Saturday1st April
Bottle Palms at SSR Botanical Gardens in Pamplemousses
Happy Fools’ Day one and all! So – you really believe I’m in Mauritius? Well here’s the truth: I am in fact in my garden shed at home in Knutsford (as one of you has already suggested). But, to continue with the deception …
It’s Pamplemousses day today, to visit the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (SSR) Botanical Gardens, as well as one or two other places. I hope. Unless this turns out to be a Mauritian Fool’s Day prank.
Breakfast this morning was an all together more exotic affair than of late: a Chinese guava to start with, followed by a hamburger bun thickly spread with “Les Verges de Labourdonnais île Maurice Papaye et Vanille Confiture extra au Sucre de Canne” recently purchased from the Spar. Now that’s a healthy-sounding package.
Mmmmm. There’s no going back to Nutella after this.
You know, until I came here I had assumed vanilla was something confined to ice cream and custard. In Mauritius it is ubiquitous. You find it in tea, jam (like here), coffee (probably), rum (naturally) and, for all I know, chicken curry.
Someone told me the other day he’d heard about a recent piece of research linking vanilla to health problems – heart, I think he said. I thought as much: it tastes too good. Never mind, by next week there’s bound to be a counter-theory, so if I resist till then before succumbing to my next papaya-vanilla jam butty I should be perfectly safe. At least for a week or so, anyway.
I’m down at Casa Pizza just in time for my driver to arrive. “Jan” turns out to be “Ian”. Ian Duval-Latreille, to be precise. I have his business card. (Hmm. “Duval” – now where have I heard a name like that before…?). He is the sales representative for “Philamothe Ltd”, the tour operator owned by Phillippe Lamothe himself. He’s the gentleman whom I met on my first visit to CP. At that stage I thought he was married to Mme Casa Pizza (Maraliyse?), but they are sort of business partners. His wife is Angelica, who made the reservation for my excursions. Now do keep up!
Ian is an outgoing young chap. Very jolly and very accommodating. He is also very knowledgeable – but then I suppose he would be really. And travelling in an air-conditioned Land Rover is not exactly going to be a hardship!
SSR gardens are magnificent - of course. I fall in with a youngish French couple and a (I would guess) retired Australian couple from Perth. They have been here a couple of weeks, but unlike me, arrived by cruiser. They took time off that to enable them to actually see some of the places they were calling at. During that interruption they even took a flight to Réunion for a few days (it’s a half-hour trip from Mauritius).
The Talipot: the world's biggest palm species; it grows for 60 years, flowers then dies.
I owned up to being a “Pom”, which gave us all a good laugh.
We had a guide for about an hour. He told us all about the trees we were seeing. Lots of interesting details, most of which I’d forgotten by the time we were onto the next species. Mind you, the Frenchman had the wit to make notes on paper – which he’s going to e-mail to the Australian pair. Since I’m going to buy a booklet at one of the kiosks I don’t ask to be included in this. Big mistake. After I’d paid the guide I asked him where I could find the kiosks, They are shut today. Ah well, maybe I can pick one up in FeF.
One thing I do remember though is the remarkable number of species that seem to be prized for their aphrodisiac properties! The two “diggers” and I commented that we wished we’d known about all that years ago!
There are a few more photos of the gardens on Flickr.
After the gardens we move on to “L’Aventure du Sucre”, where I will learn about the history and technology of sugar production in Mauritius. It is a very good museum. Self-guided, so you can go at your own pace. However there is so much of it that it is difficult to take it all in. By the end my feet are killing me.
The museum's sugar mill - tip of the sugar-production "iceberg"
Did you now that nothing of the sugar cane is wasted nowadays? The vegetable matter that is left after all the juice has been extracted is called “Bagasse”. This has a high calorific value. So high in fact, that when it is burned it can generate enough electricity and heat to power the entire mill - with plenty left over. In fact, it is used to fuel a sizeable number of the island’s power stations. This is a seasonable activity, however, and at times between harvests coal is also used. Nevertheless, it is making a huge contribution towards meeting the nation’s commitment on reducing carbon emission. Some bagasse also goes into by-products such as fibre-board and mulching composts, as it also has a high fibre content.
There is an experimental programme underway, also, to ferment cane sugar to produce ethanol for use as a petrol-replacement in vehicles.
Another interesting snippet: apparently it wasn’t until 2003 that the licensing laws governing sugar production in Mauritius were relaxed sufficiently to allow the manufacture of “agricultural” rum. That’s the commercial product. Surprised? I was. So presumably everything sold prior to that must have been hooch!
Anyway, at the end of the tour I was able to sample some of that product. Very nice indeed!
