Probus travels Mauritius

04 Dec 2013

In August 2013 Probus members travelled via Perth to Mauritius, a small island 80kms long and 60 kms wide off the east coast of Madagascar.

Immediate Past Chairman Margaret Robinson of Goldfields Probus accompanied the group, ensuring there were no hiccups and wrangling a relaxed bunch of people, akin to herding cats at times, with her usual casual aplomb.

At the airport the group was met by Solis Indian Ocean and introduced to Judez the tour guide and Ashard, ex-mechanic and bus driver extraordinaire, whom everyone decided were the top team - Judez, able to answer any question unfazed, in any of four languages. Ashard handled the 40 seater bus like a rally car on narrow roads with cars parked as though abandoned on some roadsides, wriggling it through places that some greybeards on the bus were laying odds on that he 'would never make it.' He did, every time.

Staying at top resorts at the southern end of the island, then transferring to the northern, more cosmopolitan and a tourist area, members were availed of almost every phase of life and work of the Mauritians; their history, slavery, their ancestors and of course the Dodo, the unfortunate Dodo, so good to eat, so easy to catch, so easily pushed to extinction.

The group was transported in utter comfort to a vanilla plantation, walking with lions and associating with cheetahs, markets to assuage the need to shop, a barbeque on a catamaran, yes, they cooked the bbq on the boat as we floated around on a turquoise sea surrounded by the volcanic coastline of Mauritius. The Botanic Gardens in Pamplemousse, near Port Louis showed us the amazing Talipot palm with leaves spanning up to five metres. The palm dies after fruiting, but it is around 80 years old by then. Specimens of Victoria amazonica the giant water lily with pads of two metres or more left everyone speechless.

Five course breakfasts, three course lunches and five course buffet dinners or choose to book in at the restaurant, where a five course dinner was also served, satisfied everyone's hunger. If by chance you were peckish in the mid afternoon, fresh pancakes with a myriad of fillings were served in the bar while you sipped upon a complimentary pina colada, a gin and tonic or jungle juice, a tri-colour rum laced concoction that satisfied the eye as well as soothed the soul.

Members toured French Colonial homes, a biscuit factory where they have made biscuits out of Manioc since 1870. Manioc looks like sweet potato and is grown on the estate - then cleverly squashed and dried, pounded and sifted until it resembles rice flour. The biscuits were well, different and we were treated to morning tea served elegantly in the courtyard along with many flavours of their biscuit. Great for diet biscuits as no sugar seemed to be used in the whole handmade process.

A Mauritius rally was organised by Solis. A handout of instructions, teams of five were given a driver who was to be under instruction, and we set out to find a recipe and ingredients along with the method of cooking a local salted fish curry.  

The locals speak French/Creole along with their own tongue, be it an African or Indian dialect and English as well. Mauritians learn English at school albeit with varying accents. The island has sixteen public holidays each year, that must be some sort of record. Judez informed members that on Chinese New Year, everyone is Chinese and at Christmas, everyone becomes Christian, everyone celebrates. Ramadan was just finishing and Eid was going to be a blast on Friday.

Sugar, a vital export for the country, is falling in price and costing the country dearly. The group was shown a museum located in a sugar mill, one of the many that have been decommissioned under decentralisation and walked through a fascinating story of the long process of sugar refining ... almost as long a process as vanilla undergoes from its seed pods from the vanilla orchid to drying before export, an almost eight month process. Now I know why it is so expensive.

By the time members left that small Indian Ocean island there can't have been much they missed ... what an amazing trip!