Total Relaxation

Beau Rivage - Belle Mare - Ile Maurice

Next phase of the holiday was what I missed in my previous twin city holiday in Hong Kong and Singapore – A chance for total relaxation – not that being driven around Kruger park taking pictures of the wildlife was exactly taxing…

I’d splashed out on a ocean junior suite, to ensure I had a balcony with a great view – the expense was well worth it. A great location on the beach front in a quiet corner of the resort. Breakfast delivered to the room at 10am managed to break my habit of a life time, of not being a breakfast person. 10 days of total relaxation – enjoying the cool of the balcony and the sun of the loungers on the beach. Avoiding sun burn was a little tricky – but by the end of my stay I was browner than I’d been since I was a teenager spending summer holidays on the beach in Devon. This wasn’t quite Devon – for a start, 90% of the guest where French. The lack of reasonable Internet access was a little surprising for a so called “5 star plus” hotel – but then it was a true holiday hotel, with no pretention to be catering for anything but sun worship, relaxing and possibly some water sport.

Empty Planes

Maybe it is the credit crunch, or just that Wednesday morning flights from South Africa to Mauritius aren't that popular. I wasn't complaining, being the only person in business class with two cabin crew to look after me, meant my wine glass was rarely more than half empty - no bottles that holds just less than two glassfuls on this fight - a very nice bottle of South African Chardonnay - would have been rude not to finish it - I was on holiday and it was a four hour flight....

Arrival in Mauritius, was to a nice small airport - no walking for miles, to then spend time waiting for your bag to make it the same distance... Couldn't have been more than 200 metres from plane to arrivals lounge. And a great climate, possibly a little hotter than Hawaii, less humid than Honk Kong had been. No more getting up with the Sun for me - at least not once I re-balanced the jet lag.