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| RODRIGUES |
| What a welcome we got from the locals who don't see many English-speaking visitors. We negotiated the winding channel, and flying the Mauritian and quarantine flags, tied up alongside the dock in the capital, Port Mathurin to await clearance formalities. Within half an hour, a host of interested bustanders had accumulated with offers of help. Amongst them was the legendery James Waterstone who we'd heard of in Gove, Darwin and Cocos who's been greeting visiting yachties for years, and introducing them to his island. |
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| He keeps a ledger with each yacht contributing a page of photos and details. It makes interesting reading, and the trek he took us on by bus to Point Cotton then by foot along the coast certainly introduced us to territory we wouldn't normally have covered! Not the most picturesque place being of volcanic origin, mountainous with pockets of fertile land. It's full supported by Mauritius 560Km to the SW, and many of the 35,00 inhabitants originate from there. A ship calls twice a week with supplies, but the local market is a traditional sight to behold. Pigs, cattle and goats are slaughtered in the yard at the back of the stall, and hunks of meat produced dripping and hot for sale to the eagerly awaiting locals. We stuck to our own rations, but had an excellent meal |
| at the local restaurant with Patrick from Eagle Dancer who arrived a couple of days after us. We liked the Mauritian brewed beer, Pheonix, more like lager really, but didn't risk the local drinking establishment like the one above, which also sold eggs, toothbrushes and motorbikes! The officials were friendly, like Gabriel the Customs official we bumped into on the street when exploring with Patrick |
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| While here we learnt about the terrorist attack in the US via the BBC World Service which we listen to on HF radio at breakfast time. The locals were genuinely shocked and sympathetic, and Patrick, being a yank, was visited by local officials offering condolences. We watched some visuals on CNN News at the TV shop, and were stunned by what we saw. Very sobering times, we can only guess at the reprecussions. Poor World. |