Rodrigues

Roughly 560 kilometres east of Mauritius – toward the middle of the Indian Ocean – lies a little island called Rodrigues.  At 108 square kilometres, the island only makes up about 5% of the total area of Mauritius.  It has about 42,000 people and gained autonomous status in 2002.  While the histories of Mauritius and Rodrigues are somewhat aligned, there are quite a few differences.  Rodrigues was named after a Portuguese explorer who charted the islands, while the Dutch renamed Mauritius when they arrived.  Several Dutchmen landed on the island but it was the French to first properly settle it and populated it with slaves imported from Africa.  The British took control of the island around the same time as they took control of Mauritius.  The island didn’t have a history of indentured labourers coming from India, so the population is predominantly Creole (a mix of African and French descent) and Catholic rather than Indian and Hindu.  Like Mauritius, the main language is a French Creole language called Rodriguan Creole (which is very similar to Mauritian Creole).  Everyone also speaks French, and English turned out to be a struggle in a few places on the island.  Unlike Mauritius, the Rodriguan people overwhelmingly voted against independence from Britain back in the 1950’s, but decolonization was the flavour of the moment and Britain attached Rodrigues to Mauritius when it granted Mauritius independence.

The pace of life in Rodrigues is incredibly slow.  There is no hustle.  There is no bustle.  And nobody is ever in a rush.  This was best evidenced by the public bus system on the island, to which I will devote a separate post.  Many people say that Rodrigues is like what Mauritius was like 25 years ago.  Obviously, I can’t vouch for that, but Rodrigues is a great place to just chill out and relax, and that is exactly what I did.

A few highlights of my time in Rodrigues:

Cargo ship:

I decided to take the national cargo ship (MS Mauritius Trochetia) from Mauritius to Rodrigues.  It was the same price as flying but it took about 38 hours and included two nights of accommodation and five meals, so I figured it would be good value and an interesting new way to travel.  There were maybe fifty or sixty other passengers on the ship and all of them were locals.  I was the only tourist.  And the only person who didn’t speak French.  Despite that, I had a few good chats with a few locals who did their best to converse in their limited English.  To save time, I opted to fly back.

Villa Mon Tresor:

From the cargo ship, I checked into my traditional Mauritian/Rodriguan chambres d’hotes (guesthouse).  This guesthouse – named Villa Mon Tresor (VMT for short) – was the highlight of my time in Rodrigues.  The typical chambres d’hotes on the islands generally include breakfast and dinner, and at VMT, the meals were prepared by the proprietor of the guesthouse, a lovely lady named Marie Louise.  Not only was Marie Louise the hostess with the mostess, she could cook like nobody else.  Every meal was a big spread and every component was absolutely delicious.  Breakfast was served just for the guests (there were two older French ladies there for my first two nights, but I was the lone guest for the next two), dinners were served with Marie Louise and her charming husband seated at the table with us.  It was such a delight being in their company, and I would go back to Rodrigues one day just to stay at VMT again.

Francois Leguat Reserve:

Named after a French explore and naturalist who was the first to write about Rodrigues, the Francois Leguat Giant Tortoise & Cave Reserve is the island’s biggest attraction.  In fact, it is one of the island’s only attractions (there’s really not all that much on the tiny island), but it’s a quality one and it makes up for the island’s lack of other major tourist sights.  The star attraction of the Francois Leguat Reserve: giant tortoises!  Just like on Mauritius, the indigenous giant tortoise was led to extinction by man so these have been imported from the Seychelles.  The reserve also has a breeding program for the much smaller (and apparently hornier) Radiata tortoise from Madagascar.  In addition, there are some Rodrigues fruit bats (the only native mammal on the island), several caves (including the quite large Grande Caverne), and the only museum on the island (which does an excellent job of walking visitors through the island’s history, geography, flora and fauna, and more).  I even learned that the Pope visited Rodrigues in 1989 and it was (and still sort of is) a big fucking deal.

Beaches:

What the island lacks in major tourist attractions, it makes up for in beaches.  Little beaches dot the coast of the island, and as Rodrigues is entirely surrounded by a massive lagoon, all of the beaches have calm, pristine water.  Though the weather played up a bit on my first two days, I was able to get some amazing beach and swim time on my third day.  I first went to the super gorgeous St Francois beach, but after finding the ground to be a bit rocky, I walked around the corner of the island to the beach at Pointe Coton.  It was a great move on my part, because the sand was soft, the water was calm, the beach was empty (like all beaches on Rodrigues), and I got some excellent swim time.  Where else in the world can you have your own beach without paying an exorbitant price?!?

