Blogs from Mauritius, Africa - page 3

June 30 - Where even are you, Jenn? Right. Remember the dodos? The big goofy birds that went extinct when we ate them all by 1681? I'm on that island where they used to live. It's off the east coast of Madagascar, which is off the east coast of Africa. I decided I would get moving and back to my normal travel self today. No more lying around on the beach. I got up at 7am and was ready to leave by 8:15. I saw Bernard and he said the technician would be in to fix the tv and when I got home, the tv worked. Magic. I walked over to the bus stop and waited for a bus going to Port Louis (Louie), the capital. I waited 5-10 minutes and then I was on my ... read more

My first hiking- Le Pouce Mountain Le Pouce is the third highest mountain in Mauritius, peaking at 812m. Le Pouce is known as the ‘The Thumb’ peak. h yes ! It was my first hike. I was already late to meet my friends, who were waiting for me at Reduit. It all started with the wrong alarm setting. I woke up late and while rushing, a great surprise was already waiting for me. Could you guess ? My adorable monthly menses made her appearance. Of course, there was no reason for me to cancel my first hiking. After three days of diarrhea, a day before I went to the beach where I swallowed much salty water, my nose was already blocked with phlegm, and now I have to hike with m... read more

General info: Currency: Mauritian Rupee Cost of living: 1,5L bottle of water 25R, bottle of wine 300R, meal in restaurant about 200-400R In the beginning I let myself to quote Mark's Twain words, which perfectly desribe the island "Mauritius was made first, and then heaven was copied after Mauritius". The Resort in which we've had pleasure to spend our layover is a complex of everything what you may need within hand's reach. The bar where they serve beautiful tropical drinks, restaurant with delicious food, small stores with local products, swimming pool, sunbeds, umbrellas and heavenly beach rinsing by Indian Ocean water. It all together creates perfectly relaxing atmosphere. Resort offers wariety of water activities, but at the same time warns against driffting to far away, becouse of strong ocean current in this area so in concern ... read more

Geo: -20.1605, 57.4977We arrived in port early and after breakfast we caught the shuttle bus to St Gilles-Les-Baines. This was a thirty minute trip from the port and is a seaside resort with the only white beach on the island. Reunion is a volcanic island and other beaches tend to have black sand. From where the bus dropped us off it was a short walk into the small town. We found a bank and withdrew some euros. It did not take long to walk up and down the main street. It was a Sunday so not many shops were open. It was also very hot so we sought shelter at a café, O Ti Marche where they had fans and we tried the local Dodo beer. Their WIFi was excellent so spent some time catching up. ... read more

Geo: -20.41, 57.7Decided to do one final kayak on the river before we left. Managed to convince them we could launch and land by ourselves so off we went. As usual, it was a pleasant paddle and we were glad we had done it.Came back and packed up and were ready for our next adventure which was going to be flying to Frankfurt, Germany via Johannesburg, South Africa, to some of those places we really enjoyed on our last trip to Europe. While in Frankfurt airport, we would store our camping equipment and fly to Berlin and stay for several days before heading to Santorini.We had never been to Berlin but we were going there because we could use some of our British Airways air miles to fly to Santorini and then from Santorini to Paris. ... read more