Tag: history

Mauritius – Day 9 – A tour of the South

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Once again we had booked a tour with Hello Islands. It was a full 8 hour tour to see the South of Mauritius. We approached it with a little trepidation….. although we had enjoyed seeing most of what we’d seen on our North Island tour, we had not enjoyed the amount of walking, lack of comfort stops or drink stops or the rather negative driver/guide who was very good at telling us what he couldn’t do but not what he could do to make our trip more comfortable and individualised for us and our interests. We considered €170 for each trip quite a lot of money so we were keen not to feel disappointed in any way this time….

Our apprehension was totally unnecessary, from the moment we met Irfaan Neamuth we knew we were going to have a wonderfully happy day.

This young man is a real asset and a credit to Hello Islands.

He started by saying he wanted us to have a day to remember and he told us what the plan was for the day….then he asked if there was anything we wanted to change..we said we didn’t want to go to the “winery” or the rum distillery. We are not drinkers and consequently having been to both of these several times in numerous countries we didn’t feel the need to visit again. Irfaan was fine about this and said he could already think of somewhere else we could go to instead.

He was a chatty young man with a zest for life. He had started making videos of his tours and he enjoyed photography…he could see this was a passion of ours as well. He also said he’d be our model at the various different places we were going to, he wanted some photos for his social media…..great we love a good model!! It would save John from doing his “man at C&A pose”(as our camera club friends call it!!!)

Irfaan automatically slowed the car and wound the windows down when there was a view he thought we’d like a picture of.

We learnt that this was the second highest mountain – Pieter Both – and stands at 820 metres just 10 metres shorter than the highest mountain on Mauritius. The balancing rock is a natural feature caused by erosion….ahhh our companion for the day was not just our guide, driver, photographer, videographer, historian but also a geographer….we’ve fallen on our feet…someone with the same interests as us…..

Our first stop was at a shop which made model galleons….although rather touristy the actual workshop up a ramp at the back was fascinating.

We declined from buying one of the hundreds of boats they had for sale but we did buy a hanging, with dodos on it….as we have no wall space available we can hang it from the ceiling at home.

Our next stop was the dormant crater , Trou aux Ceres which is a dormant volcanic crater about a kilometre from Curepipe, the second most populated town, after Port Louis. The crater is a magnificent canopy of dense vegetation.

The crater is 300 -350 m in diameter and 80 m deep, it is 605m above sea level. It last erupted 700,000 years ago.

Our model Irfaan

The weather station next to the crater stood moodily in a threatening sky

A vender was selling some very appetising looking wild raspberries

Because of the height we also had a fantastic 360 view

It was however hazy as the clouds moved in..We headed on to our next sightseeing, a Hindu temple complex…on the way we passed the reservoir which supplies the south of the island with water..

As we continued the heavens opened and the visibility was very poor….Irfaan now became a weatherman, as well as his numerous other skills, and decided to reroute us and come back to the sacred place after the rain..

So u-turning we headed for Black River Gorges National Park where the sun was shining. This is the largest protective forest of Maurius. It’s a national park with over 50 kms of walking trails under the thick vegetation canopy. You can actually walk through the national park to Mauritius’s highest peak – Black River peak, Piton dela Petite Riviere Noire – which is 828m high.

The park is also home to many species of birds which are unique to Mauritius. During our short visit we had a brief glimpse of the Echo Parakeet – John saw its head but I didn’t, we also saw several Long-tailed birds. They are also known as the tropicbird. We saw several White Long Tails soaring down in the gorge over the canopy but Unfortunatly none of the rarer Red Long-tails.

Our next stop were the waterfalls at Chamarel.

We passed passed through the pay booth. It’s quite reasonable at MUR 800 each around about £12 each. We went to the view point. The waterfall drops nearly 100m off a cliff. It is fed by 3 distinct streams.

Irfaan took a few pictures of me at the falls while John climbed the 80 steps to a higher view point so that he could capture the full drop.

Chamarel is named after Charles-Antoine de Chazal de Chamarel . He and his brother inherited the land from his step father and descendants later opened up the vast estate to enable the waterfall to be seen and enjoyed as well as the coloured earths in the Geo Park.

