We did the usual thing for breakfast….i really am becoming a bit addicted to pancakes and honey….so I mixed it up a bit with an egg yolk on avocado on toast…yum, yum….
Returning to our room we put on swim wear and off we went to the beach. Two sun-loungers in the shade were grabbed and we were set for snoozing in the sun….until of course I got itchy feet and wanted to swim…..we put on our swim shoes incase it was rocky and down to the waters edge we went…..there was only a couple of people swimming…and they were grumbling it was cold. So we braced ourselves and took the plunge…it was heaven …much warmer than the swimming pool. We swam for some time, John in the shallows and I went out deeper, giving him the occasional wave…
It was a first…the first time we had swam in the Indian Ocean…..so we can now add it to our list of places we’ve swam…Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Dead Sea, Caribbean Sea, North Sea, The Aegean Sea, The Adriatic Sea, The English Channel, Golf of Mexico ( now called Golf Of America ??!!), Atlantic Ocean and now the Indian Ocean…..we’ve still got a lot more seas and oceans to swim in!! But all in good time.
We returned to the loungers to people watch…
John investigated the chessboard!Proof that we’d been in the sea!!
Returning to our room about 1pm we readied ourselves for a trip out in the glass bottom boat at 2pm.
We set off from the pier near the boat house.
Our Captain Micheal gave us a short speech about what we might or might not see and then we were off leaving the hotel behind us..
Everyone sat around the outside and looked down into one of the 3 openings..
Unfortunately the glass was tinted so all the photos were very blue..but here are a few
It was a nice experience lasting only about an hour.
We returned back to our room to get ready for the evening meal.
John wandered down towards the sea a few yards from our room to get some sunset photos through the Banyan Tree.
We had once again booked La Maree Seafood restaurant.
It’s very picturesque in the evening under the stars
We spent some time looking at the menu
Before deciding once again on Prawn Cocktail.
Followed by the catch of the day which was swordfish.
We had dessert but once again it was so yummy I forgot to take a picture until the last moment …..
Another lovely meal…we returned to our room to face time our Granddaughter on her 15th birthday and to chat to that side of the family.
Another exquisite day in paradise….tomorrow we are up early for an excursion so it was early to sleep for us.
After yesterday’s exertions we needed a very quiet day….believe it or not the weather also felt the same…it was dull and overcast with a really threatening sky…
We breakfasted at 10 am as late as we could and wandered up to reception to book a table in the Le Banyan Asian Fusion restaurant for tonight and La Maree again for Sunday night.
We had stopped on the way to reception to observe the turtle pool in the atrium.
Returning to our room we spent an hour or so playing cards, downloading photos, updating the day before blog.
Around mid day we wandered back to reception and asked for a buggy to take us to the stables and pet farm..it was no sooner said than done.
There was no one around so we greeted each of the horses, said hello to the one rescue dog they have and went on to watch the giant tortoises.
They are as previously extremely photogenic.
This time we went into the rabbits, cow, duck and chicken enclosures.
We walked through the gates of The Chateau Mon Desir and up to the canon again.
At this point it had started to lightly rain. A beautifully dressed Indian family had called the buggy to take them back to the hotel
We decided to take refuge in the Anno 1743 restaurant.
It was here we met Rhubesh the restaurant manager. He offered to show us around.
What a delightful gentleman he is. We had a good browse of the menu and decided that we would like to eat there next Wednesday….as that would give us time to go back a second time if we enjoyed it!! The menu had reasonably priced steaks, burgers, chicken etc on …a real bistro style menu…yummy!
Rhubesh explained that The Nest, a roof top bar wasn’t open at the moment due to the inclement weather and the stairs up to it getting slippery and dangerous. But the Distillery Bar was open.
He grabbed the keys and took us in to look around. Wow! What a place floor to ceiling bottles….talk about a lot of rum….all in a really lovely bar.
Rhubesh The manager of Anno 1743 & The Distillery
We were also introduced to the Head Chef, Marday, another lovely gentleman…
It was so nice to meet two gentleman who were not only cheerful, happy souls but also passionate about their work.
We are really looking forward to eating there next week.
We took our leave and wandered back along the river side.
We were quite fascinated by the numerous circular holes and discussed whether we thought they were water rat or vole holes…..
but we were wrong on both counts as we saw a big black body and long legs disappearing down the holes, to start with we thought it was a spider, but on closer examination of my pictures I realised it was actually crabs…
We spent sometime watching them before ambling on. Both Toto & Titti, the 2 mallard ducks were on the river along with a couple of moorhens..
