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!