Hiking:

Hiking is the other main activity on Rodrigues.  I did two big hikes during my stay.  The first was the coastal walk from Graviers to St Francois.  Reminiscent of the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk in Sydney, the walk takes you along one long stretch of the island’s coast, passing empty beach after empty beach along the way.  For my second hike, I started at Mourouk Beach and worked my way up a trail that took me to the top of the ridge that runs down the centre of the island.  It was quite steep in some parts, but the views from the top were very rewarding!  Also at the top…

Chez Jeanette and Jardin des 5 Sens:

I finished my hike with a massive lunch at a lovely restaurant called Chez Jeanette, which was super recommended by my hostess and about every guidebook written about Rodrigues.  The traditional Creole cuisine was to die for!  Just next door, a small botanical garden called the Jardin des 5 Sens (Garden of 5 Senses) took me on a guided tour of endemic plants as well as through different plants that would trigger each of my five senses (see, hear, taste, smell, and touch).

Ile aux Cocos:

My last major activity was a day trip to Ile aux Cocos (Coconuts Island).  The tiny island sits offshore but still within Rodrigues’ massive lagoon.  It is a breeding site for four species of seabird – the only such island to have that claim in all of the Indian Ocean.  Though the weather played up a bit, I did get to see some of the native birds and go for two swims (including one in the rain).

My time in Rodrigues was just absolutely amazing.  I’d like to get back there one day to hike around more of the island and swim at more of the beaches (and, of course, stay at VMT again!)  I will make a point to get back one day, but I still have much more to see before that.  I do have one more blog to post about Mauritius and Rodrigues – a blog devoted to their ridiculously funny bus system.  But first, let me take a selfie.

To see more photos of my time in Rodrigues, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100303218095331.1073741889.3000370&type=1&l=228d811abc

Mauritius: More Things I Did

As I mentioned, I did a LOT of things on Mauritius.  Like, I saw the whole island.  ALL OF IT.  Thanks to the guide book recommending that I hire a rental car for my stay, I was able to really get around and maximize my time.

Here are a few more highlights of my time in Mauritius:

Gardens:

I visited two botanical gardens while in Mauritius.  The botanical gardens in the central city of Curepipe were pretty shitty, but the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens in the northern part of the island were the complete opposite.  Lonely Planet claims that these are one of the top botanical gardens in the world.  I still think Singapore’s and Sydney’s are better, but these were pretty fabulous.  I signed on for one of the guided tours (of course, it was me and about ten French people – I’m sure the guide was thrilled to have to translate it all into English for just one person) and now I’m dead set on doing guided tours at all botanical gardens I visit in the future.  While all the plants were labelled with their names, the tour told me more about the plants – including where they came from, how they made it to Mauritius, what they are used for, and more.  I took so many pictures and so many notes and I’m just wondering what I’ve missed at other botanical gardens that I’ve visited in the past.

Shopping and eating:

I did look for a few souvenirs and try a few local delights while on the island.  Central Market in Port Louis has a ground floor full of produce and an upper floor full of souvenir stands.  I bought a cushion cover with a dodo on it.  Of course.  I was expecting the Mahebourg Monday Market to be similar, and while it had a similar produce section, it was light on the souvenirs.  Instead, there was a good selection of vendors selling cheap eats like faratas and dholl puri.  I do love me a $1 lunch!  Back in the more urban part of the island, I spent some time at the Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius.  The biggest mall on the island was tiny by American or Australian standards, but it had a few treats, such as the famous Vonacorona Ice Cream (Mauritius’ popular equivalent to Gelato Messina – but obviously not Gelato Messina) and the Flying Dodo Brewing Company (the first and only microbrewery on the island).

Architecture:

I visited three colonial and/or creole mansions while on the island.  At Chateau Labourdonnais, I toured the gorgeous plantation house then strolled through their on-site botanical garden.  They also produce rum (everywhere on the island produces rum) and grow a wide range of tropical fruits.  I got to have a juice and jelly tasting after my tour!  The creole mansion called Eureka has a great little restaurant in it, adult-sized swing set, and some great hiking trails behind it which led down to a gorge with some beautiful waterfalls.  Finally, the estate house at St Aubin was set on a larger property with a small zoo, rum distillery (of course), and vanilla production!  I got to learn about how they make vanilla there on the island.  Similarly…

Making things:

I had the chance to learn how all sorts of things are made on the island.  And by things, I mean consumables:  food and drink (and/or ingredients for food and drink!)  Aside from the various rum distilleries and the vanilla plantation at St Aubin, I also visited a few other production sites and these proved to be my favourite activities on the island, I think mainly because it’s a very different tourism experience than is offered by most places… and maybe because it’s delicious too!

