Grande Rivière Sud Est

After not resting well in the airplane, we finally arrived on Ile Maurice at 5 o'clock in the morning. We were pretty happy to not hear this noise anymore and I guess everyone was. I had filled out the form to enter Mauritius way before, however, as the South Africa trip last month was so spontaneous, I haven't put South Africa on the list of travelled to countries in the last 6 months. So Seb got me a form to fill out by hand, however we didn't need it in the end, the immigration officer gave us the stamps without any comment and let us in the country. We got our luggage (which arrived just perfectly) and asked the officer at a counter, what we could bring onto the island. Fresh fruits weren't allowed (Goodbye Apples) but our sandwiches and chopped up carrots were. It was sad about the apples, but throwing them away is better as paying 1.000€ to still get them taken away from you (Right Aussies?)
Seb and I exchanged some money, got a Mauritian SIM Card and picked up our rental car. It's been the first time for us, so we were rather excited. I had to drive on the wrong side (thanks to the British) with an automatic. I can drive on the left side as I've done it in Oxford, however the automatic part was rather new to me and it took some time until I realized my left foot hadn't had a job anymore and shouldn't use the brakes (as we always stopped very hard because I don't have any gradual feeling in my left foot). Luckily, not too many cars were on the streets and I wasn't in a rush, so it was a very pleasant first ride to our apartment. I've asked whether we could check-in at around 8.30am already, which was perfectly fine. So we arrived early at the Riverside Holiday Home, put our luggage down and fell asleep for a couple of hours (me in bed, Seb on the sun lounger on the terrace). Waking up, the sun was higher, and the air warmer then before, but still much more breathable as I've expected. We sat down to eat some breakfast and made a plan on what to do, as I haven't planned anything yet. I did my research on Mauritius, however, instead of planning every single day and minute as usual, I have decided to much rather go with the flow and just do whatever is on our mind. So, we decided to drive up north for the rest of the day and visit the famous Cap Malheureux and its church.
As we wanted to pack our things, I was missing my wallet. We searched everywhere for it, but we couldn't find it and I felt like a panic attack approaching. We searched in the car but it wasn't there. I decided to call First Car Rental, maybe I've lost/forgot it when getting in the car. The man on the phone told me, they'd look for it and that he'd call me back. We went inside again and looked yet another time for the wallet. And, damn me, we found it under a pillow case that I've put on the floor. I was so relieved! 5min later, the First Car Rental guy called me and told me that they haven't found any wallet but that they would go through the CCV videos to check. I burst out with a thank you and told him that we already got the wallet back. Super grateful that they tried so hard to find it, I thanked him and we said goodbye. Now I had to calm my nerves a bit, before driving on to Cap Malheureux.
The drive was again very picturesque, driving next to the ocean, huge sugar cane farms or between tropical trees. And then we came across the Bras D'eau National Park, where Seb insisted to stop. We jumped out of the car and looked around until a man came up to us. He was kind of an officer here and had seemingly not much to do as he showed us around the Nature Trail, the Old Well and the Visitor Centre. He was super enthusiastic and proud to show us were he worked. He showed us the fish in their little pond and some huge tortoises chilling in the sun. They were actually only around 50-55 years old and weighted about 125kg - not too much though, when they look so enormous. He showed us the ruins of the old sugar cane farm and explained to us, that everywhere we stood on has been flooded by the sea before. That explained the shells on the forest floor and the dead corals Seb found laying on the way casually.
We decided to come back tomorrow with better shoes (as we had just intended to go to the beach with our sandals which wasn't the right footwear walking the Nature Trail) and said goodbye to the kind man showing us around. We jumped back in to the car and left for the North.Read more