• Claire Bartle
  • Claire Bartle

Mauritius 🇲🇺 2025

A 17-day adventure by Claire Read more
  • Trip start
    September 14, 2025

    LHR shopping

    September 14, 2025 in England ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Had a very pleasant journey to London Heathrow, made it before the bad weather. Emirates bag drop was excellent 👌 and fast track security always a must. T3 has some lovely shops, Cartier especially!! The staff in there were wonderful. Paul got some amazing cologne, they even gave me some free samples 😊. Looking forward to boarding the A380 and heading off to Dubai! More shopping lolRead more

  • Sun, Sea and Sparrows

    September 16, 2025 in Mauritius

    So landed in Mauritius airport, easy journey through security and baggage, personal taxi to Tarisa Resort and Spa, chucked it down all the way which felt like home from home lol. Check in at hotel smooth and pain free. Hotel room is excellent 👌 and the balcony is massive with excellent views. First meal in restaurant was great. There was a lot of choice for me, but not for paul, we asked the chef if there was anything else vegetarian available apart from rice and cauliflower, there wasn't so they went and prepared a full Indian banquet, the manager came over took our room number and told Paul that every evening they will cook special food for him 😃 they couldn't have been more hospitable if they tried! Pauls a happy bunny! After the meal we crashed out, had a long sleep, grabbed breakfast (just with about 15 mins to spare lol) and headed out for a walk along the resort, beach and pine forest. There's an abundance of birds which is amazing. Sun, sea and sparrows! Happy days.Read more

  • Cat Thatched Roof & Dragons

    September 17, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ 🌬 25 °C

    Well another good day on the beautiful island of Mauritius. Spent the time after breakfast with 3 stolen croissants feeding the birds which was fantastic. We think at one point I had around 50 house sparrows surrounding me along with BulBuls, Weavers, Common Minor Birds and Pigeons lol. The we spent the day relaxing on sun loungers reading our books, the sun loungers were amazing, they had a sliding out table for your drinks lol made me so happy lol. Afternoon tea came around quickly, so we went and grabbed a coffee and pancakes (gor the birds of course), we sat in the thatched roof bar and noticed a camouflaged cat nestled into the thatched roof 😆 . Paul thought I was joking at first, he couldn't see it for toffee lol. In the evening we left the room and I thought I was in the Game of Thrones, im sure i saw a dragon lol turned out it was a very large fruit bat 😅 we had our meal, pauls was specially made again, looked amazing as always.we then went for walk around the complex looking for said dragons, after a walk around we spotted one munching in the coconut tree right opposite our balcony.....we're still sat waiting for him to appear! TO BE CONTINUED......nope scrap that he returned and I got a videoRead more

  • This evening was absolutely Batty

    September 18, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    As sundown took place the sky was overrun by flying foxes, I have never seen Paul so excited! I was excited but also a little anxious as the sky reminded me of the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the flying monkeys come to get Dorothy. I did manage to keep my cool and get some pics of these incredible very fast creatures.Read more

  • Pamplemousse Botanical Garden day 2 pt 1

    September 21, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    So it was raining a little today so we decided to go back to the botanical gardens, this time we went around a different route to see other stuff, such beautiful well kept gardens 😀 i even found a turtle nest (well we think it is from the look fo the eggs). We also got to see shed loads of fruit bat, more to come in part 2.Read more

  • Pamplemousse Botanical Garden day 2 pt 2

    September 21, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    So around lunchtime the fruit bats decided it was time to ear, they’re were so many in one tree eating then sleeping then eating etc. amazing. I think I’m a fan of bats now!!! Paul spent time trying to take a pic of a shiny blue bird! turned out it was a Common Minor bird with an ice cream wrapper in its next 🤣🤣Read more

  • A trip to the south

    September 23, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    As we did the North beached yesterday we thought we'd tackle the journey to the south via the Black River Gorge Forest. As we got to the forest, the weather had turned so we decided to take a drive further south to check out the beaches and see what else we could find. We found Gris Gris beach, absolutely stunning but bloody windy (and not because Paul had curry again last night). Tried to take the mandatory selfie and looked more like cousin IT fronthe Addams family lol. Drove past The Grand Bassin temple which looked fabulous, will defo be going back to look around. We then found The Rochester Waterfall, beautiful walk, stunning waterfall. There was the obligatory vendor selling coconuts, pineapples and bananas, of course we had to buy some. Overall a very good day again. We shall tackle the forest again tomorrow when the weather is better.Read more