On getting to the boathouse we stopped to book a glass bottom boat trip for tomorrow. Returning to our room we passed the gazebo which was being set up for a wedding.
The rest of the day we spent resting, playing cards and people watching and listening to the palms rustling in the light rain.
In the evening we went to the Le Banyan Asian Fusion restaurant. We had a lovely table looking out to sea in one direction and across the river mouth in the other direction..
We chose different starters, John had tempura prawns
Whilst I had chicken wonton soup
We then each had chicken gyoza…I missed the photo as they were so yummy we just got stuck in…!!!
We followed this with a main course of seafood and rice…this consisted of 6 big prawns, 1 mussel, and lots of bits of calamari….and a lot of fried rice..
To round it all off I had chocolate and vanilla and John had pistachio and vanilla ice cream.
It was all very yummy and only cost £5 more than our included meal allocation .
We retired to bed relaxed with full tummies…..same again tomorrow please!
Breakfast has now fallen into a pattern……I get the toast, John gets the butter…he has cold meats and cheese followed by fresh fruit and yogurt…I have toast followed by pancakes with pure raw honey…Johns new best mate…The cat …. joined us for breakfast ….
After breakfast we went back to our room and put on our swim suits. Then headed in the direction of the pool. Nope!! no sun loungers…well there were a lot but people had reserved them with their towels….there were two which had been reserved for more than 2 hours and still no one on them……it’s a pet hate of mine….happens all the time when we are cruising…people get up early reserve there sun-loungers with their towels then go back to bed….or even worse they go out for the day knowing when they get back they’ll have a lounger…..it’s so selfish…really annoying…at least when cruising after 2 hours if no one has been to the lounger their towels are removed to free up the space,…grrrrrr..I went and asked if their towels could be removed and was told “no” …… this is the first fault we’ve found at this hotel….. any way there were two other loungers on the peninsula of the other pool leading out to the affinity pool edge….only problem was the umbrella appeared broken and one of the loungers had a pool of water on the mattress…we soon mended the umbrella and turning the mattress over got rid of some of the problem….and we were quickly poolside residents…
It wasn’t long before “Toto” the mallard drake joined me
He laid down next to my lounger, making himself comfortable and we were soon conversing in “ quackers” language.
A dip in the pool was short but sweet as yesterday’s rain seemed to have cooled it.
It was very nice sitting there watching the world go by…
We saw the ponies taking their mounts along the beach…a lovely sight..
A beautiful Red Whiskered Bulbul came to visit us…
Having warmed up again it was time for another dip..
The afternoon saw us having a snooze before going for an early supper in the buffet.
The cold meats…antipasto’s are very pleasant …
A trio of played music while we ate…at least I think some might have called it music…John and I thought we could sound better…..and for those of you who have heard our tuneless dulcet tones, you’ll know how bad the trios warbling really was !!!
We both decided on the themed main course..Italian seafood… I must say my tagliatelle looked better than it was…the pasta was on the uncooked side of cooked and the precooked seafood which was supposed to be heated in the sauce was stone cold …not good…so I left it..John enjoyed his fusilli but had difficulties finding the seafood….
So we both made up for it with the desserts…I defiantly went for chocolate overload..
My other mistake was I asked for a lime and soda, I got squeezed lemons and water…it was very tart….
So not such a brilliant meal but the starters and desserts were both very nice.
Feeling tired from such an exhausting day!!!, of doing absolutely nothing we retired to our room for a few games of cards and an early night…
Tomorrow we’ve booked a private excursion to the North of the island.
Today was intended as a R&R day….a do nothing day. We breakfasted earlier today with the hope that the food would be better….there was more variety available but the same as the day before items like bacon were cold and cooked to a crisp…tough and tasteless….but never mind there was plenty of other items on offer…the pancakes are delicious especially with raw pure honey dripping from the cone…I sussed out the toasting machine, put the bread in twice and if it gets stuck turn it off and carefully use the bread knife to punch it over and get it to drop,…yeah cracked it !!!
After breakfast we went to reception and asked for transport up to the animal farm and Equestrian Centre. This transport is by way of a Golf buggy.
It’s here the giant tortoises have some large enclosures to roam in….
You could go in with them and feed them leaves.
There was just one dog in the stray dog sanctuary.