L’Aventure du Sucre is set in an old sugar factory.  The museum goes through the history of sugar, the complete history of Mauritius (which is great because the National History Museum was closed during my stay), and the history of sugar in Mauritius (as the island’s chief export, sugar played a major role in shaping the island).  It also, of course, had a big section on the process of making sugar, followed by a sugar tasting of twelve types of sugar made on the island.  Can you think of anywhere else you can have a sugar tasting?!?  The on-site restaurant also had a great dessert menu (as it should) and I opted for a sweet and gooey chocolate gateau.

The Bois Cheri Tea Plantation is actually a plantation AND a factory AND a museum AND a restaurant.  The tea is grown on site and a tour takes you through the factory and explains the step-by-step process of tea making.  After that, there is a small museum which outlines the history of tea.  Did you know that Americans invented the tea bag?  Take that, Brits!  After that, I had a lovely tea tasting where I got to sample all twelve of their teas (though I only made it through seven before nature started calling…)  The on-site restaurant served up tea-inspired dishes (such as a starter bread with a delicious tea chutney) as well as dishes featuring the vanilla grown at the nearby St Aubin.  I had chicken with vanilla sauce.  For dessert:  the most orgasmic tea sorbet you can only imagine in your wildest dreams.

At La Route du Sel, I toured a sea salt factory.  I had no idea how sea salt was made, and to be honest, I never really cared, but it was super interesting to go through the process.  Seawater is pumped into a series of terraces.  The water slowly flows down and evaporates leaving a bunch of salt crystals to be collected from the lower terraces.  Most of the work is still done by hand which is a common theme on Mauritius.

Finally, my favourite one was the Rault Biscuit Factory.  Fifth generation family-owned, the factory produces a variety of biscuits made from the cassava root (which means they are all gluten-free).  The tour of the tiny factory went through every step of the process and I got to see all of the workers busy making biscuits (all by hand, of course).  The old lady who owns the place is the only person with the knowledge of the exact proportions to use when mixing up the flour for each flavour and she does all the mixing herself each morning despite her age (she looked like she was probably around 70, but she was there on the floor the whole time, full of energy and running the business like a champion).  Unfortunately, the biscuits are only sold on Mauritius, but fortunately, I got to do a biscuit tasting of all the flavours (weeeee!) and buy some to take with me on my travels.  They came in handy as an alternative breakfast on some early morning starts in India the following week.

Just in case you couldn’t tell, I REALLY liked Mauritius!  It was such a fabulous place to holiday and I think maybe I’ll get back there again one day – not because I missed anything, but because it was just such a pleasant, easy place to holiday.  There is one more place I visited that is technically part of Mauritius:  the semi-autonomous island of Rodrigues.  I’ll get that blog posted soon.  But first, let me take a selfie.

To see the third (and final) set of photos of my time in Mauritius, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100300032823641.1073741888.3000370&type=1&l=de30610480

Mauritius: Some Things I Did

I did a LOT in Mauritius.  Like, a LOT a LOT!

A few highlights of my time in Mauritius:

Beaches:

Obviously.  I went to a lot of beaches.  Some were just for the views of the islands offshore.  Some were just to stare at the ridiculously turquoise, aquamarine, and every other gorgeous shade of green and blue water.  Some were for sunset.  But I only went for a swim at one beach on the Mauritian mainland:  Blue Bay.  And it was stellar!  Gorgeous sand, gorgeous water, and gorgeous views out into the bay.  The reason I only swam at one beach on Mauritius is because…

Island trips:

