lake. The statues were huge, as was the car park, they must expect some pretty big crowds during festivals, though today it wasn't too busy.

We drove on to our destination for the next few days the weirdly named town of Flic en Flac, to stay in a nice hotel by the ocean.

They sell them at petrol stations, they said

Day 34 - Beau Vallon (Seychelles) to La Gaulette (Mauritius) 

We left Beau Vallon early to return our rental car before our 2h40m flight to Mauritius.

We had learnt that today was a public holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery, so most shops would be shut and supermarkets would close at lunch, but we weren't expecting this this to be a problem. 

We had ordered sim cards through the car hire company so we didn't buy them at the airport on arrival as we normally would have. However when we picked up the car they told us they didn't have the sims. We said we'd go back into the airport to buy them but they told us that would be a waste of time as we could buy them at any petrol station. 

The first petrol station we stopped at didn't sell them, and of course all other shops we went past were closed. We had to meet our Airbnb host at 3pm and as we had no internet we had no way of contacting him. 

We took the coastal route from the airport to reach La Gaulette, passing many beaches along the way with lots of family groups, we weren't sure whether this was normal or if it had something to do with it being a public holiday. 

We followed the instructions we had to get to where we thought our Airbnb was but we'd taken a wrong turn somewhere, we were looking for a gate with a butterfly but it was nowhere to be seen. After speaking to some very helpful people on the street we finally managed to find the house, but then of course the gate was locked, the host was inside on the top floor and couldn't hear us yelling out for him. 

After all that was resolved and we had checked in we drove to a nearby shopping centre, the supermarket was open but the mobile phone place was closed, sim cards would have to wait until tomorrow. 

We had learnt from our host that a cyclone was in the area, it was a category 1 which is the lowest category so we were hoping that it wouldn't affect our trip. January to March is the worst time to visit Mauritius apparently, something that we didn't even consider when we were planning the trip!

Island life

Days 30, 31, 32 -  Beau Vallon 

Day 30

Today was a day to take it easy after our sometimes challenging travels through Africa. English is spoken by pretty much everyone so the Seychelles was a pretty easy place to be, the only thing we really had to contend with was the heat and humidity, but the evenings were much more pleasant and a good time to sit by the beach for a drink.

M went exploring and walked along the main beach, past a number of resorts and restaurants, then following the road for a while to get to the small town of Bel Ombre with it's historic church.

Day 31

We spent the day driving around the island. The island is quite small, so in total we probably only spent three hours in the car, if that. There were some nice beaches but apart from the capital Victoria there isn't that much development, we drove past a few resorts but overall the island didn't appear too busy, in particular the southern and western areas seemed quite peaceful. There is a rule that no building can be higher than 6 metres, which certainly helps give the place a nice tropical and low-key vibe. 

Day 32

M started the day by exploring the beach in the northerly direction, but had to turn back due to the large boulders blocking the way. We had seen these boulders and rocks all around the island on our drive yesterday.

Up to now we had only driven through the capital of Victoria so we headed in to check it out. There were some tourists around and quite few stalls selling souvenirs, though they generally (as is often the case) were selling pretty much the same stuff. 

 

Now for the beach section of the trip!

Day 29 - Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to Beau Vallon (Seychelles) 

The flight from Addis to the Seychelles was easy, what's interesting (to M at least) is that we flew almost directly over Mogadishu, this is probably the closest we will ever get to travelling in Somalia.

After the cool of Addis we were hit with the heat and humidity of the Seychelles as soon as we walked out of the airport. 

We picked up our hire car and drove to Beau Vallon on the northwest coast of the island. This was our first car rental of the trip and fortunately in the Seychelles they drive on the correct (left) side of the road, so it wasn't difficult to navigate the tight turns as we climbed up and over the mountainous centre of the island to the other side.

Our accommodation in Beau Vallon was just across the road from a nice sandy beach and close to restaurant and shops, it looked like a nice place to spend the next four nights.

