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Celebrate - Off to Mauritius



Our stop over in paradise has drawn to a close and at 10:15 this morning we crossed the starting line for the next leg to Mauritius some 2300 miles away.



On Saturday we took the ferry to West Island to clear out with the police and customs and do a community farm tour. A group of residents were disillusioned with what the local authority were doing with their state run land so they leased a section to grow fruit and spices (including lemon grass). The group also collect sea salt and coconut palm oil and are now making and selling lots of beauty and condiment products. After the farm visit we went to a clam farm,they export colourful clams to aquariums all over the world. The owner John is a Cluny Ross and direct descendant of the former ruling family and a very interesting character. We then went on to an art gallery and studio in a large boat hauled up on to the shore, the artist and proprietor Emma produced some really good works using plastics washed up on the beach including flip flops (mostly left footed!) and even tooth brushes. She also does workshops with the school kids collecting flotsam from the beach.



After a delicious lunch we went walkabout along the coast, past the hospital with possibly the best view anywhere in the world and a golf course which uniquely uses the grass on the side of the airport runway as fairways .We enjoyed a few drinks at the 'club' where the locals were watching the Aussie Rules footie final (Melbourne won, Sydney lost) and then headed back to the ferry with all our provisions for the next passage that were ordered up ahead and air freighted in . Just before leaving the heavens opened up tropical style and by the time we got back to the dock it was dark so ended up with people and soggy cardboard boxes going everywhere.



It continued to rain for our last day on Direction Island . But the liquid sunshine did not dampen the beach style briefing, BBQ and prize giving. Great food and Charlie won a prize for his morning and afternoon radio shows.



Charlie, Cathy and Peter


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