Today was an "up 'n at 'em at 6:30 AM" kind of day. Our time clocks are completely messed up, so we figured we would just rise 'n shine and squeeze the most out of our last day in Mauritius.
The 'Nirvana' section of the hotel, where we are staying, has its own private restaurant on the beach, so by 7:30 we were enjoying breakfast overlooking the water. After Tuesday's traffic overdose (we drove over seven hours!), today was planned to be a light morning of exploring the north coast of the island. We set out by 8:30, with the first stop being the extreme northern tip of the island: Cap Malhereux ("Cape Unfortunate"!). The pretty church and beach we found there, plus the sight of the outlying islands, made it well worth visiting.
From there, we drove back to Grande Baie, where we had dinner on Tuesday night, stopping to see three beaches enroute, as well as a couple of Hindu temples.
Grande Baie has a small bazaar, which we visited, but the pushy hawkers (lingo in these parts for vendors) were more than we could take in the heat and humidity. Hence we didn't stay long.
By 12:30, we were enroute back to the hotel in Pamplemousse. We had booked a mindless glass bottom boat tour of Turtle Bay at 2 PM, which promised coral and fish viewing. Both of these were interesting but a little underwhelming. The most entertainment came from the four Indian couples who did the tour with us. They were all finishing up their honeymoons in Mauritius and the glass bottom boat tour was their last acitivity before leaving for their return flight to India. Three of the four were arranged marriages, and the fourth couple -- in their own words -- simply "found love" without their parents' help. They were obviously part of a rich layer of Indian society, were gushy with honeymoon affection, and judging by the way they delayed our departure and utterly infuriated the boat captain, were spoiled twenty-somethings with a huge sense of entitlement. Oh well -- let them have their moment, I guess!
Coral in Turtle Cove
Ahh, the magic of the glass-bottom boat tour!
The rest of the afternoon was spent doing our beach routine, including a wonderful time snorkelling off the beach. I came close up and personal with a moray eel poking its head out of some coral, which was unnerving. We drank cappuccinos to end the afternoon and then got ready for dinner.
And here is where the serendipity comes into play. The hotel's two restaurants were only serving buffets. One tires quickly of buffets, so we decided to venture to another nearby resort for a simple a la carte meal. We knew there was a Westin nearby, so we entered that into our GPS and off we went. After 10 minutes, the British digital voice in our GPS announced that we had arrived at the Westin. We explained to the security guard that we were not guests of the hotel but just wanted to have dinner. He called the restaurant, made a Rez for us, so we parked and in we went. But it was quickly clear that this was no Westin -- indeed not: it was well beyond five stars, it was in its own universe of stars. And with every step, it became clearer that dinner would cost the same as a ticket on the Concorde between New York and Paris. But, with every step, we remained hopeful there would be a dinner special (!), got deeper into the situation and could not revert. The reception clerk was waiting for us and ushered us to the restaurant, where the maitre'd sat us down, called over the sommelier touting $500 bottles of wine, and the platinum-plated welcome carpet just kept getting rolled out more and more for these "poor guests of Le Meridien who were tired of buffets and needed the highest-end nourishment known to mankind".
I will never forget the look on Pam's face as she opened the menu. It was as if she was about to ask, "Is that the price of the palm heart salad, or is that the cost of the presidential suite inserted by accident?"
We decided to just go with it, had a lovely meal, yes, paid an utter fortune, and had a wonderful down-to-earth chat with the waiter, who actually walked us to our car, and the manager, who asked us to say hello to a friend of his who manages Le Meridien.
Moral of the story: (1) never totally trust your GPS, and (2) sometimes just "going with it" is all you can do -- and it can be enjoyable.
We have to be up at 5AM for our flight to Reunion Island, so I will bid you good night.
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