Category : Rodrigues
Rodrigues – paradise untouched
30/05/2010
Article
Rodrigues is an island, that we know very little about, but the little we know is exciting: some people say it is paradise, some say it is the best kiting in the world, some say it is very very quiet – at least we arrive with 3 different kites and a variety of swim suits….
Rodrigues was discovered by Diego Rodrigues, a Portuguese explorer, in 1528, when the island was a nature paradise without any humans. Subsequently it was visited, inhabited and exploited by the Dutch, French and English. Colonizing went very slow, in 1826 the island had 123 inhabitants. In 1968 Mauritius became independent and Rodrigues became one of its districts. It was not until 1970 that electricity was made available to houses of the 40.000 inhabitants.
It has a size of only 100 km2, surrounded by an amazing lagoon twice as big.
The island provides an amazing environment for sustainable living: a warm humid climate year-round, no dangerous animals, a large variety of vegetables and fruit, and plenty of fresh water. Approaching the island on the 72 seat ATR, we get a first idea of the beauty of this incredibly big turquoise lagoon surrounding the island.
the magic lagoon of Rodrigues
We have booked in the Cotton Bay Hotel, a beautiful hotel with the old charme from ancient times filled with the friendly atmosphere of the Rodrigues people.
Cotton Bay Hotel
The Rodrigues people are mostly descendents from Africa or Mauritius and Madagascar, they consider themselves to be Creole. You feel a wonderful friendliness, open smiles and laughter.
friendly happy people
In the bus I quickly get reminded that we all live in one world and we are connected. In front of me there is a guy wearing a hat with the logo “Nette Menschen trinken Kuemmerling” (nice people drink Kuemmerling – not my favourite herbal alcohol), clearly a hat from some German who got lost on this island.
Compared to other remote islands, Rodrigues seems to offer the people a great life: almost everybody has a cement built house, roads are built and public buses connect the different corners of the island, school is free and available for everybody, there is enough to eat for everybody from agriculture or the ocean. Rodrigues even holds 3 deep sea fishing world records, e.g. a 561 kg Pacific blue marlin.
For us, the beauty of the ocean is beyond everything we have seen so far. We spend our days with Willy and Nathan, the local kite boys, who take us out to an amazing downwind kiting trip along the waves at the reef to the remote Ile de Chats, where they prepare fresh fish on the barbecue for us.
Nathan and Willy, the local kite boys
Gerry enjoying the ride to Ile aux chats
and playing…
kids on boat, parents in lagoon
paradise untouched
fresh fish and self made lemon limonade
a lover\’s paradise
There is so much wind that we are glad to have our new 6 m2 kite with us. Kiting becomes even more playful and addictive than it was so far.
The landscape behind our hotel looks a bit like the Scottish highland. We climb the local hill through high grass weaving in the wind, with goats all around us.
view of Cotton Bay
looking East, towards Australia
father, son, ocean, earth
We asked an airbus pilot from Paris who also spent two weeks here with his wife and son why he came here and he nailed it on the head: “to clean my head”. Life is slow and pure, I love the solitude…
Cotton Bay Sunrise
Categories: Rodrigues
Mauritius – Tamarin and beyond
28/05/2010
Article
The Hotel Tamarin is very special. For a fraction of the price of the surrounding luxury hotels in Flic en Flac and Le Morne, we get lots of colour, music every night, great rooms, a great spirit, very friendly staff, a kids club, and an eclectic mix of guests. The mix constantly changes, and includes all age ranges, surfers and kite surfers, families, lazy sunbathers, retired travelers, artists, DJs, business people. All other Europeans are from France or England, the rest are from South Africa, Reunion and other parts of Mauritius. I love the look and feel of the hotel, with a great pool to play in:
Hotel Tamarin
Our mornings start with painting sessions given by Deeljeet Heerasing, a very inspiring painter from Paris with Mauritian roots. Sienna and Robinson love it and have turned this into a daily post-breakfast routine.
Creative morning session with Deeljeet
Then it is off to the beach right across the street, where we play in the waves until sunset.
playing all day…
… until sunset
At dark we eat the yummy creole dishes and then watch the show. One evening we watch a Mauritian band with dancers. I must say that this is the best, flowing, enticing dancing I have seen anywhere on this planet. Those girls know how to dance! It is very hard to define what makes it so special. It seems like a mix of Tahitian gentleness with Carribean temperament and Indian grace.
