MAURITIUS

Hi there all you dear people,

Finally I have snatched some time from the all too hectic life on ship to tell you about Mauritius. But first let me give you a couple – in fact three – photos of the actual head-shaving.  One of the students took them and with  her brilliant computer skills transferred them to my computer.  Oh the brilliance  of the young computer literates! 

 

Oh what a ‘HAM’ I am!!

So now, as promised, on to Mauritius. We only had a one-night stop-over, so five of us, myself, Audrey, Maggie and George, Chris (male) and Anne treated ourselves to some real R&R – rest and relaxation.  It was Maggie who found on her computer this little complex by the sea, which gave very reasonable accommodation and meals.  So we booked in for the night.  It was about a 30 minute drive from where the ship was docked.  It was a lovely drive through fields of sugar cane.  The place we stayed was called The Oasis, and it did indeed prove to be just that.  There was a bit of kerfuffel to begin with because they were overbooked, because some earlier guests could not leave because of a stike by British Airlines.  I can imagine a worse fate than being stranded in Mauritius!  It, the Kerfuffel, was sorted out by Anne sharing a room with Audrey and I, and that worked out fine, although after the spare bed was in the room we couldn’t close the door! She and Chris couldn’t share because they are unrelated male and female and it was a double bed.  One has to preserve the proprieties even in Mauritius. But once that problem had been resolved the relaxing could begin.

The place had it’s own pool as well as being on the beach.  We couldn’t swim in the sea nearest the hotel as it was very rocky, but about only 500 yards along the beach it opened into a lovely little lagoon, perfect for swimming. Believe it or not, only George and I walked to the lagoon to swim.  The others all contented themselves with the pool.  But I, with George can say  ‘We swam in the Indian Ocean.’

It was a very beautiful little place –wonderful flowers, trees and birds.  Josh and Lin, once again you would have loved it.  In fact  you all would have loved the birds, because not only did they look good but their songs filled the air at all times.  And now I think it time once again to let the photos do the talking.  All the photos are of ‘The Oasis"’ and of us at ‘The Oasis’'. No I tell a lie; we start with a group of Mauritians who danced and drummed us off the ship.

What a lovely welcome.

And now as promised ‘The Oasis.  Our first glimpse of the sea from the entrance.

View from our bedroom window; You can see the swimming pool and the ocean.

More views:

 

Us relaxing!

 

We all felt we could have had more time!

Finally as we were lining up to get back on the ship a rainbow appeared over the city (and a student got his face in the picture)

So goodbye Mauritius – Hello Cape Town. Yes Marion, I remember the last time in 1942 when all the residents came with their cars to drive us around.  For those who don’t know, we were on our journey back to England having been prisoners of war.  The people of Cape Town gave us a day we will always remember.

All on ship are busy preparing for Africa.  Tomorrow is ‘Africa Day"’ with lots of special presentations.  It should give us food for thought.  The title of today’s Global Studies class was ‘Africa – Hunger – Famine – Aids’. But it won’t all be doom and gloom.  I’ll tell you about it in my next blog.

Till then – still missing you – lots and lots of love

Liz, Mum, Granny