Tamarin

Would you believe it – our two favourite things in one place. Soon after we arrived in Flic en Flac we discovered the little village of Tamarind, about a 15 minute drive away. They had a lovely café/bakery that was open most of the new year week. And three doors down – a Coworking office.

We spent many happy hours in the bakery café. It was one of the few businesses open during the lengthy New Year period. I fell in love with vanilla infused black tea (the tea was grown locally so that made me feel good). A napolitaine is the treat of choice in Mauritius according to my guidebook and sometimes we’d share the  cakey shortbread jam sandwich covered in pink icing (I think it was mostly sugar). Sometimes we had one each. We became quite addicted to them. There are no photos. We ate them.

The Hive

When the Coworking office eventually opened we sampled that too and started wondering if Mauritius was feasible for the next work meetup. Very clever electric cords hanging from the ceiling which meant that we didn’t have to fight over space on a power board where our extra chunky adaptors occupy one slot but cover another two.

No fighting for adaptor space at The Hive coworking space in Mauritius. pic.twitter.com/QorFPvNvia

— Simone Gribble (@spgribble) January 9, 2018

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Port Louis

After taking a road trip to the capital, Barry and I were pretty happy that weren’t staying there. Initially, Barry was attracted by the existence of Coworking offices but Port Louis is a busy, relatively unattractive port city. It was kind of fun to explore the port area and read a little about the history but after an hour or so, we were done.

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Barry and I tried to stay active while we were in Mauritius. It was hard pulling ourselves away from the relax mode we very quickly slipped into but needs must. I was hitting the end of the Marcothon (daily 5km/25 minute running challenge for December) and needed to keep on running, for a few more days at least.

It was a bizarre experience running while it was actually snowing (and pitch black) in Northern Ireland one morning, to slugging through the sand as the tropical sun set into the ocean, 24 hours later.

The sand was pretty hard work for running (even if you can jump in for a swim immediately after) so I was pretty keen to head to the Black River Gorge National Park to try out some of their trails.

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Barry and I sometimes have trouble agreeing on where to go. Our post-Christmas, on the way to Australia adventure was no different.

Norway, says Barry? Too cold. And expensive.

Sri Lanka, I say? The reports of poor Wi-Fi are too stressful.

Vietnam? Already been there a few times.

Senegal? Too hot, maybe. Do they even have internet?

This Thai island we’ve never been too (that has a Coworking space)? Maybe, but I’m not excited.

Madagascar? But the internet doesn’t really exist.

Spain? Not really far enough/exotic enough/crazy enough.

Sigh. We’re in such a great position to have problems like these. In the end our BA points and our free companion voucher landed us in Mauritius. Just as well, we were running out of time to decide. Mauritius was the first place we talked about that both of us were excited with. Geographically on the way to Australia too. Just head south from the UK, turn right (or left?), stop at Mauritius then head straight across to Perth (then Melbourne) two weeks later. Simple. And who cares about cyclone season?

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