Most of you will know the island of Mauritius as one of those idyllic white sandy beach and palm tree retreats. Most of you will also know that lying on a beach, frying in the sun however blue and inviting the sea may be is not my ‘bag’. My purpose today was to experience ‘walking with lions and tigers’ - well actually the tigers have been withdrawn since they have become a little too unpredictable so I have received a £10.00 refund!!
A few facts about Mauritius first: this island is almost plumb in the centre of the Indian Ocean and some 531 miles east of Madagascar and only ‘hop-skip- and-a-jump from Reunion. Mauritius is a 10 million year old volcanic island of some 720 square miles. The central plateau reaches 2,625 feet in altitude and the highest peak, Piton de la Riviere Noir, topping out at 2,717feet. The 205 miles of coastline is encompassed by one of the largest unbroken coral reefs in the world.
The Portuguese were the first to land in Mauritius in 1510 but the first colonisation by the Dutch did not occur until 1598 and named after Prince Maurice of Nassau. The Dutch introduced sugar cane, Malagasy slaves and Javanese deer that proved to be highly destructive and are said to have devastated the ebony forests and brought about the extinction of the Dodo although the later was probably the result of hunting by the Dutch for food. The Dutch finally abandoned the settlement in 1710 and were followed by the French between 1715 and 1810 who renamed he island Isle de France and many of the towns and places on the island hark aback to this time.
When the British took over the island in 1810 the name reverted to Mauritius and with the abolition of the salve trade led to the influx of Chinese and Indian labourers to work the sugar cane plantations. The island gained independence in 1968 and today is a republic (1992) within the Commonwealth.
Since my appointment with the lions was in the afternoon I decided to explore the town of Port Louis in the morning.
The Dutch, who called it Noordt Wester Haven, first settled Port Louis in the 17th Century. It was the French Governor Betrand Francois Mahe de Labourdonnais (Admit – you always wanted to know that!) who developed the town into a busy capital and port in 1736. Since it was along walk from the pier into the town and it was already hot and humid I took a water taxi across the harbour and spent a pleasant couple of hours exploring. The photo is of Government House.
I made a final foray into the packed market, mainly selling fruit imported from South Africa before taking a long and very circuitous route back to the ship. The signs ran out at a crossroads as well as sight of a ship but a taxi drew up and the driver very kindly pointed out the correct way.
For the philatelists amongst you will know that Mauritius issues many stamps and I remember visiting Harrison & Sons printers in High Wycombe when I was a t Ashridge Management (or Mangagement College as one of the gorgeous young secretaries used to describe it!) College, they printed all the UK and many of the overseas stamps including those for Mauritius. Well after that little diversion what I was going to say is the Port Louis is the home of the Blue Penny Museum that contains two of the world’s rarest stamps, the re one-penny and blue two-pence.
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