Mauritius 4 - the end

Where were we …. Ahh Sunday 13th January after 3 hours sleep Mom knock on the door in every minute “Emil, Emil,” and again and again as it is Sunday what means church time and returning car to the owner at church. Well I drag my ass out of the bed and to the shower to wake up as when Mom said bon jour to me I did not felt like it is a good day… but after shower and coffee I felt better and went to say hello to sleeping beauty Rajiv who did not give a feck about waking up or church. SO I dressed and drove to the Church where I nearly fell asleep and in some trans like state survived standing at church but boy was I glad to sit down… the pastor son came for the car keys and I was so happy to get out for a walk. We agreed that I will keep car till Wednesday and I paid him the money due, thanked him and went back to seat. There was a birthday celebration at the end of mass for one of the guy who turned 60 but Mom just said we are leaving and we head off as she had to cook for her best friend who is coming for dinner and also we need to finish paint job at flower pots with sleeping beauty. Got home and Rajiv was already up so we went to roof terrace and pull our gloves up, get paint on the table and get into it. Since it was already afternoon we had to make as much as we could in few hours and so we did finished just before the dinner was to about start. Set the table, shower change and guest were here. Whole family came and we sat and eat a gorgeous home cooked meal talked a bit with husband and his son as the Manchester match was on tonight and he is die hard supporter so I teas him about loosing the match 😊 his son with wife are doctors and we had a bit of chat about the scuba diving and alcohol as I was not drinking to disappointment of his dad who loves his whiskey. Son and wife has to leave as he just sneak out from hospital to get here for dinner and need to return, what a nice gesture from them. So after they left we talked a bit and then even his dad and mom left as the match was about to start and me and Rajiv went down to Vimal’s place to watch match on the projector and since all of them are Manchester fans I was supported the Tottenham just to teas them off as I do not give damm about football teams, since I do enjoy watching good match but not getting interested in teams and who supporting who. Manchester scored goal and Rajiv is passing mobile to me that someone wants to talk to me, so I took the phone and there is the Rajiv’s best friend husband “ I told you we will win” and I has to laugh as he is really nice man and if we had more time we would have some drink together and fun, he really enjoying life I would say as well as his wife, they are so nice and lively couple. Also they invited us for dinner on Tuesday to their place. Match is nearly over when I got call and I left lads watching as they are slagging me about being under spell of girl. Well I’m and nothing wrong about it, so we talked and talked and the match was over so I returned to lads to have beer and chat under the street lamp “ what a great simple life full of great things” and as the time is slowly turning late night into early morning I stand up and said good night to lads as my sensors are slowly switching off, one by one, starting with sound, vision etc… just had time to send text to brown eyed girl wishing good night and then gone with fairies to dream land. Suppose to be up to book a ticket to Thai with her but I need the rest and healing and God, Angels decided that this is the time and I was asleep in sec, thank God for it.

14th January

Since we have car and I had not enjoyed a rest for full day I said to Rajiv that today is lazy beach bum day on the beach so we aimed car toward the beach Perybere what is near the Grand Baie and it is small public beach where locals and few tourist are lounging under the trees and the more advantageous on the direct sun. Well since Mom packed lunch for us we were easy going and Rajiv had packed his lounge chair for sleeping but forgot to pack something for me to lay on as he said he did. Thank God for touristic shops at sea side, where I could purchase a plastic beach throw for 250 rupees, actually €5 and 50 rupees as I have not take cash with me. All sorted we could stretch under the tree for little snooze while Gunwild came as Rajiv texted here that we will be there and wanted to meet her so I got antisocial and snoozed while he was waiting. I woke up and there  she was talking to Rajiv and said hello to me when I opened my eyes and as I opened mine Rajiv closed his so I kept company to Gunwild and talk a bit until I decided that this is enough and I’m going for swim in turquoise water with white sand beach and not that much people in the water as most of them just catching the sun rays on their skin to get brown and in some cases red color of holiday. Swam to the buoy at the end of the bay where the boats were leaving the port to drag tourist on the plastic yellow ring like a trash to be dumped in the sea or as sobering up experience after long night at resort hotel so they will feed the fish during the drag race and came back on the shore pale white with slight shade of green in the face. Since the Rajiv called Gunwild I took my mat to the sand and took some grilling like real tourist so I get nice red instead of the yogurt white since I’m in Mauritius it would be shame not to get sunburned on the gorgeous beach, watching local girls in bikinis posing provocateur style at water break on the beach. Some sight to be seen we agreed with Rajiv but since I have my brown eye girl waiting for me in Italy and Rajiv had Gunwild beside him we were just window shopping. Snoozed a bit, read a book a bit, swam a bit and then as I woke up I realized that the beach occupancy changed from young and beautiful to not so young and not so beautiful as all he pensioners flooded beach from their hotel resorts and it was like I woke up in bad dream, surrounded by only old people as if everyone aged in second from the 25 to 75 and up, brrr what a dream 😊 but also it was getting late and it was time to get home for dinner since Rajiv need to be good after early Sunday arrival to keep Mum happy. So we did get home and had a nice dinner as usual at roof terrace with the luxurious five star home cooked food, what a bliss and what a party for the taste buds on the tongue. Such a pleasure is probably second after the love making since food glorious food is so tasty that it makes your brain slowly driving to the end of the place where is only a silence. Food coma came and so it is the bed time now.