We asked about horse riding. The horses were very nicely kept. However they were ex-racehorses, thoroughbreds and light-framed so not used to weight bearing…Unfortunatly I am 9kg over the very low weight limit they set for riding !!! He did say we could give it a go and see how the horse felt but as a horse lover that was not something I wanted to do….my dream of riding along a beach will have to wait until I have lost some more weight.
There was also a cow and rabbits in the “animal farm”….but that seemed about it. It was all set in nice surroundings with several mango trees …
And a little Madagascar Giant Day Gecko which is considered an invasive species in Mauritius.
We wandered down to the Ruins of Balaclava. These are protected as a national monument…all very interesting.
Then we wandered around the cascades…although I think I would have referred to it as a babbling brook, or its proper name of the Citron river, rather than cascades!!
Then on we walked past the chateau Mon Desir – the fine dining restaurant.
In the beautiful chateau’s gardens, were fabulously well manicured, vibrantly coloured bougainvillea…a picture not to be missed.
We wandered down to the Old Mill and passed by the events field.
Continuing to ramble along by the River edge watching kayaking we passed by the obligatory- because all good hotels have one – giant chess set… and The Anno 1743 Restaurant and Nest Rooftop and distillery bar.
On we wandered up to the boat house where we sat for a while. We watched a lady of slightly lesser proportions to me struggle to sit on a kayak…doable but difficult…her fit daughter hopped on the front and off they went…or did they…no they just couldn’t synchronise….ummm yes enough to put John and me off…too much like hard work.
We were thinking of asking about a glass bottom boat when we saw an sign saying none today as it was too rough…an anti-cyclone is approaching…
The “Looky-Looky man fed some birds with a bag of bread…loads of sparrows, pigeons, Myna Birds, Red Fody, Red whiskered bulbul’s, and yellow orals came flying in.
We rewarded the “Looky-Looky” man by buying two shell ankle bracelets from him…John enjoyed watching me haggle the price which at £8.00 was still a bit to much…but the sob story came out… “he hadn’t had a sale all day” and the deal was done.
Passing a local fisherman…….
We walked back to our room, donned our swimming gear and took up residency on a lounger around the pool. We had a swim even though the water was a tad chilly.
Before going for a siesta we went to reception and read the speciality restaurant menus. Deciding on the Seafood restaurant we made a reservation and then we went for a snooze.
All, too soon it was time to get ready for our 7pm reservation, fortunately the heavy rain shower had passed . We wandered along the seafront path until we got to La Maree.
A lovely thatched restaurant with tables on decking in bomas on the sea shore.
We both selected prawn cocktail with pinapple to start with
….and Seafood, butternut Risotto as our main course….
John had a lovely coconut, mango and papaya cake and I had a sponge soaked in lemongrass and ginger with fresh fruit as dessert.
It was all truly scrumptious. We both had a soda…when the bill came they had subtracted our MUR5000 meal allowance from the total and we had less than £10 to pay….great deal…lovely meal.
We had once again dodged a heavy shower… the bomas we were in were about 99% waterproof….the 1% that wasn’t dripped down the back of Johns neck! A dog came and took refuge from the rain, sitting with pleading eyes at a couples table who were eating meat …!!!!
We ambled back to our room before turning in for an early night .
We slowly came around at about 9.00am after a long nights sleep….bed quality – a bit hard, but sleepable with….pillow quality – 2 big fat ones so replaced one with thinner bed cushion….so on the whole very comfortable. John made us a cup of coffee- we always bring our own with us. We went across the lawns, so I didn’t have to go up and down a huge amount of stairs, to get to the dinning room for breakfast. We were shown to a table and told it would be made up while we went to the buffer to get some food…..Unfortunatly it wasn’t, so we ended up with hot food getting cold because we had nothing to eat it with…eventually I went and got the utensils myself and a young waiter said he was just about to do it…my response “ too late” .. after this he was highly attentive and brought us nice fresh coffee. The breakfast buffet was ok, but not up to the previous evenings standard. Also even though we were a whole half hour before the buffet closes a lot of food had run out and was not replaced. I did however have fresh pancakes with pure raw honey which was dripping out of the honeycomb…..too delicious to resist…A mixture of fresh passion fruit and mango juice topped off an adequate breakfast. I must say there were more breakfast curries than there had been at the previous evenings meal….may have to resort to curry for breakfast,,,it’s a hard life !!!
After going back to the room to ablute and sort the safe out we headed back to reception and the first of the daily quota of stairs were embarked upon!
We went to see Nirmala and booked a driver/guide and car for Friday and Monday, having decided that Wednesday and Thursday were going to be beach and exploring the resort days.