… I took a few day trips to other islands!  Island day trips are a common activity for visitors to Mauritius, and quite a few small islands surround the Mauritian mainland.  Most tours include snorkelling and a BBQ lunch of chicken, fish, garlic bread, salads, and all you can drink rum, beer, and soft drinks (but they really want you to drink the rum, especially if you’re on a boat with a bunch of Chinese tourists: “You have to drink this! The Chinese don’t drink!”).  My first trip was a catamaran cruise to Îlot Gabriel (Gabriel Island) in the north of Mauritius where I sat on a luxurious white sand beach, swam in the shallow water, and relished in the fact that I was there.  My trip to Île aux Benetiers (Benetiers Island) in the west of Mauritius was a bit of a bust in that it was gray and rainy for most of the time we were on the island.  All wasn’t lost, however, as we stopped to swim in the open ocean on the way there and on the way back (“Are you going to swim? You have to swim! The Chinese don’t swim!”).  Oh, and did I mention there were dolphins?  Motherfucking dolphins!  And I got to swim with those motherfuckers!  And it was awesome!  My third island trip was actually two islands off the east coast:  the uber gorgeous Île aux Cerfs (Deer Island) and Îlot Mangenie (Mangenie Island).  The weather was the best for this one which was perfect because Île aux Cerfs has tons of gorgeous white sand secluded beaches to discover.  I walked around the island to a secluded spot and got my swim on in perfect peace.  Later on, our boat visited a coastal waterfall with monkeys and bats, and then stopped at Mangenie Island for a BBQ lunch.

My final trip – to Île aux Aigrettes (Egrets Island) in the southern part of Mauritius – was a bit different.  Île aux Aigrettes is a nature reserve where the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation is trying to recreate what Mauritius looked like before humans arrived.  The foundation has planted native plant species and introduced native animals, particularly various endangered bird species such as the pink pigeon, olive white-eye, and Mauritian fody, and Telfair’s skink.  The Aldabra tortoise from the Seychelles – a cousin of the now extinct Mauritian tortoise – has also been introduced to get the eco-system as close as possible to how it used to be.  The saddest part were all of the bronze statues dotting the island which represent all of the species that have gone extinct since man arrived.  Aside from the dodo, these include the Mauritian tortoise, giant skink, Mauritian owl, red rail, Mauritius blue pigeon, and so many more.

Outdoors:

Hiking is popular in Mauritius and the island boasts some great hiking trails.  I spent a day in Black River Gorges National Park (which should just be called The National Park because it’s the only one in the country) which contains amazing viewpoints and the only tract of native vegetation that wasn’t totally destroyed by human activities.  Vallee de Ferney is a nature reserve that grows and reintroduces native plant species in an attempt to restore the land to what it once was.  The reserve has a small population of the super endangered Mauritius kestrel – a raptor which only had 4 birds left in the mid-1970’s.  There are about 400 now but they are still super vulnerable.  The reserve also boasts a great hiking trail with native plant species labelled along the way.  Trou aux Cerfs (which I guess translates to “deer hole”) is the rim of a dormant volcano located in Curepipe – Mauritius’ second biggest city.  The rim has been turned into a nice park with a 1km jogging trail around it.  Trees and a lake fill the crater.

Museums and monuments:

Mauritius has quite a few museums and monuments.  The most important for me was the Natural History Museum in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius.  It was there that I got to see the exhibit on the dodo, one of my 103 Things.  Did you know it was a pigeon?  Ick!  Port Louis had quite a few other museums, including UNESCO-listed Aapravasi Ghat (the landing place for most of the indentured labourers from India), the Blue Penny Museum (which contains early maps of Mauritius, some super rare stamps, and a famous statue of and exhibition on Paul et Virginie – Mauritius’ most famous piece of literature), the Mauritius Postal Museum (which is super interesting if you love mail, and super quick if you don’t), the Photography Museum (privately owned and operated by an older couple who have amassed an astounding collection of cameras and old pictures of Mauritius, it includes the lens which took the very first picture in the Southern Hemisphere, right here in Mauritius), Fort Adelaide (an old British fortress up on a hill which is only good for the views), and the SSR Memorial Centre for Culture (the old home of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam which features the story of Maurtius’ first Prime Minister and leader of its independence movement).

On the opposite side of the island from Port Louis is the town of Vieux Grand Port.  Here I visited the Vieux Grand Port Historical Site and the Frederik Hendrik Museum.  The historical site contains the ruins of the first French fort on the island.  Underneath that lies the first Dutch fort, and they have excavated one small section to unearth the oldest structure on the island.  The museum contains an exhibition on the Dutch history of Mauritius, which seems to be mostly forgotten everywhere else.  A few kilometres south of the historical site and museum stands a marker on the spot of the first Dutch landing on the island.

Randomly, on the south coast of the island, I received yet another history lesson in the form of a monument to Matthew Flinders.  For the non-Aussies reading this, Flinders was the first man to sail all the way around Australia and determine that it was actually its own continent rather than attached to any other land mass.  He was even the first to propose the name “Australia”!  He landed on Mauritius on the way back from Australia to England as his ship needed some repairs.  As France was at war with England, the French captured him and imprisoned him on Mauritius for six years.