It looks a bit different

Day 28 - Addis Ababa

This is our second time in Addis and we can't really remember exactly how Addis looked on our earlier trip but it did seem there was a lot more modern and high rise buildings. The area around our hotel was a mixture of new buildings and ramshackle housing. 

It was a nice sunny day and the temperature of around 19C was a welcome change to the heat and humidity in West Africa. It was Sunday so things were very quiet, we took a taxi to the octagonal St. George's Church and listened to a large group singing outside with some nice drumming that reminded us of West Africa. There were many people worshipping outside with their heads pressed to the bricks.

After an afternoon wandering around the area we went to a Yemeni restaurant close to our hotel for a very tasty dinner.

Day 27  - Addis Ababa

Our room overlooks the street and some local bars, the first night the loud music was a bit of a nuisance but was turned off about 3am. For some reason though Sunday night was a shocker, there were drunk people screaming, yelling and banging until they finally turned the music off at 7am. Hotel management were very quick to move us to the other side of the hotel the next morning.

At lunch time we caught a taxi to the Mercado market, the largest market in Africa. It was a very busy market and we were the only non-locals walking around, we were approached a few times by men who wanted to tell us where the spice market and jewellery sections were, one man in particular wouldn't leave us alone until we told him off for following us.

After wandering around for an hour we looked for a taxi to take us back. We found a taxi rank but they were all trying to charge us five times the going rate for cars that were so old it was surprisingly they even ran. Luckily a modern new taxi pulled up so we jumped in and he used an app on his phone as the taximeter and we had a more reasonably priced trip back to the hotel.

We noticed that we were getting tired more quickly than normal after walking or climbing stairs, we worked out that this was the altitude (around 2300m affecting us slightly).

We have a new contender!

Day 26 - Lagos (Nigeria) to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) 

After a slight issue with our Uber who drove past our hotel and then had to reverse 300 meters to pick us up, we made it to what is perhaps the worst airport we've ever been to! 

The international departures check in didn't feel like it had any air con, or lights, we thought there might have been a power cut but no-one would answer our queries. We had our passports checked by one person, then told to join another queue a few metres away for the same thing to happen, no explanation of why there were so many checks. Eventually we made it to the actual check in counter, we received our boarding passed and our luggage was tagged, but we weren't confident we'd ever see it again!

Immigration was also different steps at different booths, we were consistently asked if we were citizens or here on business, it seems they didn't see many tourists. At the baggage check before passport control they opened K's hand luggage and took out a ceramic mug and very fragile pot that she'd bought in Benin, they said ceramics weren't allowed and they would have to be checked in, as apparently they could be broken and used as a weapon! After some protesting we were allowed to continue providing M took the mug in his hand luggage. However before we could proceed M was then pulled aside and asked if he'd completed a customs declaration for travelling with cash, he explained he didn't work in Nigeria and only used credit card. 

The airport was old, grotty and dark and not much fun to wait in, so we were happy to board a modern Ethiopian Airlines plane and say goodbye to Nigeria, though of course we weren't allowed to board without one more baggage check, where they opened up our hand luggage and searched through it.

We landed at Addis Ababa quite late Ethiopian time, but luckily our hotel had free pickup so at least the final part of our day went smoothly.

Are we the only tourists in town?

Day 25 - Lagos 

Last full day in Lagos and we hadn't arranged any tours or other tourist activities. Lagos didn't seem "set up" for tourists, there was nothing at the hotel about things to see and do, so we decided to have an easy day and stick to the local area.

We walked to a very modern, French bakery/cafe for lunch. On the way we were hassled by beggars, as well as a couple of children, and we did notice that there were no other westerners walking around. When we reached the cafe it was nothing like what we'd seen so far, it was very modern and full of expats. The food and drinks were nice but also quite expensive, even by Australian standards.  

We decided to Uber it back to the hotel after a quick trip to a supermarket across from the cafe, after that it was drinks and a very nice dinner at the rooftop bar.

 

Arts and crafts and poverty

Day 24 - Lagos 

Lagos' grey, smoggy sky keeps the heat down but the fumes are thick and feel very unhealthy.