After that Ian drove me to Cap Malheureux, the most northerly point on the mainland. The views from here are simply breathtaking. Here are a couple of shots, but you can’t really do it justice:
Views looking North-ish from Cap Malheureux.
The impressively-shaped lump of rock is called “Coin de Mires” or “Gunner’s Quoin”. It is a nature reserve.
Next we drove to Grand Baie, where I had a quick stroll followed by lunch in a Chinese-run restaurant – “La Pagode”. I had fish in ginger with boiled rice, washed down with mineral water. I have to say though, that I was not as impressed with the food there as I have been everywhere in Flic en Flac.
View from “La Pagode”, Grand Baie
View in “La Pagode”, Grand Baie
We then meandered our way back via such places as Mont Choisy (where Ian pointed out the Blue Safari submarine departure point) and Trou aux Biches. In the distance were several bizarrely angular mountain peaks. One of them has a very distinctive vertical protuberance. It is called “The Thumb” And I can see exactly why. (Pete – which story was it that featured a mountain like that? Was it “Holes” by any chance?).
Ian dropped me off right at the bungalow, so all in all a very good day out – even if I did nod off once or twice on the way back. Purely the exhausting walking around, I assure you. Nothing to do with the rum. At all. No.
He would prefer me to pay CP rather than him. I nevertheless gave him a tip, which he very graciously accepted. Of course, guess where this means I will have to eat this evening. But it’s Saturday so maybe the “orchestra” will be there again.
They are; this time accompanied by a very glamorous-looking female singer.
After the warm-up - the timeless classic (spoken) number “Un, Deux, Testing” – we kick off with an instrumental version of “Blue Moon”, performed rather à la “Green Rumours”. But wait a minute - they’ve all disappeared. The keyboard is doing all this by itself. I could do that! It’s a slightly unnerving experience akin, I imagine, to travelling on that London Underground line that doesn’t need drivers. WILL IT REMEMBER TO STOP WHEN IT REACHES THE BUFFERS?
But that was only to let the electronics settle, and to allow the orchestra to psych themselves up for this evening’s gruelling session of middle-of-the-road wallpaper. (And quite possibly to save embarrassment for those customers who at this point might wish to re-consider eating here). The keyboard player is back now. He plays a “Bum-Tit” (if you’ll pardon the expression) version of “Autumn Leaves” and I’m beginning to feel even more at home. This is deftly followed by “Fly Me to The Moon”. Blimey, he’s a one-man Knutsford High School Swing Band. Eat yer heart out, Chris!
I have to admire him because he is playing what looks to be the identical model of Yamaha keyboard to the one I use. [It’s great, that one, because it takes floppy disks. Provided your hands are hidden you can get away with first-degree murder!]
I’m determined not to let his efforts go unrecognised, however, and give him a well-deserved ripple of applause. Unlike the rest of the clientele who seem not to have noticed him. He smiles and nods appreciatively in my direction.
Now he’s joined by the male vocalist. I remember from last week that he has quite a good voice. He opens with “My Way”. It is delivered in a certain style. I think you can guess. A bit depressing as an intro, possibly?
Ah. Now the other singer is about to come on. She has a powerful, fairly deep, voice and launches into “The Greatest Love of All” – at least I think that’s what it is from the melody line. Her voice is good but the diction leaves a little to be desired. Maybe she is holding the mic a bit too close, which always muffles things a bit. And anyway, how would I cope if I had to sing in Créole?
Dinner tonight, by the way, is Rum, Pizza L’Italienne, two beers, espresso – the usual stuff.
Now the two of them are singing “My Heart Goes On“, aka Theme from Titanic. Did I mention that is one of the keyboard’s demo tunes? To be fair, I think he must have re-recorded the backing, and he was certainly playing the compulsory “Irish Nose-flute” part live. They do a couple more pieces of kitsch, and then they ask for requests. There are several groups of locals eating here tonight, and someone shouts a suggestion. There is a bit of light-hearted banter between them and they set off on an all together different style of music. This is more like it. It is sung in French. I have no idea what it’s called but it is very moving – quite atmospheric. As the evening progresses the tempo starts to increase and I finally get to experience genuine Séga. (Well as near-to as I guess you’re going to get if the only accompanying instrument is a Yamaha PSR540).
It is very infectious, and by now they are getting a much better response from the audience, who applaud every number enthusiastically. So I did the right thing in leading the way at the beginning didn’t I?
In the end I am sorry to have just asked for l’addition because I genuinely would have liked to hear more. However, I have typing to do and…. well you know.
But if I ever get the chance to speak to the keyboard player I must ask him which keyboard “style” number he uses for Séga!
Night all.
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