Aurora - Singapore to Cape Town 7

29-30 March – at sea

We were now heading south away from the Equator towards Mauritius and Aurora was fighting against the westward-flowing south equatorial current, driven by the southeast trade winds. It was still hot but not quite so sunny.

 

Thursday 31 March – Port Louis, Mauritius

Yet another early start as we had to be up at 6.30 for face-to-face immigration interviews! However, they processed us very quickly and after my usual breakfast of yogurt, croissant and juice we set off on our tour.

 

Mauritius is a lovely, lush green island interspersed with jagged volcanic peaks and somehow not at all how I imagined it to be! First stop was the Trou aux Cerfs crater formed from a dormant volcano. Access was via narrow windy roads up the hillside. On the path to the viewpoint we passed a monkey sitting eating in a bush.

 

The crater was huge, with a green lake at the bottom and a white Tropic Bird circling above. Next stop was at a shop specialising in the wonderful hand-made models of boats and ships for which Mauritius is famed.

 

Then to Grand Bassin, a lake sacred to Hindus as it is believed the water in the lake communicates with the Ganges in India. This makes it a place of pilgrimage. Again, there were monkeys in the trees, and colourful statues both in the grounds and inside the temple complex. I stood in line to be blessed by the priest and received a red mark on my forehead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there we drove to the Black River Gorges viewpoint to see the Chamarel waterfall. Then lunch in a lovely restaurant with stunning grounds and views. As we ate in the open-air roofed terrace a little grey cat begged for food. I couldn’t leave him hungry and went and got some more chicken from the buffet just for him – he wolfed it down so was clearly very hungry. To get back to the coach I now faced a long flight down of uneven stone steps with just rough twigs as a handrail. I was not happy about this as I had chosen this tour as having minimal walking while I still recovered from my knee replacement.

 

 

The final stop was one of the highlights – the coloured earths of Chamarel. As the sun shone it highlighted the seven differing colours of the sands, which apparently never mix or erode. There was also a compound with more giant tortoises – very amorous tortoises! 

 

Back on board we headed out on the warm deck for sail away. Opposite us was the MS Hamburg- a Plantours cruise ship and one of only two other ships we saw during the whole cruise.