Ocean Beauty Hotel in Pereybere, North Mauritius, was our paradise bolt hole for a week - www.ocean-beauty.com. On the way from the airport I saw all these pyramid like structures of stones in the fields so asked the driver who was giving us a bit of a tour "What are those pyramids?" to which he replied "They're not pyramids. It's a pile of stones."
The flowers filling the sink were a problem - how could we brush our teeth or wash our hands without ruining the display?
Along with our champagne bucket we had the lovely fruit display
My sweet honey resting after a 12 hour flight, delayed by 3 hrs and then they put us on a bus to the plane. We were on the bus so long we joked we were going to another terminal and then we saw we were now outside T5!
The picture on our wall
One of the regular visitors with the mission to fly off with our breakfast
And here is our breakfast - check out the hash browns in the shape of a love heart
Reception - sat there checking in, I got bitten on my leg and by evening it was blown up like a golf ball of throbbing itchiness and redness
Nearly fell in off these when a bit off kilter with the obligatory holiday food poisoning
The turtle sun bathing
Coy fish crazy
One of the two waiters bringing us surprise tasty snacks and drinks
Our pool
Girl armed with her Canon 400D camera post training course and ready to shoot up
Yes lovely legs indeed and too hairy to be mine
Heard this bloke a microphone. Was it someone's dad showing off? No they were making a Bollywood movie 2 doors away at the Sea Lovers resturant on the beach. It's a great place to eat - the only good place I liked apart from our own hotel chef who only does the occasional romantic meals
And was that Shilpa Shetty?
The little bit of sand and rock known as Ocean Beauty's private beach but full of lots of passing traffic
Public beach few metres away on Sunday when it is always busy with locals
Surfer falls off
A great mix of religions all living in peace enjoying the beach
A Mr Frosty
Making the ice for the frosty
Yet another game of petanque
Typo alert - Andrew liked this beer. I like Andrew
Andrew's veggie meal choices were all veggie curries
Sega dance show
Pereybere beach if you turn right, wade through between the sea weed to the other side you discover another world which is the Mauritius I imagined. Yay! :-)
And we got a great view of this island we'd seen on the postcards. Little did we know it was only around the corner
Interesting coral etc forming the beach
Lovely walk past the private beaches attached to villas of very lucky people
A vegetable root - "The Coco"
Fisherman
End of the Pereybere private beach walk
Mighty dreadlocks - this guy was very camera shy though
Outside the hotel this was the view. To the left were derelict buildings and wasteland with a dead kitten lying there. That made me very sad so I bought cat food from the shop (yellow building) and fed the scrawny cat I saw around the hotel
Andrew's body reacts to bites almost as well as mine but he had many of them
See the strong man
Some nibbles and champagne that found us
Romantic dinner time complete with personalised keepsake menus. It was so great we had it again Friday night.
Lone guitarist serenades us between the billowing drapes of our bedroom. Think he thought we were idiots not knowing John Denver though.
Choosing breakfast
I'm potty
Grand Baie was disappointing - the Benidorm of Mauritius
Very very expensive meal at Papparazzi in Grand Baie but they gave us pasta made with Campbell's Tomato Soup. Yuk! Cost £40 for 2 when other meals had been £7 for two and we were so hoping for a nice meal in what looked like a flash place - oh well
Crater apparently. First stop on our day trip with Imran the taxi driver we hired for the day for 1800 rupees
Dodo anyone?
Icecream anyone?
Shiva - the great Hindu deity
Yes it is a huge statue
Grand Basin - sacred Hindu lake
Eels in the lake which come when the priest calls and also when you throw bits of bread. Gave me the hee bee gee bees
Cats after fishing with thir paws in the lake
Monkeys - saw some at Grand Basin and more at Alexander Falls like this cutie who was very close to the path. Yay!
Black River Gorge National Park
Blowing my nose in a pineapple - they are amazing tasting and you don't get that nasty sizzle on your tongue
Falls at Chamarel
Seven coloured earths at Chamarel
Looking to Le Morne on the left
Le Morne beach is heavenly - long white sand through cool shade of trees and huge lump of mountain looming behind. Oh no 'lump' is reminding me of the breakfast menu dish with lump egss that we scoffed at or rather were terrified of
Flic en Flac beach
Wild dogs everywhere
We also had the option to have our romantic 6 course gourmet meal by the beach but didn't fancy not seeing what we ate and being with others
Shame we didn't get even one red sky sunset. Next day off to get on 12 hr flight back. On that Andrew made me laugh. He was dying for a wee and despite the orders to stay seated and belted because of turbulence he reckoned if the stewardesses could stand in the aisles and sell duty free off their trolleys he could go to the bathroom. He was reprimanded as he tried to get by the trolley "Sir, for your own safety you need to stay in your seat". He replied "For my own safety I need to use the bathroom." then somehow became super thin and squeezed past the trolley.