We took an uber to the Nike Art Gallery which has nothing to do with the shoe company but is the name of a famous Nigerian artist. The gallery is over 4 floors and has 24,000 pieces of art that are all for sale. The variety, styles and vividness of the paintings as well as the large sculptures made from recycled materials were stunning. 

Another Uber took us down shocking roads that were barely driveable to the Lekki Arts and Crafts market. There were stalls of souvenirs of wooden carvings, weaving and paintings, it was quiet so most of the stallholders tried to get us to look in their shop.

We ordered another Uber to take us back to the hotel, but to avoid the terrible roads around the market we decided to walk the few hundred metres to the main road first. This took us through a small local area, many of the buildings were in very poor condition, and there were small stalls selling food and other essentials.

We're not finished with West Africa just yet!

Day 23 - Accra (Ghana) to Lagos (Nigeria)

Our Africa World Airlines flight from Accra to Lagos was only an hour or so, and we could see how densely populated Lagos was as we landed, it was also quite grey and overcast, different to Accra.

Disembarking at Lagos airport saw us suddenly dropped into a tipping culture like no other we had come across when the custom's official asked for a tip to check our paperwork! We had no cash at this point so it was easy to say no.

We bought a sim card at the airport which was a very time consuming process, by the time that was sorted we were pleased we'd asked our hotel to arrange a pickup as we had to run the gauntlet of so many men trying to help us with our bags.

We were staying on Victoria Island, the more upmarket part of Lagos. Our hotel was very nice, but we were surprised to see that we had a record player in our room. The hotel had a lovely rooftop bar which meant we had a nice gentle start to our Lagos stay. 

End of Tour!

Day 22 - Anomabo to Accra

On paper Anomabo to Accra doesn't look that far, about 124 km, however as we neared Accra the traffic got busier, while the roads got worse. It looked like they'd decided to upgrade the roads, but rather than do it a section at a time, they were trying to do it all at once! There was no asphalt, no lines, blockages and detours, it had become quite tedious.

We visited Independence Square (also known as Black Star Square) and the Independence Arch, before visiting a carpenter who builds custom made coffins, usually related to a persons' profession or interests. He'd just finished a sewing machine, and there were many others on display, such as a mobile phone, cigarette, shoe, lion and football. (Having a coffin as a cigarette doesn't really gel with the fact that we have not seen one person in West Africa smoking, as like in Sri Lanka smoking outside is illegal and it's really noticeable).

We stopped in Jamestown, the original settlement that grew to become Accra, and descending into a hole in the ground that was the original slave holding area.  

After a final group lunch we were taken to our hotel (the same one we'd stayed at in Accra before starting the tour) and everyone said their goodbyes, as some people were flying out that afternoon, or staying in different hotels.

Overall we are glad we did the tour, the group was small and everyone interacted well, and we feel that many of the places we visited and things we did would not have been possible if we'd tried to do it on our own. 

Are we good natured?

Day 21 - Kumasi to Elmina to Anomabo

We drove from Kumasi to the fishing town of Elmina, with an impromptu road side stop to witness a small operation that produced palm oil for cooking. It was a multi step and very manual process, requiring the nuts to be removed, then cooked, and pressed to extract the oil. 

We arrived in Elmina around noon so had lunch before we walked over the bridge past all the fishing boats (not in use as today was a day off for fishermen) to St George’s Castle, the oldest European building in Africa which was once used as a holding centre for slaves. 

The guide explained to us the horrific conditions and deplorable treatment of the slaves before they were taken to the ships bound for the Caribbean and other destinations. Inside visitors had left flowers and wreaths in remembrance of the people who had suffered there. 

After the castle we walked around the old quarter of the town to see the unique Posuban shrines, made by the traditional ‘asafo’ societies which were once responsible for local defence. 

Our overnight stay was in beach bungalows where the ocean breeze was very welcoming after the stifling heat of the day. It was the last night of the tour and after a few drinks by the sea and a nice dinner, one member of the group gave an impromptu speech thanking our guide, as well as giving out "awards", where we were dubbed "the good natured Aussies"!