Hindu sites:

As roughly one half of the island is Hindu, I of course had to visit some religious sites.  A small temple by the name of Sagar Shiv Mandir is painted completely white and sits on a little bit of land sticking out into the sea.  It was quite scenic and must have a super high property value!  The big ticket religious site, however, was Ganga Talao.  Ganga Talao is a religious site at Grand Bassin – a deep lake filling a volcanic crater in the south of the island.  The lake is a holy site for Hindus and legend has it that Shiva accidentally spilled some water from the Ganges here on Mauritius.  His wife, Parvati, to him to leave the water there because the island, though uninhabited at the time, would one day host people from India to pray there.  A hike up to the crater’s rim provided a fantastic view of the lake, the temples that surround the lake, and the two massive statues of Shiva and Parvati, exact replicas of statues in India.  The statue of Shiva stands at 108 feet tall.  The statue of Parvati is still under construction.

It all sounds like a pretty full schedule, doesn’t it?  And I’m only halfway through telling you all about what I did on Mauritius.  I’ll need to type up one more blog to finish it up.  But first, let me take a dodo selfie.

To see the second set of photos of my time in Mauritius, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100299763687991.1073741887.3000370&type=1&l=324c629a55

Mauritius: An Introduction

A tiny island in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius is 2,000 kilometres from the African mainland.  It’s roughly half the size of the smallest US state, Rhode Island, and about 25% smaller than Luxembourg. With nearly 1.3 million people, it’s one of the ten most densely populated countries in the world.  Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands which also includes the slightly larger Reunion Island (a part of France) slightly to the west and the much smaller Rodrigues Island (a semi-autonomous part of Mauritius) much further to the east.

The original inhabitants of Mauritius were the now-extinct dodo birds.  Europeans were the first humans to settle Mauritius (despite Russia’s demands at the United Nations in 1966 for Britain to decolonize the islands and leave the indigenous population alone… silly Russia… always acting like a fool).  Ancient Arab maps do make note of the Mascarene Islands, but the Portuguese were the first Europeans to properly chart them.  Later on, the Dutch were the first to land and live on Mauritius.  The Dutch controlled Mauritius for 72 years in the 1600’s before abandoning the island.  It was too inhospitable for them.  The French came shortly thereafter and ruled for 95 years during the 1700’s, but the British decided they wanted it and attacked the French to gain control of the island in 1810.  The British ruled for 158 years before Mauritius was granted its independence.

Given its proximity to Madagascar and the African mainland, Mauritius is technically considered a part of Africa, though it hardly resembles Africa at all (except for all the South African chain restaurants).  Mauritius leads Africa in most international rankings devised by most international think tanks and the UN.  It’s has the highest Human Development Index ranking in Africa, the highest Democracy Index ranking in Africa (beating the USA, Japan, France, and a bunch of other western countries too), and the highest Economic Freedom Index ranking (again beating the USA, UK, and nearly all of Europe too).

Mauritius still has its quirks though.

For example, the highway system in Mauritius consists of one highway (the island is small – how many do they need?)  The best part though, is that rather than on-ramps and off-ramps, there are roundabouts.  Try going through a roundabout at 110 km/hour. The public bus system is fucking hilarious and I will devote a whole blog post to this soon.  As a former British colony, English is the official language.  All schooling is conducted in English.  Parliament is conducted in English.  Street signs are all in English.  And anything to do with government is in English.  But English is not the main language of the island and virtually nobody speaks English as their native language.  That honour goes to:  French, or more specifically, a French Creole language.  As part of the treaty that handed over Mauritius from French to British control, the local population was allowed to keep their French language.  Everyone takes French in school.  The vast majority of tourists to Mauritius are French so all white tourists are immediately greeted with a “bonjour”.  They are surprised that I never took French in school.  But why take French when I can take something useful like Spanish?

Indeed, the French dominate the tourism market in Mauritius.  There are some Brits and some Germans who visit, along with South Africans, Chinese, and Indians, but the vast majority are French.  As an American and Australian, everyone was super surprised that I was there.  “How did you hear about Mauritius?”  Ummmm… it’s a country… That’s like asking visitors to New York “How did you hear about the United States?”  Or we can just back up.  “Have you ever heard of islands before?”