15th January

Second lazy bum beach day, this time on the Mont Choisy beach at the left hand side of coast from Grand Baie what is really long, beautiful beach with white sand, some sun umbrellas and beach beds as well as the local beach refreshment station selling coconut water a la natural in fresh coconut, just chopped off enough to insert straw and here you go. Also the local food, sold from the boys flirting with the ladies on the beach who could be their moms but hey whatever sells is good and old fashion promise of sex or at least flirtation selling the best on both sides of gender. We were invited for dinner to the Rajiv Mom best friend who were dinning at Rajiv place and so the food was out of question as the dinner feast will be enough to feed a army. Yogesh and his missis came to join us for a while after dropping the daughter to school and since Yogesh could not utilize his fishing rod, we were talking a bit. Discuss my life, shared the photos of my son and they try to find him on his school photo, what was a bit hard for the missis but Yogesh got it on the first attempt. Nice talk and bit of banter but then Rajiv asked if don’t mind  if he will leave with them and I will get home later so we can get to the friends house in the long mountain. So Rajiv gone I just read a book, snooze and genuinely do nothing at all except relaxing and working on roasting of my white tourist flesh under the Mauritian sun as well as observe some of the ladies of course.  Just as the sun start to roast me well I woke up on sound of sizzling flesh and it was actually me 😊 so got up and get into the limousine Nissan March / Micra to drive home so we can get shower and leave for dinner at Long Mountains. Drive was o.k since we avoided the Port Louis main traffic jam and arrived in this lovely spot in the Mountains where the friends are living. A bit of confusion on the directions but eventually we found it and came in. As the host is the Manchester die hard fan we had to watch the goal of the last match against Tottenham since we had a bit of banter on this result. Then the food was served in the garden under the palm trees and with the Snopy and Snowy locked as Snowy attacked Rajiv’s leg when entered the house. Small little dog looked just like Idefix with the same temper. Dinner was amazing as most of the home cooked Mauritian food I had privilege to eat during the stay at Mauritius. Since the host tried hard to convict me  to have drink, what I had refused to, even when he said that he will arrange the driver to drive us home I had just non alcoholic drinks and enjoyed the time, food and company. Afterwards we moved to the roof terrace for fresh coconut water and bit of chat watching the sunset over the mountain range front of us, what was very beautiful sight. I would say that if we start drink with host it would be a good night as they were so lovely and lively couple who enjoyed the life. Eventually we hit the road home as tomorrow we are going to see some another auntie in the other part of Mauritius near La Mourne.

