Rodrigues Walks

The east coast of Rodrigues has some spectacular coastal scenery as well as well-marked walks to facilitate its enjoyment. The bus system also (usually) allows access, just allow a day for the entire event.

The A Team of 6 did the first three three walks easy to moderate of about 5- 6 km each.

 Other teams of various sizes did the rest.

Walk 1 - Graviers - Mourouk 1 August 2015

Our first foray was the easy route from Graviers to Mourouck.- mostly along the beach or the coastal woodland.

Start of the walk - Graviers

We understood that the bus to Graviers was scheduled to leave the bus station in Port Mathurin at 0800. Unfortunately this was the Sunday schedule - on Saturdays it leaves at 0745 - about 5 minutes before we got there. We took the 0900 bus.

This is an easy walk - mostly along the beach or the coastal pine forest.

Crowded beach

Approaching Mourouk

Walk 2 - Graviers - St Francois 2 August

The next day - Sunday - the bus timetable shows lots of buses going to and from Graviers. We proposed to walk from Graviers to St Francois. Possibly the fact that there is rumoured to be a restaurant/cafe at St Francois where the speciality is barbecued crayfish, and that we should be there by lunchtime had something to do with this intent.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the bus terminus for the 0900 bus the stand was empty. We were told there "might" be one at 1200. This should have rung alarm bells, but didn't. 

St Francois Bay

We decided to reverse the walk and took the bus to St Francois, accepting that the crayfish would survive for another day.

This proved to be a more challenging walk. It takes you past three of the most scenic  bays/coves on the east coast.

The path between them involves crossing the intervening headlands, in some cases the path requires scrambles up cliffs - not vertical ones.

It also started to rain, which made the paths slippery.

All was achieved safely though and, at the end we found a small restaurant with food and beer!

Bus stop art

After lunch we sought the bus stop for the scheduled 1430 bus back to Port Mathurin. We sat there; 1430 came and went. Locals were looking at us strangely - what are these foreigners doing? This is where we thought back - if the 0900 bus didn't run - the 1200 bus "might" run - perhaps no buses to Graviers were running.

Two cars - a saloon and a pick-up stopped and the drivers were looking at us. A deal was concluded and we got driven back to Port Mathurin for MUR 100 (GBP 1.80) each.

Walk 3 - Riviere Banane - Baladirou 5 August

The bus to the start point of this walk goes through the village of Riviere Banane, past the school and down an increasingly rough road. The conductor tells us to stay on at each stop until we reach a turning point where the road turns into a track. From there we walk through well cultivated market gardens to the start of the walk at the mouth of the River - or rather where the nearly dry river bed disappears under the sand of the beach.

The walk varies between easy track through the coastal trees to a scramble over rocks around the headlands.

"Fish for lunch please"

Off some of the headlands there were fishermen and women - as well as sensible creatures waiting for someone else to do the work

A bit of a scramble

 In some cases the track markers point over the rocks despite there being a perfectly good path avoiding them. At other points, particularly towards the end the rock scramble is unavoidable and, at high tide would probably be wet.

Baladirou - end of the walk

At Baladirou - which appears to be a popular bathing spot - there were at least 5 youngsters enjoying a splash. " Which way to the bus stop?" - up a flight of steps and past the shop. The road continued to Grande Baie and Anse aux Anglais to Port Mathurin. Some hardy souls had previously completed the whole route fro Mourouk to Port Mathurin in a day.









Walk 4 - Mont Limon 13 August
A short distance from Mount Lubin is the highest point on the island, Mont Limon 398m. A flight of steps on the right hand side of the road east towards Grande Montagne and Point Coton leads to a path to the top. Here two viewpoints afford  panoramic views over much of the island. The walk up and down, including time to admire the views, maximum time- 20 minutes.

Walk 5 - Above Port Mathurin 18 August

View to Port Mathurin

This walk was inland from friends Tim and Liz's house on the hillside behind Port Mathurin. A group of about 15 took part.
Tim pointed out an endangered Rodrigues fody which had yet to gain its yellow chest plumage.

The river

The walk goes uphill before crossing a river bed - nearly dry at present but could be a raging torrent in heavy rain - and along the far side of the valley to a viewpoint giving superb views over Port Mathurin and Mathurin Bay.

Mathurin Bay

Walk 6 - Riviere Banane to Point Coton - 19 August
The 1100 bus takes a group of 5 to Riviere Banane. This time it does not take us to the end of the road and thus enables us to bypass the first headland.

First beach and headland

There is a bit of a scramble around the first two headlands then we head uphill to the cliff top and around the head of the next valley.
We had intended to continue on to St Francois but after a good lunch in the Point Coton hotel we just went home by bus!