The island is demographically diverse, including by race and religion.  Roughly two-thirds of the population are Indian Mauritians descended from indentured labourers who came here to work after slavery was abolished.  About one-quarter are Creole – descendants of black slaves with a bit of European ancestry mixed in.  There’s a small but prominent Chinese Mauritian minority, as well as the white people – French Mauritians and South African expats.  Just under half of the population is Hindu, one-quarter is Catholic, and one-fifth is Muslim.  And they all, for the most part, get along pretty well.

The diversity of ethnic groups means that Mauritian cuisine has influences from India, China, Europe, and Africa.  The creole cuisine is big on rice, noodles, curries, and spices.  Because of the country’s island location, fish and seafood are the most popular meats.  The local street food is delicious – my favourites being faratas (flour-based flatbread rolled up and filled with veggie curry) and dholl puri (very similar to a farata but made with yellow split peas instead of just flour).  After that, the diversification sort of stops.  Aside from the Mauritian creole cuisine, I’ve determined there are four other types of cuisine available on the island:

1.  Indian food

2.  Chinese food

3.  South African chain restaurants

4.  Pizza

There’s not a single Mexican restaurant on the entire island.  I went to the one Thai restaurant but it didn’t taste very Thai.  I saw one Middle Eastern fast food outlet.  Were you looking for Greek food?  Awww I’m sorry!  Japanese food?  Awww I’m sorry!  Spanish food?  Awww I’m sorry!  American food?  Does McDonald’s count?  No?  Awww I’m sorry!  I was hungry for something different after three and a half weeks in Mauritius.

Some other quirks:  a big lagoon surrounds much of the island.  It makes the waves break away from the coast, keeping the beaches calm and enjoyable.  The only downside: the water surrounding the island is super shallow.  Like, SUPER shallow, as in, you can walk for several kilometres out to sea in some places.  It’s quite hard to have a proper swim, but quite cool that you can go so far from shore and be completely safe.

There’s also a lot of stray dogs in Mauritius, which was quite unpleasant.  It wasn’t as bad as Myanmar or Russia, but it was still a bit confronting.  Most of the dogs were quite tame and would follow you around for ages just hoping you’d throw some food their way.  I got followed quite a few times.  I don’t even like dogs but they just looked so sad that I couldn’t help but feel for them.

Despite the French influence, wine seems scarce.  Rum is the drink of choice, and with sugar one of the primary industries of the island, there’s tonnes of rum to be drunk.  Beer – particularly the fairly average local brand called Phoenix – is a close second place to rum.

Mauritius manages to pack a lot of activities into a small island.  Most tourists head to the fancy resorts and don’t see much else, but I am far too poor for that.  I stayed in small guesthouses and studio apartments, and drove around with a (crappy) rental car trying my best to cover every corner of the island.  I think I did a pretty good job.  I would tell you all about what I did, but this blog is already too long so I’ll save it for the next installment.  For now, you can peruse my first set of pictures linked below.  But first, let me take a selfie.

To see the first set of photos of my time in Mauritius, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100299460455671.1073741886.3000370&type=1&l=e733b52a26

An Ode to Nando's

Ok, it’s not really an ode, but you’ll deal with it.  Rather than always blog about the cities and countries that I visit in general, I thought I’d spice it up with something a little different that spans several different countries:  Nando’s!  In all fairness, I was going to lump this in with my South Africa blog or my Kruger blog because of the wildlife aspect of Nando’s, but then it got too long and earned its own post.  For those of you who don’t know what Nando’s is (which is mainly the Americans reading this), Nando’s is a fast food chain which specializes in chicken with a Mozambican-Portuguese peri peri sauce theme (yes, it makes sense: Mozambique was a Portuguese colony and it’s right next door to South Africa which is where Nando’s comes from no matter how much Brits insist it’s a British invention).  It’s massive in southern Africa and massive in Australia and New Zealand and massive in the UK and Ireland and big in the Middle East and South Asia and Southeast Asia… and it’s coming to the US soon with stores already open in Washington DC and Chicago.  Basically, Nando’s is Chick-fil-a but with happy spicy sauce instead of sad bigotry sauce.