Having sorted that out we headed across reception to the taxi and transfer desk we booked a taxi to take us to Mon Choisy a town along the coast in the North West Corner of the Island….we negotiated the fee of MUR 2500 ( Mauritius Rupees about £39) for the trip there and back, we didn’t realise at the time that our driver would also be our guide. With in 5 minutes our Maritim taxi arrived. Sachin was a delightful driver, he spoke excellent English and explained he would tell us all about the local villages, customs, culture and the festival and escort us at Mon Choisy
The Ganesh Chaturthi Day is a public holiday. It is a major Hindu Festival honouring Lord Ganesha, the elephant headed God of wisdom, prosperity and new beginnings. The day consists with family and friends of wealthy Hindu’s parading effigies of Ganesha made from clay or turmeric. Some of these are painted. These effigies are made offerings, sometimes around a fire pit, lots of chanting takes place, bells rang, seashell horns blown, water sprinkled, petals thrown before the effigy if taken, usually by men into the sea in an immersion ceremony. They wait for the water to dissolve the clay.
Driving north along the coastline, we saw many examples of families who had put up marquees with many chairs – almost in the style people host a wedding in the UK. We also came across lots of small parades with 15-20 people taking part.
We went past a multitude of ceremonies happening on the beaches.
Having past Trou aux Biches the biggest of the “villages” on our route. We saw a couple of hotels we had considered staying at, we were pleased we had selected The Maritim.
After this larger resort village we got into heavy traffic, which Sachin manoeuvred through with the ease of the professional he is…
Soon we were at Mon Choisy and although not easy Sachin soon found a parking place.
We walked through the wooded area which seems to hug the coastline. There were lots of beautifully dressed ladies and plenty of stalls giving food and drinks away.
There was so much joy, happiness, smiles and laughter around it was hard to know where to point the camera next…. All the women were dressed in vibrant colourful beautiful outfits and so many encouraged us to take their photos. We were offered drinks, sweet dessert pastries, sweets, food you name it we were offered it… Sachin said that they spent many days preparing food , their outfits, their effigies and their offerings. The atmosphere was truly amazing…I have to admit when we got to the beach we were totally mesmerised by the ceremonies taking place. What an honour it was to be able to witness this Hindu Festival.
The effigies are paraded onto the beach and placed facing the water
Then the families and friends dance around them. Some groups were in matching colour and outfits.
Prayers were said and gifts to the God were offered.
In some areas a little fire was lite with offerings placed by it, or a plate with fire on it passed around….
We were totally fascinated by the rituals and the chanting and singing…
These two ladies were absolutely beautiful on their performance of the ritual.
When the prayers and blessings were completed the men picked up the effigies and walked backwards into the sea.
In some cases the men were anointed in yoghurt as an extra offering to Lord Ganesha.
Then the immersion ceremony takes place and the men holding the effigies go under the water pushing the effergy down. Sometimes they rise and hold it up high before going down again. This happens until the effigies either dissolves in the sea water or sink to the bottom. In some cases where the effigy took several men to carry it, this immersion took quite some time because it is often hollow and full of air, so it kept rising up again and they kept having to push it down. It was quite a sight, with lots of jollity, laughter and enjoyment. We had to laugh at some of the men’s expressions when the cold sea water hit their midriffs…..whether you’re carrying your effigy or not the shock of the cold water couldn’t be disguised !!
We spent over 2 hours just watching different groups coming and going. John went down on to the beach to get a better view of the front of the effigies.
I stayed on the slightly higher area to get a view over the heads of the crowds.
I was blown away by the beauty of this particular lady ..
Sachin guided us back to the car, on our way back we were invited to partake in different types of food, it was all totally free. However we gracefully, so as not to cause offence declined, (as seasoned travellers we are very careful of what we eat so as not to upset our sensitive European digestive system !! )…
We were also invited to take several photos…
John and our driver/guide Sachin I would have put a dress on if I’d known what an occasion this was going to be.
Once back in the carpark we waited while even more families came to celebrate.
On the way back to the hotel, we saw more people about to embrace the festival.
Sachin took us past the house he has built, where at present his sister and nephew reside, until he marries.
Thank you Sachin for a really great experience.
We spent the rest of the afternoon resting in our room before going for supper at the buffet again.
Between courses we were serenaded…..for our special one to one with them we said they could choose what they wanted to play and they chose “What a wonderful world” ….it couldn’t have been more apt.
A game of cards back in our room finished off our wonderful day.
