Wednesday 8th April
Our last day at sea before docking in Mauritius tomorrow morning. The oarsmen must be feeling the strain as we have slowed from 21 knots down to just over 19. Hardly surprising after five days tugging on those oars. The chap who died yesterday was apparently found dead in his cabin after not showing up for his shift. Sadly he was only 28 and left a wife and two year old child behind.
The sun was shining again this morning, so it was going to be another great day, well until we went to breakfast. We sat in a different part of the dining room this morning, but ordered our usual pot of English Breakfast tea and a glass of cranberry juice. When the tea arrived it was wasn’t even luke warm. I’m surprised that the leaves managed to infuse into the water as it was that cold. The replacement pot was boiling, so that was good. Just for a change, I ordered two fried eggs, sunny side up with the usual trimmings. When the fry up arrived, the whites of the eggs were still swimming around on the top of the eggs, completely uncooked, so they went back along with the tea. Everyone, including Cunard keeps telling us that this ship is the dogs do dah for service,well we don’t think so. Our waiter and waitress for dinner are normally fantastic, but even they got one of our table companions dinner wrong this evening. It must be something in the air.
It’s been a very hot day today, so most of it has been spent either in the sun or hiding from it. We sheltered on the promenade deck after tea this afternoon and spent a couple of hours chatting to a very interesting Australian chap and his wife. He had worked on cattle stations as a late teenager and whilst they now live in Tasmania, they still make regular trips deep into the outback and stay on cattle stations. He had lots of really interesting stories and also convinced us that we should visit Tasmania.
We’ve just ordered breakfast in bed for tomorrow morning, as we have to be off the ship and through immigration by 07.40 in the morning for out Tea Plantation trip.
Thursday 9th April
The clocks went back another hour last night, which probably accounts for why we were awake at 05.30 this morning, just in time for the ship to reverse up the mile long channel into Port Louis. We were alongside and ready for disembarkation by just after 06.30. We had ordered breakfast in bed for 07.00 as we had to be ready to present ourselves to immigration at 07.40, then onto the tour bus for our day out.
All ran as smooth as clockwork and we were through immigration and loaded onto the coach long before our departure time of 08.15. We drove, at a snails pace through the capital, Port Louis, experiencing their morning rush hour traffic. Apparently everyone starts work at 09.00 and finishes at 4pm, so it’s absolute chaos around those times.
An hour later and we were pulling into our first stop of the day, an old French Colonial plantation house called Domain Des Aubineaux which has been turned into a Museum. The house is set within a large circle of camphor trees and is also raised some 6 feet off the ground to keep it dry from the almost daily rain they have in this area. The ceilings are 12 feet high to enable the air to circulate properly as there was no air conditioning in the late 19th century. The camphor trees help to keep the mosquitos and other unfriendly flying objects at bay. They also produce camphor oil which they burn and impregnate the timbers of the house to act as a natural deterrent to things like termites. Very clever use of nature to control pests.
From here we went to another French colonial mansion called Domain Saint Aubin, which produces sugar, rum and vanilla pods. We started with the vanilla pods, which apparently flower between September and December and after pollinating the flower the pods appear and take some 7 months to mature. They are then harvested and blanched in warm water for a few minutes, after which they are wrapped in blankets and put into boxes for a day. It as at this stage that they turn black. They are then dried in the sun for a period, then sorted out into lengths of the same size before replacing them into boxes for final drying and maturing for some 8 months. At the end of this period, they’re ready for use. This long period of production accounts for the high price of vanilla pods. From here we moved onto the rum distillery and saw the raw cane crushed and the juice extracted. It then naturally ferments in large vats before being distilled into alcohol. From there it was into the tasting area to sample the final products. They seem to make rum with just about every flavour under the sun, so it was rude if we didn’t try them all and it was barely 10.30! Mauritius wouldn’t exist without the sugar cane industry and they are very grateful for the Dutch introducing the plant. A stroll through the gardens, then t was time to rebound the bus for our next port of call, which was a working tea plantation at Bois Cheri.
