It was a nervy start in planning the trip. We couldn’t decide where to go, but a Mauritian friend of Rach’s had convinced us to spend some time on his island, so I threw caution to the wind and booked a couple of one-way tickets on a direct BA flight. As there are only two airlines offering direct flights from London to Mauritius and we didn’t fancy a stopover, there wasn’t much time for deliberation. However after booking the flights, I quickly realised that Mauritius isn’t a very big island, and as we had chosen to go in the middle of the European season, there weren’t too many nice places available to stay within our budget.
But after several days of searching frantically, we found a property, or so we’d thought. After two days of our host not returning our messages via phone or email but taking our money nonetheless, we were forced to cancel and rely on Airbnb to chase a refund. Fortunately, three days before flying, we found what looked to be a nice villa, which came as a huge relief!
We took a taxi to the train station and boarded the train to Gatwick airport for our night flight. After checking in and a short wait, we boarded our 777 on a stormy evening and headed for Port Louis in Mauritius for what was to be just under a 12-hour flight. We had pretty good seats, so were able to relax a bit and get some sleep, which was welcome as we had a hire car waiting for us when we landed. We sailed through immigration, and once through, we were pleased to see our luggage creep around the carousel. I’ve added Apple Tags to all of the bags, but they haven’t quashed my luggage anxiety, if anything they’ve made it worse, as they lose signal once you’re on the plane, so you still don’t know if they’ve made it on or not.
Once through arrivals, we headed to the local mobile carrier counter to get a couple of local sims, which as we stay for longer periods is a must, both from a cost and coverage standpoint. From there it was a raid on the ATM, and then off to meet the car rental chap, which, despite some negative reviews, was completely painless. Inside half an hour, we were on the road heading north towards Cap Malheureux, with the aircon at full tilt, It’s in the low 30s and very humid, not that I’m complaining, of course. As we drove through the middle of the country, we took note of row upon row of fields of green sugar cane against the volcanic backdrop of some very interesting peaks to the east that seemed to be clinging to the horizon.
After stopping at one of the supermarkets to stock up and after just under a couple of hours in the car, we arrived at Villa Lilliya, and were greeted by our host’s nephew. First impressions were great; it had a really relaxed vibe about it and a lovely tranquil outside space, that we very quickly became acquainted with. It’s also about a 5 minute walk to the Indian Ocean and what would become our early morning swim spot.
Dream Chasers 