Snorkelling and a walk, but mostly more bludging
Trip Start
Jul 05, 2008
1
3
8
Trip End
Jul 13, 2008
Pereybere,
Mauritius
Monday, July 7, 2008
A day of bludging followed, relieved only by eating, drinking, and a reasonable active snorkel across the bay to the Hibiscus, where we stayed last year, and back again. Still lovely snorkelling - not the Great Barrier Reef, but pretty good, with lots of different fish
Across the Ocean Beauty bay
. Both of us are making great headway on our big fat books, but cant be said to have achieved anything else. Lunch was at the Pereybere Cafe (or Cafe Pereybere - whichever one we didn't have lunch at yesterday - not sure why their names have to be so similar). Darren had steak, chips and salad, and I had octopus curry - very yummy - Darren even liked my curry as it was spicy but not hot. With three beers and a tip, it came to about 700 rupies or $28.Dinner was at Sealovers, two properties down from the hotel, right on the beach. We shared a starter of spicy squid, then I had a prawn curry and Darren had creole fish. Both were served with a sauce made of tamarind and coriander and were delicious. Darren drank beer and I passed on the wine, since I suspected $56 for Jacobs Creek chardonnay may be indicative of the price-quality ratio, and had a Sealovers Delight cocktail, compete with orange peel strip artistically made into a seahorse! We both had dessert, although we didn't need it - I had Chef´s Surprise (very similar to cheesecake) and Darren had chocolate fondant. The total bill was about $80 - not outrageous, but probably disproportionately expensive compared with the other meals we've had here. We could hear the sega performance at the Hibiscus Hotel from where we were, and didn't wish we were there - last year we were, and it was excruciatingly embarrassing - way too much organised fun and audience participation
Church at Cap Malheureux
. We shared memories of the German family who were the only ones with the strength of character to steadfastly refuse to participate.Today (Monday), we did better with our breakfast order. I had an interesting dish of a pancake topped with scrambled egg, smoked marlin, and caviar, and Darren had fried eggs, this time with bacon, as they should be. We then went for a long walk north along the beach, through the village of Cap Malheureux, to the pretty red and white church on the northwest point of the island, and back again, after which we were very grateful for the cold swimming pool. We had an unexpected snack of a strange Mauritian polenta cake and some vanilla tea, brought to us by the pool, and lunch of a baguette with ham, cheese and achar (vege pickle) assembled from ingredients bought at the supermarket, Monop, across the road. The suite we´re in has a small kitchen, including a full sized fridge, which is very handy.
Darren had a sleep while I read and then battled with the internet, then we went snorkelling, Darren for a short time and I until my teeth were chattering, then came in for drinks in the bath - bloody lovely! We are now considering dinner options, reading (for a change), watching the BBC news on TV (14 degrees in Perth tomorrow - so glad we´re here!) and writing this. Tomorrow we have a trip to Ile aux Cerfs in the east of the island - I suspect this will amount to more bludging in a different location. Oh well, I'm sure we´ll survive!