Mauritian dancing
best smiles
a new world
Then the dancers take Robinson onto the dance floor, and he stands there mesmerized by all the girls moving around him, including his favourite beauty, the 8 year old Emanuelle from Reunion.
lessons for shaking your body
Exhausted we fall into our beds:
Night…
… and day!!!
There is plenty to see and do in Mauritius. Just driving around the island and watching the life in the street gives you a great impression of this unique island. Heading South the first sight is beautiful Le Morne Brabant:
Le Morne Brabant
Along the South Coast the beaches offer spectacular colours.
blue bays on the South Coast
No need to pack a lunch as there is food everywhere on the island. Our favourites where samosas, passion fruit pudding, coconut balls, and coconuts to drink and eat.
coconut is good for you!!
Driving up high into the mountains we get to the largest Hindu temple site on Mauritius at Grand Bassin. We get immediately ushered into the first Shiva temple, make an offering, and get a blessing in form of a red dot between the eyes with two lines going upwards. The gods are colourful and rest peacefully on the edge of a large lake.
We pass along Chamarel where thousands are picking wild guavas in the bush. The mountain sides are lush and green. And then there is another one of these large palm trees. But beware: these are not palms, this is some engineers dream of disguising mobile telephone masts in the tropics (we have seen them on other islands as well). They are easy to spot as they are the only palm trees that are dead straight.
a very tall and very straight palm tree
Near our hotel are Les Salines, the Mauritian salt works, where we learn all about salt production and of course the champagne of salt, the local fleur de sel.
enough salt for a lifetime
Nearby is the Casela wilderness park with a very large collection of parrots, tortoises, and bush animals. A special attraction are the lions, who you can also visit in their fenced-in areas and you can even walk with them. The only hook is that you need to be 150 cm tall, so a no go for the kids. And we quickly find out why. Lions rest for 20 hours a day, and they typically walk around quite mellow. This is why, as Cedric the lion trainer explains, people can go visit them. However, their mood can change within a fraction of a second to a very focused and fierce hunter, rapidly moving in with all force for the kill. Sienna stands at the fence and a female lion standing about 20 meters away turns around, spots her, and dashes at full speed straight for the fence, stops just a meter in front. I must say it scared the hell out of me, it was an amazing sight. Cedric explained that with her blond her she does not look human to the lion but much more like some yummy prey. Lions are majestic animals, and this day gave me extra respect!
mellow boys…
… and a not so mellow girl
The giant turtles are larger than Sienna, and much much older!
Sienna and Robinson catch their first fish and release them back into the pond.
The next morning it is time to say good bye to Robinson’s new friends, the crew of 8-year old beach girls from Reunion, Emanuelle, Tiphane and Chloe.
Robbie and the girls from la Reunion
Categories: Mauritius
La Reunion – spectacular views
21/05/2010
Article
La Reunion offers one of the most spectacular mountain experiences of this trip. After driving for about an hour on the very lonely and curvy road into the valleys, we reach Cilaos, surrounded by stunning mountains.
CILAOS mountain road
It is a great spot for hikes and canyoning. Although we just enjoy a long French style lunch with various courses .
mountains make huuunnnggryyyy
mountain huts in Cilaos
On the West Coast there is another stunning descent into the valleys to Maidu.
Maidu stunning moutains
Maidu offers a spectacular view into the valleys. This is, where people still live today totally off the grid.
on top of the world
They even refused to get a road built in order to stay away from modern influences. There are only helicopters coming sometimes and bringing some supplies to the village. As a hiker you can go down to the village and stay with the people.
Some parts even remind us of the alps with happy relaxed cows grasing in the forests.
just like the Swiss alps
Coming from the mountains we dive into Agnes” and Bubu”s paradise…
ready for surfing
…with wonderful Reunion cooking from Agnes in the beautiful garden under the stars.
sunset in front of Bubu\”s beautiful garden
Agnes\” birthday BBQ
Categories: Reunion
La Reunion – adventure island
18/05/2010
Article
Kiting in La Reunion offers definitely more challenges than on Mauritius. Besides a very shallow reef, most of Jean’s friends have had at least once sea urchins stuck in their arms, feet and bum…
St. Pierre kiting
Jean is amazing. He goes surfing everyday possible and then goes kiting later in the afternoon. He is the one waiting for Gerry at 6.30 in the morning to go surfing at TroisBassin or in St. Leu. St. Leu is one of the most famous waves in the world. It is also one of the more challenging ones as it is a rather shallow reef break… Gerry went out and slowly but surely made his way into the line-up to get rewarded with some unforgettable rides after some also unforgettable “washings”.
