Rodrigues Day 14

Hi everyone,
We have really enjoyed our stay in Rodrigues.  Since our last post we have been out and about exploring more of the island, trying out more restaurants and socialising with the dozen or so boats here.

On Friday we took the bus to Banana River and did the coastal walk from there to Cotton Bay.  Much of the walk is around rocky headlands over a jumble of volcanic rock.  The rest is over moderately steep headlands.  Twas certainly good exercise.  We did the walk with Ann and Chris from sv Silver Girl plus Jen and Robbie who are crewing on sv Vulcan Spirit.

Hills overlooking Banana River

Beach at Banana River

Scenic Bay between Banana River and Cotton Bay 

Local Residents

The reef is close inshore here

Another local resident

 The trail finishes at the Cotton Bay resort where we had a well earned lunch and a cold beer.

Cotton Bay resort

On Saturday we had a relatively lazy day.  We shopped at the market in the morning and did a few boat jobs in the afternoon.  We spend the evening aboard sv Vulcan Spirit playing board games and cards.

On Sunday we took the bus to Mont Lubin and walked east to Mont Limon.  The view from the top is quite nice.  Unfortunately it was a rainy morning so the photos don't do it justice.  We walked back down to the road along a bush track, seeing some very colourful birds and interesting plants.  From there we walked further east to find the Jardin de 5 Senses.  It was closed but looked like a great spot.

We then walked back to Mont Lubin, stopping for lunch at the Mont Limon Restaurant.  This had the best food we've found on the island - really yummy.  From there we took the bus back to Port Mathurin.  We gave the hull a scrub in the afternoon before spending the evening on sv Silver Girl, having a great dinner followed by Banana-grams and cards.

View from the top of Mont Limon

One of many BIG spiders

This morning a cargo and passenger ship arrived at the port.  All the yachts had to up anchor and move out of the harbour.  Happily the ship was on time and we were all re-anchored by 0830.

mv Mauritius Trochetta alongside

At 1200 a group of six of us took the bus up to Mont Lubin and walked to the Jardin de 5 Senses.  We had a pretty good lunch there and then an excellent tour of their garden.  Very interesting garden arranged for the senses of taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing.  Lots of fun.  The hearing wasn't about the plants, rather being a quick introduction to the local Creole language.

Local Palm at the Jardin de 5 Senses

Local Spiral Palm at Jardin de 5 Senses

This morning we booked out clearing out process for tomorrow morning.  We plan to sail for Mauritius around mid-day tomorrow.