Arriving at Mauritius airport we were required to complete and All in One form. This can be filled out online, but we hadn’t done this and thought that they would give us a paper copy on or before arrival.
We were first and only in the queue and when the man heard that we hadn’t done the All in One form he said don’t worry I have done it for you and stamped our passports. At the next stop, again only us, the guy said that we had to fill one out, and we hadn’t hooked into wifi so it was going to be a bit of a mission. When we told him that the other guy said it was done he waved us on. Must not be too important, I can’t see us getting through Auckland airport without our customs declaration!
Once we located our private transfer we hit the road. The one hour drive to the resort was during Friday afternoon rush hour and fortunately we were moving in the opposite direction to most other commuters. Driving seems a bit hectic, and there was a lot of tooting, but nothing like Italy or Vietnam!
Entering the Intercontinental Resort Balaclava … if you reread this we were not wearing balaclavas, it is just the name of the area. Anyway, on entry the lobby is wide with sofas to sit and check in, but best of all is the magnificent view over the water and we arrived just before the sun was setting.
We can highly recommend the resort. It has several beach areas and two pools. One with a swim up bar and the other with a bar service. The beach is a little rocky, but has crystal clear water and a reef surrounding it.
There are four restaurants available for dinner and our package includes breakfast and dinner. We have tried the Asian, Mediterranean (for lunch and dinner) and the Indian. We will give the fourth, a buffet, a miss. The food has been the best so far on holiday and tonight we have booked into the Indian for our final dinner as the food there was really delicious and a bit different.
They do have Heineken, but the wine by the glass is a bit ordinary, however it does come out of a bottle and not a cask!
The breakfast buffet is great and has all sorts of different things to try. There is a Mauritian breakfast counter and I have a had a few interesting and tasty treats from there, I have skipped the Indian breakfast and today I found the bacon. It has only taken three breakfasts to do this and it is only because I saw it on a man’s plate. After snooping around I found the ‘infidel’s’ corner that had bacon and pork sausages well away from all of the other food.
There is a very large Muslim population in Mauritius and many of the guests here are Muslim. The island has no indigenous people and was first colonised by the Dutch in 1638. They lasted less than 100 years due to the harsh weather and pests. They were followed by the French in 1715, five years after the Dutch had left the island. The French introduced indentured Indian labourers and sl@ves from Africa and were successful in developing the country. However in the Napoleonic wars (1810) they were conquered by the British who continued to rule, abolishing sl@very, and ruled until independence in 1968. However for all of those years under British rule the French flavour is still around. Nearly all of the population speak Creole (a hybrid of French), French and English.
The population is predominantly Indian Mauritians, at around 67-68%, followed by Creoles (of mixed African and European descent) at about 27-28%, and smaller percentages of Sino-Mauritians (Chinese origin) and Franco-Mauritians (European descent).
Jean, from ‘Get Your Guide’ picked us up on our first morning here. I had booked this from New Zealand and the company has been really great to deal with. Jean, an Indian Mauritian with French accent, showed us around the Northern part of the Island. I have to say that there was not a lot to see.
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| Usually the umbrellas are colourful, but because it is winter here they are white to resemble snow! |
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| The famous red church |
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| Fort Adelaide in Port Louis |
Lance stayed home as even though his bowels seemed to have settled down he was not prepared to risk a day out on the road.
Jean sent us into the local market to have a look and told us not to buy anything as they would inflate the price way too much. Also we were told to watch out for pick pockets. It was good to have a look and the vegetables were probably the best that I have ever seen in a market of this type. Sandi and I were not just wary of pickpockets, we were very concerned about getting lost, so we did a quick circuit and called Jean to pick us up.
We visited a temple and a few other spots and then he dropped us at the Waterfront, where there are tourist shops and a few market stalls. This felt much safer and we managed to get some spices and trinkets and use the clean bathroom!
The Grand Baie is a seaside area on the drive home. The beach was lovely, but it was quite crowded and touristy even though it is the low season here. Our resort is not crowded at all and there is absolutely no competition for a lounger!
Today is our last day and after our sumptuous breakfast Sandi and I went to the spa to fix up the nail polish situation. Remember on Safari our toe nail polish melted!
A pedicure was the perfect remedy.
I know that I have gone on a bit about the dust when we were on Safari, but it was a different sort of dust to what we are used to. This dust stuck to everything! Anything white is now grey and my feet have never been so dirty. Even after a scrub in the shower my towel had patches of dirt where dust was still stuck to my legs. There were parts of my feet that looked like they had a tan and on closer inspection and a scrub with a wet corner of a towel the so called tan transferred to the towel as a grubby patch!
We are enjoying another day by the pool and beach and our drinks have just been delivered.
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| Spotted from below, Lance on our balcony |
This is the most perfect way to end our African safari holiday
And Lance is better and we get hourly updates on his toilet situation!
This is not my last post for the trip. I plan to put together one more blog post when I get home. Hopefully it will be about the painless and problem free trip that starts tomorrow. A four and a half hour flight from Mauritius to Johannesburg, then a nine and a half hour flight to Perth with a seven hour layover over. And finally a six hour and fifteen minute flight to Auckland!
Then it is washing, washing, washing the dust out of our clothes!
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