Shortcut - avoiding going round the end

On the way up to the clifftops

Lunch and beer in sight

Point Coton beach

Rodrigues - The ship comes in - 28 July 2015

Recently vacated wall

 When we arrived in Port Mathurin, Rodrigues the supply ship had recently left. we tied up - starboard side to as required- to the harbour wall and stayed there after clearances had been completed. We understood that the ship visits once every 7 to 10 days, so we were not expecting another. No-one had told us about the notice on the security office showing when a ship was expected and when the wall had to be vacated. We were therefore surprised to be woken at 0530 and told to move NOW.

Entering the channel

Final turn into the basin

Just over half an hour later the ship approached and negotiated the narrow channel to the dock. The channel, like the turning basin, appears to have been carved out of the extensive flat reef to a depth of around 10 m.

Starting the turn

While there is no ship, or when she is safely docked, yachts can anchor anywhere within the turning basin. However, when the ship arrives she has to turn to lie starboard side to the wall. For this period yachts have to be anchored well towards the edge of the turning basin, our outside in the bay. There were only seven yachts at the time so there was room to anchor insude or, as one boat did, to motor around and anchor once the ship has turned.

Half way round

Nearly there

Onto the quay

Indian Ocean crossing 12-26 July 2015

The Crossing of the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to Mauritius has the reputation of strong winds and rough seas. For some it is the worst part of the passage to South Africa. The perceived wisdom is to start in late May/ June when the SE Trade winds are not fully developed or in September when they are declining.
The first leg, from the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra, to Cocos Keeling we found fairly benign, having waited a week at Pulau Peucang for a weather window for the 4-day passage.
On leaving Cocos Keeling the advice we had from Commanders Weather was to head virtually due west to avoid stronger winds further south. This we did for the first week before turning more to WSW to head for Rodrigues. This put us beam on to the seas, which were up to 4 m high, some with breaking crests which sent a lot of water over the decks, or pushed us over so the lee rail went under. Several days were spent with the third, very deep, reef in the mainsail and the storm jib replacing the furling genoa - still making 6-7, occasionally 8 knots.
The combination made Sea Bunny comfortable enough to sleep in the aft cabin.
The picture was taken on one of the calmer days!
The South Equatorial Current, which is supposed to run to the west, in our favour, at about 0.5 knots, did not seem to be in evidence. We observed up to 1.2 knots, running anywhere between NNW and due E.
Sea Bunny arrived at Port Mathurin, Rodrigues at 1345 local time, Sunday 26 July 2015.

Half Way Across the main Indian Ocean passage

The half way mark was passed yesterday at 1,000 nm on this roller coaster of a ride.
On the port stern the wind has been 20-25 kn gusting up to 35kn in squalls - that's ok.
It is the waves at 2-3 metres that cause the fun, slapping and tossing Sea Bunny every which way.
To have more control the storm jib has been up and down and will be up again before harbour is reached.
A 170 ml passion fruit and mango sorbet carried all the way from Singapore was shared as part of a celebration lunch.

The Beach, Direction Island, Cocos Keeling 29 June - 12 July

Shall miss
Getting drenched in the dinghy from the fifteen minute dinghy ride over to Home Island and
having to change covering oneself before going ashore as the island is traditional Muslim.
The fact that obese waving Muslims drive buggies everywhere on a island where the circumnavigation only took us less than two hours by foot.
The quiet charm and helpfulness of the community.
Plus crab watching and drinkies on the beach.

Leave only footprints - take only photographs!

Well - not quite.
It is a tradition on Direction Island to use a piece of flotsam (or jetsam but this is more difficult to collect) to fashion a memento of your vessel's passing. A quick survey showed that the tradition had been followed by several of our friends including the crews of Baraka, Elevation, 3 Ships and Taipan but there are doubtless others that we missed.

Collecting the flotsam

Not to be outdone, we found a substantial piece of driftwood on Prison Island - a small island between the Rip and Home Island.

This was carried back to the boat and the ship's name and the year roughly carved on it using Bosch multitool and blunt chisels. The text was then painted in black, applied using cotton buds by Susan.

Skilled (??!) carver

We chose a likely spot on one of the palm trees by the on-shore shelter and it is now there to indicate our passing to those who follow.

Direction Island, Cocos Keeling

Local fauna

The yacht anchorage in the Cocos Island group is to the south of Direction Island, sheltered by the reef from the ocean swell but certainly not from the wind - it's blowing 30 knots as we write!

There is a good white sand beach on the island for walks. Fauna onshore comprises some feral chickens, presumably descendants of some left when the island became uninhabited, numerous small coconut crabs and, if one ventures off the beach onto the heritage trail, voracious mossies and sandflies.

The Rip - looking SE towards the ocean

At the eastern end of Direction Island is "The Rip". Water from the swell breaking over the reef flows into the lagoon. It is apparently a good snorkelling spot.

We took the dinghy into it to assess the possibilities. With the fairly strong wind and sea conditions at present the flow was probably about 5 knots, which would make a drift snorkel rapidly completed - through in the time it takes to get out of the dinghy!

Looking towards the lagoon - looks calm but moving fast