After about 40 mins of driving through small towns and local countryside it was quite reminiscent of being on one of the well developed Caribbean islands. No visible raging poverty, but not too many signs of luxury living either. As we arrived at the factory, workers were loading freshly picked tea into sacks which were hung onto hooks and transported into the factory. Firstly they are tipped into hoppers which feed giant shredders, which cut the leaves into small fragments. They then get spread out on a long conveyer and go through a drying process, after which the tea is vibrated to sort out the unwanted bits, before moving onto another conveyor and further vibration to separate the different sizes of leaves. From here, the tea is sorted into that for use as tea bags, basically the dust! through to the full blown brewed leaf tea. Health and Safety hasn’t reached here yet as none of the workers wear ear defenders or dust masks and the floor in the vibrating machinery areas is covered in dust. However, on the video we were shown, all the young girls operating machinery were wearing ear defenders!!
We were then ferried up to a magnificent single story, glass sided building for or late lunch. The view was spectacular, looking straight out to the North across the coast and in the other direction across the tea plantations and a huge lake. Lunch was excellent and was followed by a tea tasting session, sampling all the teas made to Bois Cheri. Almost as good as the earlier rum tasting session.
From here it was back to the ship in time for a sailing, just after 4.30pm. We had to wait for a tour bus to arrive back with about 20 passengers on it, so we were just a little late getting away. Soon we were clear of the harbour entrance and the pilot was disembarking leaving us to do a left hand down once we were just South of the island and set a course for the next stop, in three days time, of Durban.
Friday10th & Saturday 11th April
Sea days tend to be quite similar from an activity perspective. As there are no tea or coffee making facilities in the cabin, we have taken to ordering it from room service to arrive between 07.30 and 07.45. Breakfast in the main silver service dining room around 08.30 takes around 45 minutes. we tried the open dining area on deck 7, but it’s like eating in a works canteen. You have to queue for the food, help yourself, then try and find a place to sit down - no thanks, when you can be pampered in the main dining room.
From breakfast it’s back to the cabin to change into swimmer for a few hours on deck 13 worshiping the sun god, weather permitting. We normally skip lunch and go for a non alcoholic drink and some fruit in one of the sundeck buffets. Depending on whats on in terms of presentations or classes, we usually indulge in some form of activity, then retire for afternoon tea. We had been having it in the canteen, but lately, we have indulged in the White Star Service afternoon tea in the Ballroom. This what Cunard is all about. The string Quartet strikes up and at exactly 3.30pm the waiters parade into the ballroom with the tea, sandwiches, cakes and scones and take up their positions ready for the signal from the Maitre D to comment serving. Special tea made by Twinnings specially for Cunard is poured into your bone china tea cups and you are served by waiting staff complete with white gloves.
After tea it’s time for a little lie down on the promenade deck for a quick doze and read of our books. After 6pm, it’s considered inappropriate to wander around in shorts, so it’s back to the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner.
Tonight ( Sat) it’s one of our table guests 70th birthday, so we’ve all been invited to the Commodores Club for pre dinner drinks. However, it’s a formal evening so we’re taking advantage and having our photograph taken prior to drinks. In the Commodore Club, the champagne was ready for when we all arrived and the Bombay flowed up until the time to go down to dinner. After dining, it is customary for the waiting staff to gather round the table and sing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy/girl. There was also a special solo by one of the staff, which, much to the embarrassment of Steve the birthday boy, was applauded by the entire contents of the dining room.
From the dining room we all left to go to the show, which had just started in the theatre. We entered just as the lights were going down and as the act was a comedy pianist, we became the but of his early jokes and were seated right in the front row and therefore continued to be the but of more of his jokes. This guy was not only a very accomplished pianist, but also a very funny, original comedian and had as in fits for the full 45 + minute act. We’ll definitely go and see his next show, but we’ll be early next time!
After the show, we retired to the Chart Room for a final birthday drink, before returning to our cabin to watch the live coverage of the US Masters golf. It was about 2.30am before we finally turned in.
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