Now, I mentioned that I was going to include Nando’s in my wildlife blogging but that doesn’t make too much sense.  Or does it?  There is a point to this blog (sort of).  So, I used to eat Nando’s quite a bit when I first moved to Australia and lived right near a Nando’s, but when I moved suburbs, I had to switch my allegiance to a burger chain called Grill’d because it had two locations closer to my house and always stocked Gatorade which is perfect for the hangover crowd.  But, being in Nando’s home country of South Africa, I thought I should visit Nando’s again because it totally counts as local cuisine.  Each Nando’s prides itself on being unique and the one we visited was the best one that I’ve been to so far.  “Why is that?” asks an inquisitive member of the audience.  It’s because of the view.  The Nando’s was at a rest stop called the Alzu Petroport which is located exactly in the middle of nowhere halfway between two small towns that nobody has ever heard of.  That’s not the important part.  The important part is that this rest stop in the middle of nowhere has a big waterhole and a massive enclosure which contains a whole shitload of wildlife.  So, Jarrod and I were sitting there eating our spicy peri peri chicken burgers with sides of chips and a Coca-Cola for me and a Coke Zero for Jarrod (because he’s a skinny bitch) while we watched ostriches, eland, zebras, buffalos, and rhinos go about their biz-nass at the waterhole.  Let me repeat:  THERE WERE RHINOCEROSES AT THIS NANDO’S!  AND OSTRICHES!  AND ZEBRAS!  AND BUFFALO!  AND BIG FUCKING ANTELOPE!  How cool is that?!?

Because every traveller needs some comfort food now and again along the way, I also ate Nando’s in three other countries:  Mauritius, UAE, and Malaysia.  In Australia and South Africa, most Nando’s generally have the format of the customer ordering at the counter and then servers bringing your meal to you.  In Dubai, it was much more fast-food like:  you order at the counter and then go back to retrieve your meal when it’s ready.  Mauritius and Malaysia, on the other hand, were full service restaurants.  How fancy!  In Mauritius, Nando’s even had a delivery service and a special menu devoted to “Designer Drinks”.  Where the fuck am I?!?  In Malaysia, Nando’s served as the all-important first safety meal after my bout of food poisoning.

Allegedly, according to Wikipedia, there’s even Nando’s in India!  I don’t believe them though because I didn’t see any Nando’s in India and Nando’s is quite nice.

And there’s nothing nice in India.

Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park is the crown jewel of wildlife spotting in southern Africa, and I was super pumped at the chance to see some leopards – the last of the “Big 5” that I had yet to see after nearly a month and a half in Africa.  We arrived in the afternoon and did a game drive from our touring van.  It started off slow.  We saw one new species of antelope:  the waterbuck (with what looks like a toilet seat shaped ring on its butt).  We also saw a southern ground hornbill – a super endangered flightless bird which we learned more about later from a display at the visitor centre.

That evening, we did a night game drive in the hopes of seeing the more nocturnal feline species.  We saw plenty of elephants, and that’s about it.  It was a bust.

I was discouraged, but the next day we had a full day game drive booked in on a proper game drive vehicle, so all hope wasn’t lost.  The drive started off slow with mainly birds at first.  We saw a kite (a species of bird, not the kind that humans fly), some cape glossy starling (though my mate James thinks they are a different starling species, I’m going to go with what the ranger said), a southern yellow-billed hornbill, steppe buzzard, and grey stork.  In other boring news, we also saw a rock monitor (lizard) somewhere along the way.

Then, it happened – our big break – the first of our amazing sightings.  RHINOS!  I had seen rhinos at Etosha National Park in Namibia, but the rhinos we saw at daytime were far away and the ones we saw at the watering hole at night were quite dimly lit.  These rhinos were right here.  Like, right here – next to our vehicle.  There were a handful of them – maybe six or seven – and they eventually crossed the road right in front of our truck – maybe 10 metres ahead.  I got some amazing pictures and I was a super happy camper.

We then stopped at a large watering hole where three male lions were lazing by the water.  Two dumb ass giraffes dawdled over to the watering hole to take a drink.  They were only metres away from the lions, but apparently giraffes have poor eyesight so they didn’t notice.  One of the giraffes eventually figured out the danger and made a beeline for safety across the road.  The lions must have had a big feed recently, because other than perking up at the beginning when the giraffes initially came over, they didn’t really make any indication that they were going to pounce.  We waited – we hoped – but they just laid there like lazy cats.

Fuckers.  Why won’t you stupid lions put on a show for us?!?

It was then that my moment of glory came.  On day 43 out of 44 days in Africa, and after travelling through seven African countries, I finally saw A LEOPARD!  It was just wandering around in the bushes near the side of the road.  And then, minutes later, there was ANOTHER LEOPARD!  And then, later on, a THIRD LEOPARD!  This one was the best because it was up in a tree and it was guarding its next meal: a dead impala hanging from another branch of the tree.  HOLY AMAZEBALLS, BATMAN!  I was so pleased that I finally saw some leopards that I almost jizzed like a firehose.

Was that too much information?  I’m sorry.