              16th January

Early morning wake up call and we all met in the kitchen where Mom already prepared the coffee and petit dejeuner so we can hit the road early as it is drive across the island and this time we went through Port Louis but with early start we avoided the traffic jam. This time we took different road and went through the green mountain range and rain forest what was so amazing that I would love to come back to Mauritius just to explore this part of island. As Rajiv’s mom said the Mauritius need more time to explore all its nature and hidden spots what are all over the island. Well this one was really something to see as well it was fresh and cool comparing to the rest of island I saw but we agreed with Rajiv that best way to do so is to have car and sleep every three nights at different area of island so we don’t have to drive always back to home. Well that is what I usually do on holiday but this time it was home stay and living the life as local. We arrived to the destination of auntie i.e grand mom sister, which was down by the sea and therefore hot and humid again. Bit of chat and then I just lay down on the tiled terrace and snoozed before the lunch was served as there is no way that the visit could be without food so we have to have lunch as much as we were not expected so we ate their lunch, what made me a bit uncomfortable but fish curry was so lovely and fresh bread delivered to home by bike courier was yummy with chilies so we polished our plates, admired the jack fruit tree with lots of fruits hanging form it and head off to Lea Mourne for hike. We agreed to pick up Mom at 15:00 so we had few hours to do what we want and I want to hike the Le Mourne so there we went. The drive is so scenic that is hard to describe but if you imagine any romantic beach movies you are not far from the scenery of cabriolet driving through winding roads with white sand beaches at your left behind the green grass and trees with sun peeking through branches and gentle sea breeze is flowing and refreshing your face and in case you have long hair than also messing it 😊 Arrived at the bottom of Le Mourne cliff and ignored the signs of danger warning as usual seen in Europe when there is a bit of uneven ground. Started walk up and it was humid and hot about 80% humidity and 32 to 35 degrees so the t-shirt off as the sweat rolled better said flowed like water fall down the body as if I was under shower. Some minutes later Rajiv said that he will meet me down as I set the tempo as usual on the mountain hike to near run speed and unfortunately in this heat it was not nice for Rajiv, since he never hiked with me and did not know that as soon as I enter mountains I’m supercharged by invisible force of the nature as if plugged to the high capacity power grid. Climbed higher and higher, with views more and more beautiful and some breeze to cool off with increasing altitude it was nice and some people were already on the way down. Since the time was short I just pushed and pushed but eventually stopped at the start of the gorge where the ground required better shoes than Flip-Flops what I was wearing as well as there was not enough time to reach summit and come down on time. Turned down and get to the car just in time to return to pick mom fifteen minutes past 15:00 which was just about to get on the road as we wanted to stop at Grand Basin too. When arrived to car, Rajiv showed me beach where hundreds of tiny crabs were waving their one huge claw to attract mate as I read it or was it somewhere before on some sort nature program but when you see it live on your own eyes it is something else. Unfortunately my compact digital camera is not so good so cannot take photos that would be any good. But I did took a photo of this maxi huge snail what was on the road and if we were in France this would be dinner for a family 😊 Grand Basin is really sacred place for Hindi with huge statues of goods at the side of the road as you approach the basin, what is pretty impressive sight I have to say. The Basin is surrounded by temples with many many statues of various gods and deities what are important for the Hindi religion. The road is wide as some four lane motorway since every year there is procession of devotees coming there from all over Mauritius as explained by Vimal who is doing this trip every year with the friends. Took some photos and head off as we have some distance to cover and I need to pack as it is my last day. First time in my life I saw tea plant in such huge scale all over and had to stop to take photos and chew one tea leaf “ so bitter” as this is the place of famous Mauritius black tea what is revered as medicine for everything and also quite expensive gift. Drove through some great areas again until we hit the motorway and then got home in time for dinner. Before the dinner was ready I packed my stuff as the morning is taxi at 5am ordered. Last dinner at Mauritius was tasty and also sad as me and Rajiv contemplated about the thing that we are leaving this paradise and he actually his home where he would love to stay.  Mom was sad too but she did put brave face on and soldiered through dinner but I’m sure that tomorrow when Rajiv will have his last dinner at home this time when will not be so brave. After Dinner Nitish, Yogesh and Guzu came and we drank Green Island and played domino until the wee hours in the morning when the green island was gone. It was around 1am when the Green Island was gone and Yogesh was already at home when I said that I’m going to hit bed too. Thanked for a t-shirt what I received from lads and went down to get at least some hours of sleep…

17th January

This amazing trip is at the end and we are waiting for taxi what beeped at 5am and we loaded my “little” diving suitcase into the limousine Nissan Micra 😊 had a cup of coffee, shower and loaded myself, Rajiv and Mom to the car and went on the road. Moring roads are nice probably everywhere as the traffic is not three and the fog is lifting from the vegetation around the road what makes the morning magical and special. Driver was slow i.e safe but sometimes I thought if he actually see on the road and also if he has some issues with foot of gas as we few times hopped but since this is automatic it was not the clutch but possibly his foot have shaken. Anyway it was a sad feeling to leave this paradise and such great welcoming people but Italy awaits me and I’m looking forward to it too 😊

Another cup of coffee, say good bye to Rajiv and Mom and here I’m in the check in line, pulling out some clothes from suitcase as it was over weight limit. The departure is delayed from 8:35 to 10:55 so plenty of time for breakfast what was supplied by Euro Wings as part of delay treatment and also to type. Well good bye Mauritius and all the great people that made my stay so great.