We drove quickly on to The Geo Park as the sky once again looked threatening.

We were excited by this as we have seen coloured earths on the TV in South America and I think Azerbaijan but we’ve never seen it in real life ourselves…

It was very easy to understand…there were 7 coloured earths and they are either iron oxides or aluminium oxides.

These differently coloured sands settle in different layers acquiring a surrealistic, striped colouring originating from the decomposition of volcanic rock.

It is now one of the Islands main tourist attractions.

Our model!!

There is a walk way around the area and further explanation boards

There are also beehives and explanation boards ..

…and a giant tortoise breeding area…there were quite a few small tortoises in the nursery area which is covered with wire as well as the bigger enclosures for the adults

We spent quite a while thoroughly enjoying gazing at the coloured soil…it’s really quite something…..We left just in time as it started to rain..

Then Irfaan took us to a view point which wasn’t included in our tour, it had magnificent views looking at Le Morne Brabant, a rock with a sad history – it is a 556m monolith on a peninsula at the South Western tip of Mauritius. It is a designated world heritage site and served as a hilltop shelter and fortress for runaway slaves in the 18th & 19th centuries. It soon became a global symbol of the fight for freedom. Many slaves committed suicide here rather than be captured again…the inscription on the rock says that “people chose the kiss of death rather than the chains of slavery”

From here we went back to Ganga Talao the Hindu sacred lake located in a volcanic crater. The name translates as The Lake of Ganga – Ganges. In 1972 some holy water from The Ganges River itself was mixed here establishing a symbolic link with India’s sacred river. The lake was then renamed Ganga Talao.

There are 2 statues both 33 metres in height at the entrance to this holy area. The first is Durga Mata Murti …..

The second is of the Hindu god Shiva. It’s been copied faithfully from the Shiva Statue in Gujarat.

There are many other temples dedicated to other gods.

Driving through to the next temple we saw a lovely sign …

We dutifully took our shoes off when entering the temple ..

This was the final stop for our tour….we drove back to the hotel. Irfaan kindly stopped so we could go to the supermarket and buy more water, sugar free coke and lots of lunchtime yummies to nibble on for the rest of our stay.

We felt very blessed that Irfaan had been our driver, kind and considerate. He parked in the disabled bays to cut down on the amount of walking I had to do, he thought of everything a man with so many skills , and not least of all good fun to be with….Thank you so much Irfaan for a wonderful day…we learnt so much and truly enjoyed ourselves and it was all thanks to this wonderful driver/guide.

We ended the day with supper in the buffet and an early night.

Places of interest we want to see and things to do on our proposed forthcoming trip to Beijing China…Part 2

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Summer Palace

The Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) in Beijing is a vast, UNESCO-listed imperial garden from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is located in the western suburbs of Beijing, and 15 kilometers away from central Beijing. It covers an area of 3.009 sq. km, three quarters of which is water. The Summer Palace is renowned for being one of the largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China, it is regarded as a “Museum of Imperial Gardens”. It features Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake.  IT is the former summer retreat of emperors offers scenic landscapes, the 700-meter Long Corridor, and the Marble Boat, making it a premier tourist destination. 

While the cost to enter the palace is modest, about £8, the lines to buy tickets are often long and you need to carry Chinese cash. Pre-book online to gain access by Tickets QR and enjoy the imperial garden at your own pace. 

Tiananmen Square 

Tiananmen Square is an open square in the centre Beijing, it is one of the largest public squares in the world. Tiananmen Square was originally designed and built in 1651. It was enlarged to four times its original size and cemented over in 1958. It covers an area of 100 acres (40.5 hectares), and each flagstone is numbered for ease in the assembly of parades. The square gets its name from the massive stone Tiananmen meaning “Gate of Heavenly Peace”. It was first constructed in 1417, this was also once the main gate to the Forbidden City and is situated at the  northern end of the square.

On a tiered marble terrace in the centre of the square is the Monument to the People’s Heroes. The museum on the east side of the square is the National Museum of China. This was created in 2003 by combining the former Museum of the Chinese Revolution and National Museum of Chinese History. To the south of the Monument to the People’s Heroes is the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall in which the body of Mao Zedong lies in state. Further south is the Front Gate (Qianmen). On the western side of the square is the Great Hall of the People. It is the site of the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress it  contains a meeting hall with more than 10,000 seats and a banquet hall capable of seating 5,000.

