Parting is such sweet sorrow… or something like that. Our last day on Mauritius came with mixed emotions for sure. On one hand, we felt somewhat done (cooked well done) due to sun exposure, but on the other hand our freshly discovered groove was great and we felt at peace. It’s quite a feat to forget the world’s hectic speed, if only for a little bit.

Aside from getting slightly lost while en-route to the airport; a missed roundabout turn (so many roundabouts on this island), our exit was less chaotic than our entry.

We feel very blessed to have been given this unique opportunity to travel somewhere so nice and facilitating. If you’re ever given the opportunity to travel to Mauritius we surely give it our stamp of approval.

– Jimmy

.TThis

This little buddy greeted us on a few mornings. Turns out it’s rare & endangered. A ‘Mauritius Fody’:

Claire really grew her gills this trip, she was a water baby spending so much time in the water:

….and the Oscar for most dramatic performance goes to:

Traffic was especially dense going through Port Louis enroute to the airport:

Having no time for any real skateboarding, I did a G-Turn at the airport just to be able to say I rolled on Mauritius:

Waking up with a major travel day completed is a great thing. Waking up to an all-inclusive sunny resort on someone else’s dime with nothing but time to spare? Now that’s marvellous! The kids were amped to explore and play and so were we.

After a breakfast buffet feast we decided to attack the beach. Thankfully Deanna’s soya allergy was dutifully noted by the chef/kitchen earlier so there was no concern there. We were basking in the sun with full bellies and big smiles in no time. I sneaked away to explore some free cabana drinks and catch up on skateboard magazine reading while Dee kept a safe eye on the kids from the comfort of her lounge chair. Some people say it takes time to find your groove whilst resort living; seems we found ours really quickly!

After some proper static sand stationing we opted to partake in a glass bottomed boat tour of the shoreline. Unfortunately the reef in our area wasn’t touted as the best and it wasn’t. This said, it was neat for the kids to observe the undersea on their terms… so comfortable in fact that both kids fell asleep mid-trip and we set them up to slumber on some loungers post ride. As the sun set we had nothing more to do except reflect upon our great first day, enjoying our pace slightly above that of a snail 😉

– Jimmy

Rhys’ definition of “seize the day”:

Mauritius is an island in the Indian Ocean that’s 2000km from the southeast coast of Africa. It’s mainly French-speaking, home of the extinct Dodo bird, malaria free and it’s where we recently visited.

When we were first offered a family relocation to South Africa we had a lot to consider. At that time one of the less burdening variables was the potential to travel to Mauritius. Seeing as it’s close (4 hour flight) it was a good fit for recharging our immigration status as it’s a non-bordering country (required).

We flew out of Johannesburg on an early flight. We almost missed it due to passport control as my validating stamps differed from Jimmy and the kids’ (due to my constant travel) and we had to literally run to the boarding gate. Envision a movie scene where someone spastically runs to their plane in a panic; that was us!

After a mostly uneventful flight (the best kind), we hopped in our rental car and Jimmy drove us to Le Meridien Ile Maurice located on the island’s west coast. After an hours drive we checked in at the resort, found our room, indulged in a buffet dinner and generally got acquainted with our new home for the next few days. While we were all exhausted, excitement remained as the next day would be our first full day in tropical paradise!

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