Venezuelan Rose in the Botanical Gardens
We have
stayed in Mauritius since early July, enjoying many good walks in the Grand
Riviere Noir region. We had to extend my permission to stay in Mauritius as I
had been granted 30 days on arrival. Kathy had been given 60 days. This sort of
discrepancy is typical of bureaucracies which regard pleasure yachts in the
same light as oil tankers. No Captain is allowed more than an initial 30 days,
but their crews are allowed 60? So we returned to Port Louis. Here the yacht
harbour is inside the new and impressive Caudan Shopping Centre, with guards
regularly patrolling. We were here for eight days and managed to extend my stay
in Mauritius. I also managed to write three articles for the Westerly Owners
Association magazine, covering our voyage from New Zealand to Malaysia. Kathy
cleaned inside Sal Darago, while I painted one or two items.
The diesel fuel oil filter after 300 hours.
Sanding down the binnacle.
We left for
Grand Baie in the north of Mauritius – about 20 miles – and anchored in amongst
all the tourist catamarans. From here we visited a sugar museum and the
Botanical Gardens. There is not much scope for walking and, on an island of
just over 1 million people, we hear every day of another road death, usually a
biker. The weather has been cloudy, with a fair amount of rain. We did venture
out 10 miles to the small islands just north of Grand Baie. The “lagoon” was
tiny between Gabriel and Flat islands. The entrance was four or five feet deep
with wind and swell behind and six tourist catamarans were close astern wanting
to join the four cats already anchored there. With our draft of four and a half
feet, we turned away to the “sheltered” west of Flat Island. We landed the
dinghy and had a walk round, but were disappointed that there was no path to
the lighthouse on the hill. On launching the dinghy I caught my left ankle on
coral and received a nasty gash. (No more swimming for a week.) We returned
safely to Grand Baie with winds up to 30 knots the following day.
This impressive chimney was attached to the Sugar Factory Museum at Pamplemonsse.
The lighthouse at the oddly named Flat Island.
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