Jean is not the only one rather extreme, it seems to be just the normal way of living here. There is Bloody, who goes surfing, kiting and parasailing- and enjoys the beautiful girls de La Reunion. They seem to live to enjoy and play every day.
Bloody made a very special present to us: he offered to take us on a tandem flight over the bay of St. Leu. He participated in world competitions and flys since more than 20 years. Robinson absolutely wanted to go and got ready.
Robinson ready to fly
take off
the lightness of being
between ocean and online casino sky
happy landing
Almost ready to fly…
talking about the cool flight
Then it was my turn to fly like a bird. And honestly, I trusted him. Everybody knows Bloody and what an experienced guy he is. But at the end I just knew, that these blue eyes must belong to the best parasailing guy in the world :). And I promise, I did not have time to be scared…
you gotta trust these blue eyes
It was amazing to fly down the mountains and over the turquoise bay with the perfect waves. We followed the birds, that played in the thermal winds and got lifted up several hundreds of meters.
happy happy happy
Later on Jean invited us to his house for dinner. We are overwhelmed by his hospitality. He picked us up and we enjoyed the sunset on his terrace overlooking the mountains and the bay.
Relaxing at sunset in the spa…
What a great place to enjoy Jean’s juicy dorade with chou-chou-gratin.
delicious dinner with the perfect view
Dudes
Categories: Reunion
La Reunion – mountain island
15/05/2010
Article
We did not really know a lot about La Reunion. It simply sounded intriguing and Bubu, Gerry’s ski guide from Val Thorens, invited us to come over.
On a clear night, if you climb up on one of the mountains in Western Mauritius, you can actually see the glow of the lights from la Reunion, one of the Departments of the Republic of France. It is a short up and down flight of about 30 minutes to get to the youngest of all the islands in the Southern Indian Ocean. Ile de la Reunion is a mountain island….2 million years ago La Reunion was created with the rise of the volcano Piton de Neige, that is more than 3.000 m high.
You feel a little bit like being in the South of France. You find the French Boulangerie with baguettes and croissants, you get the most delicious and largest selection of cheese you could think of.
We drive up to Bubu’s house, where une Madame welcomes us warmly talking about l’amour, comme c’est belle l’amour….
Agnes’ and Bubu’s place feels like a little paradise.
Bubu\”s family
They live at the West coast of the island, where you find most of the beaches in La Saline des Bains, right next to the famous left breaking wave of St. Leu.
Their house is in a luscious garden right next to the white coral beach and the turquoise lagoon. It feels tropical and very relaxed.
sweet home
The first evening Agnes and Bubu took us to “one of their most amazing spots in the world”. We drove along the coast up the mountains. Witihin minutes we felt like in the Austrian mountains, green alms with black and white cows and dense forests. Up in 2000 meters was the huge crater of the volcano Piton de la Fournaise and the peaks of La Reunions highest mountain lightened in deep orange of the sun. The volcano was last active in January 2010 and is the most active volcano in the world after the Hawaiian volcanos. Interestingly, Hawaii and La Reunion have the same kind of red lava, that flows gently instead of exploding crazily.
We stayed in a beautiful mountain hut in complete calm and refreshing Minderjahrige durfen nicht in diesem Online http://www.besten-casino-liste.de Casino spielen unter keinen Umstanden. 5 to 10 degrees temperature.
Our home for a night
kuscheling to keep us warm
The most stunning moment was the sunset at 6 a.m.
Magic sunset
Agnes and Bubu enjoyed the night under the stars on the back of their pick-up truck…
Bub and Agnes
After a French breakfast with a bowl of coffee and baguette, we went on a hike in this moon-like landscape.
Ready for a hike
Stunning views
cowboy and cowgirl on the horse
pic nic on the moon
You can also discover this unique and peaceful nature on horseback.