  • Black River Gorge Trip

    September 24, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Sobtje weather today has been lovely, just right for exploring. We decided to give the Black River Gorge a second attempt, on the way we spotted Sophies Nature Walk so we stopped to have a walk around, it was lovely, lots of Weavers birds and loads of fallen Weavers nests where the females have rejected the males efforts to make a good home lol. Afternoon a few hours walking around we went back to the car and had a carpark picnic, we'll that certainly got an audience, at one point there were over a dozen Weavers, some house sparrows, Common Mynah birds, Red Whiskered Bulbul, Seychelles Bulbul and a forest dog all waiting to share our lunch! And they were not disappointed as they had most of it lol, oh almost forgot, we did spotted a lizard in the carpark. After that we drove for a bit and came across another waterfall sign, The Alexandra Waterfall so we went to have a look, such a lovely place with amazing views, first time seeing the monkeys 🐒 very cheeky, they're was also dozens of cats which seem to live in the forest! No sign of lizards, lots of paper trees though. Then we pootled off to see the viewing point for the Black River Gorge, this was stunning, lots of monkeys and birds and we spotted the White Tailed Tropicbird, looked like something from a Harry Potter film, magical when flying.Read more

  • Lazy day shopping and beaches

    September 25, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Not much to report on today, I decided that I needed some jewellery to remember Mauritius by, so we went to Grand Baie, nothing took my fancy there, then off to Triolet to a small independent jewellers, 2 pendants later i was happy lol.. we then drove to the local beach to have a look, what a serene place, so beautiful.Read more

  • Seven Coloured Earth

    September 26, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Trip to see the Charamel Seven Coloured Earth & waterfall today, very pretty multicoloured mounds of muck, Paul likened to to shopping at the garden centre for multicoloured succulent bedding lol. However they did have a colony of Aldabra Giant Tortoises which are too cute. A quick browse around the souvenir shop, purchased a book on dodos 🦤 a magnet and keyring.Read more

  • Birdwalk at Ebony Forest

    September 27, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Fabulous day at Ebony Forest doing a birdwatching trip. We left the hotel before breakfast as it was a long trek, we thought there would be more traffic so because we were going to arrive earlier then expected we stopped at the Black River Gorge view point car park to have a pastry. Paul about choked on his when he saw on the post in front of the car and gecko!! Lol this was one of the species we were wanting to see today in the forest and there it was, in a car park on an electrical post 🤣. We spent a good 20 mins watching dozens of these little critters running and jumping into the tree next to it, then headed to Ebony Forest for our trip to hopefully see the Mauritian Pink Pigeon. There were several people in the group all eager to see the pigeon, before the trek it was the mandatory talk and walk through the museum. We did learn it took 1000 years for the Ebony tree to grow to its full size and that they are at risk of extinction in mauritius 🇲🇺.. anyways onto the trip we went, it was quite a steep hike, the mauritian kestrel had not yet arrived in the nesting spot so we weren't able to see it, we did see the Fody, Weavers, Bulbuls and then the Pink Pigeon, so pretty! We saw the Echo parrots fly over too, the reserve has dozens of Aldabra Tortoises roaming around and it was surprising to see them climbing the steep verges to get some food. Halfway through the trip we decided to break from the tour and walk back down to the centre, it was mega hot and we were shattered. On the way down we saw the Olive White Eye bird and the Flycatcher bird and again dozens of geckos and lizards, we also saw our first amphibian of the holiday, a small toad, couldn't get a picture though but will identify from books when we're home. All in all a fabulous trip, well worth it and will sefo be back next year to do the full tour (on a jeep lol) . After the trip it was a long drive back, keep trip to Debonairs pizza 😋 and to the gold.shop lol of course i had to have a gold dodo 🦤.Read more

  • We'll meet again Mauritius 🇲🇺

    September 29, 2025 in Mauritius ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    So today we say Goodbye or more like I'll be back to the wonderful island Mauritius 🇲🇺. We have had the most amazing fortnight experiencing the local culture, food and wildlife. It has truly left a mark in. Our hearts 💕. Now time to fly back home to see our wonderful animals ❤️Read more

  • The flight home Mauritius to Dubai

    September 29, 2025, Indian Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    So, when doing the online check in the day before we fly, an offer pops up to upgrade to business class!!!! Oooh, should I? It was too good an opportunity to miss, so I did it, super excited as we've never flown business before and from what I've read, Emirates is pretty good. So the day of the flight arrives and we board the plane, we walk up a very grand staircase for an airplane and to our seats, wow! Well worth the upgrade just from looking at it, the take off seemed so much better lol maybe the champagne helped lol. When the seat belt sign went off, that was it i was like a child in a candy store, I walked down to the bar, they had a bar that was big enough to have a dance in, of course i went and found Paul and said we have to go get a drink from the bar lol even though he doesn't drink, he was impressed. The bartender made our drinks and then let us go behind the bar and took an Emirates Polaroid picture, honestly I cannot stop smiling (maybe it's the trips to bar lol) it's truly an experience. As we were in business class we were given designer eminites bag, I asi the stewardess if we could purchase 2 more for my lovely Mum and Dad, she said that we can have 2 more and then came back with four more lol. The flight to Dubai is only 6hrs long but this will be the best 6hrs flying we've ever done! We're going to see if we can upgrade at Dubai to London lol 😆Read more

    Trip end
    September 30, 2025