10 OCTOBER

Chez Popo Supermarket
Beautiful colours!
Stunning beach of Trou Aux Biches

MONIQUE:
We have a late morning start. Decide to put on the walking shoes and head into Trou Aux Biches to check out the village. So in exercise gear and off we go. At 10 it is already hot and after about 500 meters Luc is trying to find the bus stop! We stop to get some prices on car and scooter rental. Our next stop is at the only “supermarket” in the village,Chez Popo. We discover a cute little curio shop on the first floor, so spend some time getting little things. From there we stroll over to the main beach – which is an exquisite white beach with blue turquoise water. Apparently the snorkelling here is great. We also get to see the Beachcombers Trou Aux Biches Resort from the sea side – in Mauritius beaches are public property, so the fancy hotels cannot stop you from walking on the beaches although they can control the access to it. We stop to chat to the skipper of the TAB resort dive boat to find out where to get hold of Prodive. He phones the owner, Kevin, who is out on sea, right in front of us. It is another 800 meters walk on the beach before we get to the hotel where Prodiver is situated. We chat to Kevin, but the prices are very expensive and he is very negative about the dives far away and even the day trip we have planned. We leave there not so sure that we want to book a dive.
We decide to find Dive Dream, who got a good writeup on Tripadvisor. After another Km (and now it is about 12 and very hot) we find their office – but they are also closed on a Monday. There is another stop at a tour operator to organise the day trip to the Lagoon island on Wednesday. By this time we are very hot and tired of all the walking. It is nearly one and we are very happy when we see Chez Popo where we stop for Indian Kulfi Icecreams. On our way back we also pop into Atlantic Divers, a local dive operation where the prices are considerably cheaper.
A block from there Luc notices that the Scooba Doo Gate is open. They are a dive operation who also offers underwater scooters for non divers and Luc has been wanting to do it since we got here. At R2500 we said NO – we can do two dives for that price. Well, we decide to check out the diving prices and as we walk in we see a SA flag on the stoep.
Then we are welcomed by a very loud Frenchman, Louis, who immediately switches over to Afrikaans when he hears we are from SA. “I am a Mauritian Boer!” he shouts. He then calls his wife, Lola to come and meet us. Turns out they lived in Jburg, Houtbay and Stellenbosch for many years. He shows us photos of his grand children, who has no trace of his Mauritian blood, but look like real Boere kids. We end up at Louis and Lola for more than an hour – and Callie scores the best expresso in a long time! Lola tells us that they came to retire in Mauritius, but that the business has taken over. She is not happy at all – she will rather be in Johannesburg with her children and great shopping! But you can see that Louis is passionate about his business. After hearing that Luc wants to do the Scooba Doo, he offers to through it in free with the diving! But there is one problem – this anticyclone has made the sea conditions not great and not a lot of diving has been taking place off his tropical platform boat – which was specifically designed for the scooba doo. So we hope that the weather will be better by tomorrow.
It is well after two when we get home after our long expedition on foot. We are hot, hungry and exhausted. We chill out for the rest of the afternoon. I am frustrated with the internet as the connection is not great and trying to upload photos and videos take forever.
Dinner is a disaster. Try to make Biryani with a local mix, but we cannot understand the recipe on the packet and have to guess and it tastes strange! So, the brave ones have strange biryani and the rest have salad. We end the evening with a major Uno challenge and poor Luc gets trashed.

PS: Oh and the Kumon did finally arrive. After a long journey. Luc forgot it in CT. Mandy couriered it to Bonnie to bring with. Bonnie forgot it and had her office DHL it to Mauritius! Poor Luc – no way out on this one!