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Redcliffe visits Mauritius

05 Dec 2012

Mid-last year, 33 Members and Friends of the Redcliffe City Mixed Probus Club flew from Brisbane for a two-day stopover in Perth, before proceeding to Mauritius for another 11 days.

Our time in Perth was delightful. After exploring the City and Waterfront, we dined at the finest “C” Revolving Restaurant in the Sky, enjoying a sumptuous dinner with a 360° view of Perth’s landscape. The next day, with perfect weather, we joined Perth’s famous ‘Wine Cruise’, taking us to the Swan Valley, sampling local wines, while listening to a ‘Wine Appreciation Demo’.  The on-board entertainment had very happy members dancing the Conga around the boat, while the wine flowed freely all the way home. Before flying off the next day, we managed to see King’s Park, the WACA, local beaches and a good overall sightsee of Perth.

On our arrival in Mauritius at the end of the day, The Tamassa Resort was lit up like a Fairyland – our home for the next 11 days!  

Mauritius is a small, but exotic teardrop in the heart of the Indian Ocean, where Mark Twain once wrote: “You gather that Mauritius was made first and then Heaven was copied after Mauritius.”

As we discovered more of the island and met the locals, we felt we had found an island with magical powers. The blue water, clean air and green fields brought calmness to our souls.Every day brought a new adventure - from crossing cool, misty mountains with crater lakes, to the Black River Gorge National Park, to the Macabee Forest and the Chamarel Waterfalls. We sat drinking coffee on the veranda of a colonial home on a coffee plantation, feeling as though we were on a film set!. We saw exotic birds, fish and massive turtles and visited the Lion Park, where we actually patted some free-roaming lions and came away unscathed. 

We sampled Rum made at the distillery from local sugar cane farms, were amazed at the production of the Vanilla Bean and were dazzled by the colourful flower displays at the Nursery. We dined at waterfront restaurants and compared their coral reefs to ours from glass-bottom boats. We sailed the high seas, watched dolphins play and some of our braver souls dived overboard to snorkel.

We broke up into teams to go barter at villages, trying to learn Creole customs. We thought our members were caring - but competition bought out the pushing and shoving - trying to outdo each other with the clues and the few Rupees we were given.  There was much rushing about, each team trying to win, while at the same time, trying to communicate in French or Creole!  That night, at the cocktail lounge, which was the favourite time of the day, we swapped stories with much laughter.