Due to its immense size Tiananmen Square has been the rallying point for student demonstrations for decades. Two of the most notable were the May Fourth Movement (1919) and the Tiananmen Square incident (1989).

Portugal & Spain 2025. – Day 1- On the way….

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We left home at 9.00 am Saturday 10th May 2025. I drove John, the two cases and 2 hand luggage’s to the station. Then I returned home parked the car and walked to the station….not because we’re lazy but because we were trying to preserve our energy for the long airport walks.
We took the 9.36 train to Luton…trust us to chose a day when the line was closed from Luton. Disembarking the train a kind member of the platform staff carried my suitcase up the steps because the train had stopped in the only platform without a lift!!. A quick taxi ride for £15 took us up to Luton Airport.
We soon self checked ourselves and our cases in. Then found seats in the departure lounge for the 2.45 hour wait…..We had lunch early and were astounded that 2 burgers with chips was £21… it’s probably 10+ years since we’ve had a Burger King and it will certainly be more than that, if ever, before we have another. No problem boarding the plane and we fortunately had 3 seats to ourselves…

The flight was uneventful and we seemed to be the only plane arriving at Faro airport. We made our way to Avis car hire. Although we had used Holiday Autos to book the car, it was exactly half the price of booking direct with Avis, even though it was a Avis car. Unfortunatly the Ford Kuga we had booked was no longer stocked and we had to take a brand new Nissan Qashqai with only 2900km on the clock……I had to ask the helpful staff how to get into reverse !!!!! Then we were off and on our way…The A22 is a good road and we tanked it along to Lagos and followed the. Signs to Luz….Only then did our instructions fail us and as we drove around the narrow cobbled streets, we had no idea where we were heading for. Eventually we saw an aging couple taking an early evening walk and we stopped and asked them the way. They had very little English and we have no Portuguese……after a lot of hand gestures they stopped talking and I expectantly got into the back of car….where upon we had a delightful 15 minutes of hand gestures from the back seat…what a gem this couple were. We weren’t actually that far from the apartment complex Baka Da Luz. But the streets are mostly one way due to their narrowness. The couple showed us the reception and got out of the car. I gestured I would drive them back but they gave us the thumbs up and set of back up the hill walking…..We thanked them profusely.
On entering the reception we were greeted by the receptionist… who promptly showed us on a map where our apartment was. It was on the 2 nd floor and the furthest away from all the amenities, down a very steep hill. I asked if there was one closer to which I was told “ you booked and economy, this is the economy apartment” ….Well!! Firstly I booked a one bedroom apartment on booking.com and it was £650 it didn’t say anything about “ economy”….. and secondly I’d really have liked to give the receptionist a lesson in “ welcoming behaviour” !!!
Anyway, we drove to our apartment, knowing that we were going to be driving backwards and forwards as there was no way we were walking backwards and forwards up the hill several times a day. The apartment had a lift, so all good there. It is huge, a nice big lounge, dinning room, master bedroom with en-suite including a bath tub and a separate shower bathroom. The kitchen has everything we need. There is also a spiral stairway with two extra bedrooms up there…..ummmm a one bedroomed apartment with seating, dining table and bedrooms for 6 …..hey Ho it suits us fine.

By now it was 7.30 pm and with growling tummies we drove down to the beach front. What a pleasure to find a carpark and a row of restaurants. We selected “A Concha”, as I had read it was good on trip advisor. We ate inside as it was a tad chilly outside. We both choose fish, John had sea bass and I had rare tuna. We had a Coke Zero each and a rather naughty but extremely nice dessert…all for the princely sum of €56 .

Thankfully our earlier guides had given us a good understanding of the village centre and we managed to navigate the one-way system back to our front door with ease. An early night was required as we both felt the tiredness that airports tend to cause…. A great day to the start of our 18 day adventure.

Day 3 – Wednesday 29th May 2024- Greek Island Cruise and other places!!