Now, if each of the leopards represents a tier of a delicious three-tiered cake, then the icing was the next animal sighting:  cheetahs!  Two of them to be exact.  We assume they were a male and a female couple, but I suspect they could have been gay.  I mean, look at those spots – they are super fabulous.  I had seen a cheetah in Namibia but it was far off the road.  These were fairly close and allowed for some pretty good pictures.  I like icing on the cake.

Do you know what else is good with icing on cake?  Those icing flowers which are just pure blobs of icing.  The icing flowers came in the forms of (1) a spotted hyena – another animal that I had not seen on any of my safaris in Africa until now and my second priority sighting after the leopards and (2) the black-backed jackal.

But you know what’s even better than a three-tiered cake with lots of icing and icing flowers?  A three-tiered cake with lots of icing an icing flowers AND sprinkles!  Everyone loves sprinkles because they are super adorable.  Do you know what else is super adorable?  The steenbok.  Just Google it (or, better yet, check out my pictures below!)  The steenbok is the tiniest antelope inside Kruger National Park and it’s almost too adorable to handle.  It’s so cute that I wanted to dress it up for Halloween.

Of course, no cake is complete without… a cherry on top.  Duh!  And what was my cherry on top?  Two zebras.  Now, I had seen a tonne of zebras on my trip.  But why were these two zebras special?  It was because they were just standing there.  Chilling.  On the side of the road.  Both with raging hard-ons.  There’s nothing like a good pair of zebra boners to bring a smile to a dirty-minded guy’s face.  Commence giggles… NOW!

So, Kruger National Park was super successful and I was extremely elated at the wildlife viewing we had.  Now that I’ve fully conquered Africa, it’s time to get some rest and relaxation time on a beach in Mauritius.  But first, let me take a selfie.

To see more photos of my time in Kruger, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100289950463771.1073741882.3000370&type=1&l=274db9456a

Swaziland

Swaziland, like Lesotho, is a small country that is almost completely surrounded by South Africa.  Aside from knowing the capital city, Mbabane, and the fact that the king has a dozen wives (this I learned on an episode of Madam Secretary), I honestly didn’t know too much about this little African kingdom.  I assumed it would look like Lesotho, just because of its similar size and location, but boy was I was wrong.  While the international rankings don’t put Swaziland too far ahead of Lesotho, a little bit apparently goes a long way.  Unlike Lesotho, the border post looked very official, roads were well-maintained, and the cities looked like actual cities (with buildings that wouldn’t look out of place in a western country).  It appears Swaziland’s economy has been handled fairly well by the king – the last reigning absolute monarch in Africa – though there is a push for more democracy in the country (followed by laws to stop that).  Women’s rights are a big issue and the HIV problem is widespread (Swaziland has the highest HIV rate in the world).  Because of AIDS, the life expectancy in Swaziland is one of the lowest anywhere in the world.

Our main purpose for visiting Swaziland was to go to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was there that we took a game ride.  This was not a game drive in the protection of a truck, but rather a game ride – on a bicycle!  Mlilwane doesn’t have any major predators (aside from crocodiles) so it was quite safe to hop on a bike and ride around the trails that cover the park.  As I was nearing the end of my time in Africa, I had already seen the vast majority of the species that Mlilwane has on offer.  Along the way, we saw heaps of kudu, zebra, blue wildebeest, and blesbok, along with a crocodile and hippo or two.  We could even stop and get quite close to the animals.  I did see one new antelope species:  the nyala!  I was quite thrilled to get one new one on the list.  In addition to the game we saw on the bicycle ride, our campsite in the park was filled with bushbuck, helmeted guineafowl, monkeys, impala, and even some warthogs roasting by the campfire.

Dinner that evening was at the restaurant at our campsite.  I had the local beer, Sibebe, along with the one animal that I had yet to eat despite its abundance in Africa:  impala!  My impala came in the form of a stir-fry.  Warthog also featured prominently on the menu.  Out of curiosity, Jarrod asked where the impala meat and warthog meat came from.  Turns out they just go and get some of the animals from around camp.  Did I mention that it’s a wildlife sanctuary?  Yeah…

Our road out of Swaziland took us through the mountains and above the cloud line, which was pretty great for some photos.  I was excited for our next stop back in South Africa:  Kruger National Park, where all my hopes and dreams of seeing a leopard could come true.  But first, let me take a (nyala) selfie.

To see more photos of my time in Swaziland, follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100290148092721.1073741884.3000370&type=1&l=81726154dc