Horse riding at the volcano
hugs inext to the crater
Categories: Reunion
Heavenly lefts – with obstacles
11/05/2010
Article
These two definitely make the list of the BUCKET LIST for waves, i.e. places to surf before you die. Both are lefts, breaking fast over shallow reef, and break ideal between about 1 and 3 m swell from the S to SE.
Tamarin in Tamarin Bay, Mauritius
St. Leu in Reunion
In Mauritius, we were very fortunate to be staying at the Hotel Tamarin, which is approx. 23 meters from the spot where you start paddling out to the Tamarin wave. In Reunion, I was very fortunate as the local French madman Jean gave me a board and took me out to breaks at Trois Bassins and St. Leu.
So we just paddled out and caught some waves? Not exactly!!!! These waves are absolutely beautiful, but come with a few serious challenges:
- the wave breaks over a really shallow sharp reef, depending on the tide you have between 20 and 100 cm of water
- the reef is decorated with beautiful sea urchins
- there are strong currents pulling you in the general direction of Africa or Antarctica
- the waves break fast and hard, you need to escape to the left quickly
- big sets come out of nowhere and have a tendency to clean you up over the reef if you are an unsuspecting tourist
- bull sharks have a tendency to be territorial and even swim up the rivers here, the water is very dark once you paddle a little bit from the reef
- the locals are trained in various martial arts and have a tendency to be very clear about owning the spot, i.e. never even think about getting close to a wave when they are around, or better yet, just go back to the beach
Particularly the last challenge caused us to display maximum respect and surf in the second row, i.e. catch the wave at a later stage of its long turning travel along the reef. I became a little too friendly with the good old sea urchin in Tamarin (10 sticks) and a week later in Reunion (11 sticks). Let’s just say I am a master at operating out these black urchin sticks – as thick and sometimes as long as a match – with needle and pinchers (the truth is: I only got 20 out and after 2 hours of trying 1 was cut out at a Mauritian community hospital, free of charge, on the spot). It takes hours and should be followed with some good antiseptic / antibiotic ointment. The good news is that I was back in the water within a day.
When you are charging down the face of one of those waves, looking down at the razor sharp reef, and cutting back up to the lip with a clean bottom turn, you forget about all those challenges. You are in the flow…
in the flow…
Categories: Reunion
Mauritius
02/05/2010
Article
From Johannesburg we fly to Mauritius, after months of driving on the left side, we are finally back to “normal”. We stay in a little surf resort “Tamarin hotel” . It does not have a private beach, but is right next to the Tamarin beach, which offers perfect surf for kids and a major wave for us.
Tamarin beach
I always thought, Mauritius is expensive. But you can live here very very reasonable, if you step out of the 5 star hotel resorts. You can rent apartments for 30 EUR a day, and you can buy fruits and samosas for small money on the various stands in the streets.
Mauritius has its own atmosphere through the blend of people living here: Indians, Chinese, Africans etc. came here to work on the sugar cane fields. These were not happy times, but tragic times of slavery. There is the tragic story, that slaves went up to Mt. le Morne in the south of Mauritius and jumped into death to escape slavery. This mountain is now part of the world’s cultural heritage.
In the morning, beautiful waves rolled in and already about 20 locals were sitting at the break and playing in clean glossy tubes. The atmosphere is amazing: excitement and happiness at the big waves, but also among the many kids, that were playing and riding on the inside waves.
playing
By now, Sienna loves surfing as well. Although she is more busy with waving and dancing on the board instead of watching where she is going…
surf with style
Robinson and Sienna have lots of petits amis. There is Marc, the pilot, with his kids. There is J. with his wife star and his kids River, Rain, Ocean and Asia. Their kids do not go to school anymore, they do not even get any lessons, although or because he is a teacher. They think, that kids learn best and the best things for them, if they live. Schooling means to them to split up the world in portions, that loose their meaning and excitement.
We knew, that Mauritius is a kiting paradise. When driving up to LeMorne, you can’t miss it. There a big billboards with advertising for kiting and even the rubbish bins are sponsored by Billabong.
kiting heaven Le Morne
The spot is amazing: you have the choice among a huge lagoon or the wave spots. About 5 to 10 kite schools offer lessons in the lagoon, the wind is most of the time up to 10 knots stronger than on windfinder or seabreeze.
getting ready in Le Morne
Categories: Mauritius