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Our alarm woke us with a jump at 7.30am. We were soon washed and dressed and heading for the buffet for breakfast. It was total mayhem and although I am certain all the usual components for breakfast were there it was too crowded to actually see. A couple of tiny croissants, a bowl of Greek yogurt and a banana sufficed. We were in the theatre by 9.25 awaiting the start of our excursion… a trip to Olympia. We had docked at Katakolon on a Greek headland jutting out into the Ionia Sea. This is where the first ever Olympic Games took place in 776BC. There were 5 events – running, jumping, wrestling, javelin and discus.
We were soon on our coach for the 45 minute journey to Olympia. Our guide spoke in about 6 different languages and we were thankful that one was English. We were told that the area is world famous for its olives and it’s fine virgin olive oil because evidently it has close to zero acidity. The area is very fertile and produces wine, watermelons and honey… everything was very green.

Arriving at the Olympia UNESCO site we were divided into language groups.. so our group was a total of about 12, it was made up of Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and another couple of Brits, who nearly pushed me down the ships steps in order to get to the bus first… typical Brits!!!! Ther was my favourite mode of transport, horse and cart waiting to take people to the ruins….. but alas our guide was all for walking…

We first saw the remains of the gymnasium. Our English speaking guide gave good information, although for someone with the attention span of a fly I soon switched off…. But I did learn that they used to run 192 metres and the men all ran naked… this surprised me as from the history of athletics which I had briefly studied in my degree years I seem to remember ancient pictures depicting them running in loin cloths… but who am I to question…. When someone asked about the ladies our guide made a derogatory comment but did later say that when they were allowed to compete they only ran 100m and wore white tunics.


When the statue Zeus, which was 14 metres high and over saw all the area, was removed to Istanbul the town of Olympia became abandoned. I think he said this was in about 400AD. The only resident of the original old town today is the cat!!!!


Earthquakes were and still are common place but a big one around 600AD lead to the collapse of the buildings. Having been abandoned the town lay covered in mud until exploration by archaeologists in 1876.


We wandered around looking at the various ruins before going through the arch to the actual Grass Olympic arena/ stadium…. This was fairly unspectacular as a flat ground for the running, standing long jump and Javlin neither of which needs todays run up as they were all performed from a standing position. There can still be seen some starting stone blocks and the space where the water flowed around the outside of the field so that the spectators, who viewed from the mound had drinking water.

The original Olympic stadium with starting block for the sprint


Walking back to the coach we passed the place where the Olympic torch is still lite to this present day. ( it is at present in Paris for this years Olympics) The area is next to the oldest ruin…. I think our guide explained that a mirror or a piece of glass was positioned under the Olympic torch so that when the sun was in the correct position it’s rays would hit the mirror and set light to the torch. To this day that is how the torch is lite.

where the Olympic Flame is lit.


We wandered back to the coach park stopping at the Olive shop to purchase a very small, very expensive tin of premium virgin olive oil… a gift for my son who likes the finer things in life, a T-shirt for John and a pen for Johns Granddaughter. We decided that was enough shopping and so we sat and waited our time out having a Pepsi Max in the shade of an olive tree overlooking the ruins of Olympia.

We returned to the ship and had a light salad in the buffet for lunch before returning to our cabin for a siesta.

We showered ( you need to be a contortionist in our shower) and washed hair and put on some suitable glad rags in time for a rather nice mock-tail, called a Magic Island, before supper. Once again we got a wake view table and Saleem served us very well yet again.

Tonight’s menu

After Supper we wandered down to the theatre for the evenings 10.00pm show. … more about that tomorrow… Goodnight from us both!

Day 6 & 7 – 10th & 11th February 2024 – Historic sites of Sri Lanka

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We left Cloud Nine Wilpattu and headed to the former capital and Sacred City of Anuradhapura. We made a visit to Jethawanaramaya Stupa. On entering this ancient stupa we viewed some magnificent figures and a huge one of Buddha  in passing position. Suminda taught us all about the 3 stages involved with Buddhism. These are the birth, the enlightenment and the passing. There were many artefacts including the gem encrusted foot. We learnt about the various traditions, such as tying a coin in white fabric and making a wish. This wish would quite often be families wishing for the birth of a baby boy.

