Hi everyone,
We've been very busy playing tourist since arriving here in Grand Baie. We are now temporary members of GBYC. The club reminds me of RFBYC in Perth with its raised aspect, nice lawns and yachts moored all around. The hot showers are marvellous!
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| Grand Baie Yacht Club |
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| View from GBYC club house |
On Thursday we walked into Grand Baie. It is a touristy town but is nicely situated on the bay. We walked around the the SuperU supermarket which is very impressive for such a small town. From there we walked further out of town to the new mall which is smart but less useful than the SuperU. From there we took a taxi to Chateau Labourdonnais.
The "chateau" is less castle and more plantation mansion. This building was renovated about 10 years ago and is well worth a visit. Their orchard garden is also very good, with examples of a wide range of trees, including nutmeg, cloves, mangoes, "rain tree" and more.
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| Chateau Labourdonnais |
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| Where's Scarlett? |
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| Very impressive orchard garden |
On Friday we joined the crew of Vulcan Spirit in their hire car to visit the Black Water Gorge National Park. We had a good walk around the periphery of one of the gorges, seeing nice views and a few rare endemic birds. The drive across the island is interesting, with lowlands, elevated plateaux and mountainous areas. Lots of sugar cane!
After the walk we had lunch at the Bois Cheri tea plantation. Their restaurant was excellent and the plantation scenic.
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| One of a multitude of impressive skylines |
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| View down Black River Gorge |
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| Rare endemic Pink Pigeon |
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| Bois Cheri tea plantation |
Today we did a tour of various attractions also in the south west of the island. We spent the morning at the Casela Park which houses a range of African animals. We hope to see many in the wild later this year but this was interesting and fun.
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| Casela Park enclosure sign |
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| Lions |
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| Giraffe |
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| Rhinos |
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| Kudu |
We had lunch at the Les Chamarele restaurant which has a magnificent view over the lagoon around Benetiers Island - from Morne Brabant to Little Black River Bay. After lunch we visited Chamarele Falls and the nearby Seven Coloured Earth.
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| View from Les Chamarele restaurant |
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| Chamarel waterfall |
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| Seven Coloured Earth |
We hope to have a relatively lazy day tomorrow, having lunch at GBYC. We expect to stay in Grand Baie for the next day or two.
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