The van Dijks Go On Leave: June, 2018

July 15, backtracking on blog. Here's a run-down of our recent holiday to Mauritius.. we weren't especially focussed on holiday with the timing and Jeroen having had the flu but, it was in fact the perfect destination.

Mauritius

In the Indian Ocean

Mark Twain once wrote, 'Mauritius was made first and then heaven, heaven being copied after Mauritius'. He was right! (Lonely Planet).

Mauritius waters

CNN travel describes Mauritius as the Best Africa destination you've never heard of. Too true; we only discovered the island through other expats who rave they wish they could go back.

Al Mauritians

Here's a snapshot of Mauritius history, brought to you by the CIA World Fact Book!- who knew??

Although known to Arab and Malay sailors as early as the 10th century, Mauritius was first explored by the Portuguese in the 16th century and subsequently settled by the Dutch in the 17th century. The French assumed control in 1715, developing the island into an important naval base overseeing Indian Ocean trade, and establishing a plantation economy of sugar cane. The British captured the island in 1810, during the Napoleonic Wars. Mauritius remained a strategically important British naval base, and later an air station, playing an important role during World War II for anti-submarine and convoy operations, as well as the collection of signals intelligence. Independence from the UK was attained in 1968.

Loving the local Tourist Office

Located to the east of Madagascar, Mauritius is a tropical 2000km volcanic island in the Indian Ocean.

Volcano

Pano Mauritius view from volcano

Mauritius island recently revealed to divulge the missing continent!

Volcanic Mauritius

Scientists concluded in 2017 that a great swatch of land between India and Madagascar once existed, forming part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland. Roughly 200 million years ago, when Gondwanaland broke apart, that portion of the overall landmass fractured into ribbons and sank beneath the water. The compressed, sunken land created the mass concentrations, subsequent volcanoes created Mauritius.
Check out this link for the article in TIME magazine.
Driving around Mauritius reminded us of Africa, despite the island being independent from Africa.

Back in Africa-esque

These cumbersome traffic camera's slow the already slow traffic

NZ products here too

I love these little foodie beach huts

Fresh herb delivery

Hindu temples dot the island

Mauritius is a religiously diverse population with roughly half being Hindu.

Watch out for Disney!

A highlight of the trip was a drive around the south western part of the island.
Lots of windy steep and narrow roads and shrines all over the island.

Roadside shrine

We found this dinky Museum of illusion- Curious Corner of Chamarel. 'Explore the impossible and embrace your curiosity' declares the website...and we certainly had a few hours doing just that. With Jeroen feeling poorly with a chest infection it was a calm restful outing.

Entrance to Curious Corner

It's in the Jeans

One Lady owner

If you're taller than the line you get in for free! Sadly it was an illusion that Jeroen was above the line so he had to pay

Little Sharon and Big Jeroen

Being catapulted into the sky!

Dodo

The now extinct Dodo inhabited the island of Mauritius until human settlement. Dodos stood up to 1 metre tall and weighed in at approximately 20Kg making the bird bulky, and slow with short wings that prevented it from flying. This made it easy prey for settlers and introduced vermin that plundered the bird to extinction in approx 1688.

Clever Dodo art

This was a favourite part of Curious Corner for me...The music laser room where I became a DJ for the first time ever. Magic!

Lost in my own world

What did I do????

Table is missing something(s)

Restroom time

This illusion sees me sitting on boxes when I'm just sitting on the ground

Curious Jeroen in the Puzzle shop

Type-drawn

The endless library

Gramophone Hologram running man

Is this the exit?

This special room had only one entry door. We had to find the exit; and the obvious door exit turned out to be just another bookshelf!

Touching the telephone in the corner opened door

Shani, you'll be happy here!

A zen moment

Having a rest ...on the ceiling?

I need a drink

House of Mirrors

Trying not to fall into the elevator shaft!

I don't think that fork is big enough

Across the road we found the seven colored earth is a natural phenomenon and a prominent tourist attraction. The colors evolved through conversion of basaltic lava to clay minerals.
It is a relatively small area ofsand dunes comprising sand of seven distinct colours (approximately red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow).

Due to the tropical weather conditions, all water-soluble elements such as silicon dioxide have been washed out. The remains are the reddish-black iron- and aluminium oxides which create shades in blue, cyan and purple.
If you mix the coloured earth together, they'll eventually settle into separate layers.

Seven colours

Separated into their individual colours

Time to have a stop at the best little café where we sampled Mauritius Napolitaines - shortbread biscuits sandwiching a jam and covered in icing. Totally my favourite biscuit ever (next to Sue's addictive fudge cake!).

Napolitaines - delish!

Fresh sugar can juice?

All over the island you will easily spot the tall, 1-2metre swaying sweet grasses which have been part of Mauritius culture for 3 1/2 centuries. Introduced on the island by the Dutch in the 17th century, the Mauritian sugarcane industry is reputed for its special sugars that are prized in Europe's high-end restaurants and delicatessens. Besides the well-known "Demerara" and "Muscovado", two varieties are unique to our island: the " Light Soft Brown" - with fine grain and soft texture, ideal for exotic recipes- and the "Coffee Crystal" with large golden granules that melt slowly in coffee and are much appreciated by connoisseurs.

These sleepy fellas were also present at the Seven Colours site. It seems Mauritius was home to 5 species of tortoises however they hunted and harvested as a food source to extinction- this is now the sole surviving species in the Indian Ocean; the Aldabra Giant Tortoise. Reaching 150-250kg, that's a lot of herbivorous eating to be done!

Giant tortoise

We visited a low-water waterfall. We've seen some lovely falls on our travels and these were unremarkable however it was a nice walk.
And I even spotted 'plant' graffiti.

We pottered around a local market. Great prices however we'd forgotten to exchange some mullah!

Would have loved one of these bright bags

As we drove home from our full driving day, we stopped to see the sun setting.

Tranquil waters of Mauritius

This stray fella came and sat beside us to see what we were looking at

Comfort zone

We took a tour of this vast temple and complex. Stunning dedication and craftsmanship.

Welcome

So large!

This statue of Maa Durga is measured at 33 meters high making it the tallest Durga Mata statue in the world Construction of this “jewel of Indian art” started in 2011, the funding came strictly from donations and nothing was ever sourced from public funds. The project required six years of hard work, meticulous designing and it was built by workers from India and local sculptors and engineers in conformity with Hindu scriptures. The statue itself required 2,000 m3 of concrete and 400 tons of iron

This lake is said to be holy for Hindus who come from all over Mauritius to take a dip

A burnt offering

We stayed at The Sands Suites Hotel and Spa and enjoyed a spoiled week there with brekky and dinner.

Entrance to Sands

Nosh from the Pasta Station

Sampling everything!

At The Sands we enjoyed an outing in the glass bottom boat. Conditions were a little overcast and it wasn't easy to spot the sea-life but we did see huge corals and lots of angel-fish.