We visited another important stupa The but didn’t go in as it was crowded and we didn’t fancy burning our feet on the very hot ground. We walked to the royal gardens and viewed one of the ancient bathing pools. John and Suminda walked on to view the kings pool where he would watch his wives bathe. They also walked up to look at the lake. Our final stupa of the day was quite magnificent in its appearance. John and I were quite amused when we read that King Dutugemunu (161-137bc) had built as penance for eating a chilli garnished curry without first offering it to the monks.

We then continued to the Hotel 4U Salina Gardens in Anuradhapura. It’s entrance is a little difficult to find as you turn down the side of a cement factory and wonder where on earth you are going. However when you get there you are greeted by really nice people. They kindly changed our room to a downstairs one, as I am struggling with the humidity, temperatures about 31/32 degrees and I twisted my knee getting out of the Safari vehicle in Wilpattu, so down stairs rooms are preferable at the moment. Our room opened on to the swimming pool and the room was big and cool with all the necessary requirements. Our evening meal was selected from a nice menu….we had another laugh when we both selected buttered chicken and buttered prawns…something had got lost in the translation/spelling and they actually meant “battered”. It was great to overload on protein and they even had Coke Zero so I didn’t have to drink water….a really great place. 

When we checked out in the morning we had a lovely chat with the owner. He had designed and built it and had used lots of reclaimed teak from colonial times in its construction. We would definitely recommend this hotel and you could stay there to go into the main entrance of Wilpattu rather than stay where we did as we went in the back entrance.

On leaving Anuradhapura we stopped off at the Bodhi tree. It is said to have been grown from a branch of the tree Buddha was under, in India, when he was believed to have attained enlightenment. The car park was extremely busy as was the walk to the tree. Not wanting to get hot and bothered like I had on the previous day I opted to stay in the air conditioned car while ZJohn and Suminda went to view it. The tree is secured by gold supports, John said it was a really nice sight, but he also said it was crowded and the ground hot and gritty under our “delicate, western feet”.

We continued our days sightseeing and stopped and walked some some distance up Avukana Ancient Rock Temple where we viewed a 13 meter high statue of Lord Buddha carved out of solid granite, the replica of which we had seen in Colombo. It was quite an awesome sight.

Having continued our adventure we stopped at Sigiriya for a nice light lunch before proceeding to view the Rock Fortres. It was built by King Kasyapa (477-495 AD) for the purpose of protecting him from his rivals. His main rival was his brother who was the rightful heir to the throne. Today the rock is a UNESCO world heritage site, also know as the ‘ fortress in the sky’ . The climb to the top is an arduous one so we opted to view it from the bottom.

Some time later we arrived in Polonnaruwa. The city was founded in 11th century AD and was governed by many kings. King Parakarmbahu I’s reign was considered the most significant for this ancient kingdom. During his 12th century reign, this second Kingdom of Sri Lanka was known as The Golden Age of Polonnaruwa, as Parakarmbahu ruled during an era where trade and construction flourished. It is regarded by many as one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world. We looked around the many relics of the kingdom, including the royal palace and council chambers, the Satmahal Prasada – a square pyramidal tower in seven tiers, the Gal Potha- a stone book and many more. Our favourite was Gal Vihare, which is a rock shrine. It is a cluster of carved Buddha images which would have formed part of an extensive monastery on this site. The standing Buddha is 7 metres high and all the carvings are carved from a single piece of rock.

We probably didn’t do Polonnaruwa justice as we had had a bit of sightseeing overkill. On leaving the area we noticed quite a few Grey Langurs and some splendid Banyana trees.

We headed off to Wasgamuwa where we were booked into the Lavendish Wild Safari hotel. We were grateful to Suminda, Jetwing Travel and Rosie Price at DialaFlight for sorting out this change of accommodation . The previous accommodation was far too far from Wasgamuwa National Park. It was over 2 hours away and was booked when we were going to go to Minneriya Park. However, due to the heavy rains the elephants have mostly left that park and it was thought we would see more in Wasgamuwa. Our thanks go to Jetwing Travel who kindly picked up the bill for the accomodation change. Lavendish Wild Safari hotel was US $66 per night dinner, bed and breakfast.

We retired early, exhausted from the day and wanting to be ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ for the next days 6.00am Safari.