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.