S/Y RAPTOR: Mauritius

Showing posts with label Mauritius. Show all posts

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Exploring Mauritius

Mount Le Pouce is the 3rd highest mountain in Mauritius, at 814 meters (2664 ft) high. Le Pouce means 'The Thumb' in English.

We woke up at 5:30am in the morning for the hike! It was fairly easy {in hindsight of course!}. The track was mostly rocky and sandy, sometimes slippery and steep! But the view at the top was spectacular!

The weather was perfect with clear blue skies, sun shining ever so brightly and the wind was strong!

Looking at Curepipe

Mt Pieter Both, the 2nd highest mountain in Mauritius @ 820m. It has a unique rock formation at the top shaped like a head. For some reason, it reminds me of Queen Nefertiti!

South of Mauritius at the far end

Looking out to Grand Bay (North of Mauritius) with Bill our new Aussie friend (and guide) who was very kind to bring us up here

A lot of sugar cane plantations across the land

View of the capital - Port Louis

The shadow of Mt Le Pouce

Going back down

Mountainous view

View of Mount Le Pouce from afar..

View from Trou Aux Cerfs, Curepipe

Trou aux Cerfs - a dormant volcano with a well-defined cone and crater.
As known as Murr's volcano - dormant but could become active at any time within the next thousand years...

Safety Hazard

Unfortunately, can't remember the name of this place..

Some selfies

Back at Le Caudan Marina

Boat Works in Mauritius

There's never a time when there's no work or repairs to do on the boat. So, here's what we did in Mauritius..

Removed the old paint and re-painted the queen sized cabin on the port side with Zinsser Perma-White Mold & Mildrew proof paint, we purchased from Singapore in March this year.

Anti-Mold Paint

Re-varnished the front door and applied epoxy on the door frame.

Hand-sew new covers for the sofa cushions in the saloon and a bag for our table fan.

Ta-dah!

Kinda proud of myself :)..

Port Louis, Mauritius

Approaching Mauritius

So, we finally made it Mauritius! (on our 2nd attempt!). Sails and engine all good from the repairs in Diego Garcia. We arrived in Le Caudan Marina (S 20.09.587 E 57.29.813) in Port Louis on 14th July 2013. We had the southeasterly winds with us all the way, covering 853 nautical miles in 5 days.

Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, located about 2,000 kilometers off the southeast coast of the African continent, 805 kilometers east of Madagascar. The people of Mauritius are multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-lingual (English, French, Creole and Asian languages).

The island is widely known as the only known home of the dodo. Sadly, they were extinct in the 17th century. Eaten to extinction by Dutch sailors! It was unfortunate that these flightless birds for some reason had no fear of humans, thus making them incredibly easy to catch.

We spent the next 3 months berthed here at $13 AUD/day. It's a small marina with 20 berths, electrical & water connections & showers.

Le Caudan Marina

One of the things I really liked about staying in Mauritius was the Central Market in Port Louis. Within walking distance from the Marina, we had the best selection of fresh fruits & vegetables available.