One more night!

The last day of work went really well and we finished at 2 pm. It was decided that we would all have afternoon tea at 3 pm and then go to the Victoria Bazaar for me to experience some Seychellois culture. At 3 pm though it was raining and Juliette, Jan and I went to a bar called Marine Charter something or other. The others decided to give it a skip in favour of waiting for their boss (Jan) to leave and then they could duck early. Danny joined us at the bar a little later. Well one beer led to another and all ideas of going to the bazaar, that was only 150m away, were forgotten. It was a pleasant time there sitting at the water’s edge chatting away until Jan and Juliette both had to pick up children and go home.

Some of the Seychelles working group - laughing at having to pose for the photo.

After being dropped off at ill de Roses, I quickly got into my swimmers and headed off to the beach for one last swim at 4°S. The water is so warm and relaxing although it was much rougher than previous days. By this I mean the little breakers on the beach were about 30cm instead of 10cm!

Since it was my last night in the Seychelles, I spoilt myself and had take-out for dinner – a hamburger with cheese and coleslaw on it. From there I returned to the guest house and packed my suitcase. Luckily for me I did this because my lift this morning arrived 40 minutes early with all of the French delegation already in the car, but I was ready and just put some shoes on, grabbed my bag and was ready to go.

There was great excitement in the car as we arrived at the airport because as we were pulling in a drogue took off. These American unmanned aircraft are being used to spot the whereabouts of the pirates. I was really sad that we hadn’t arrived earlier so that I could have got a photo of it.

Two of the French people were supposed to be on a 10:30 flight to Paris but this was further delayed and they had no idea of an updated departure time by the time my flight to Mauritius boarded. My Air Seychelles flight, true to form, was late in leaving but only by half an hour. We eventually got going and the flight was fairly uneventful. We passed through some massive cloud formations but it didn’t really get too bumpy.

The view during take off of a beach and some seagrass in the water.

My last sighting of the Seychelles most likely for a year!

First sighting of Mauritius.

Just a view of part of Mauritius as we were coming in to land.

I am back at the Gold Crest Hotel for tonight and will fly to South Africa tomorrow afternoon. It gives me a chance to go to the market next door one more time to try out my haggling skills. I have managed to perfect this with taxi drivers but still struggle somewhat with stall owners. I was given some advice by some seasoned shoppers (only pay half the original asking price, walk away if they don’t give in) so we will see how that works.

At least this time I don’t have to sit in the passageway to access the wireless Internet connection but I do have to sit in the bathroom! They really do need to look into this aspect of the service they provided.

This will be my last posting probably for quite some time as I have no trips planned for anytime soon. I need to go to the Comoros at some stage but have yet to start the preparations for this potentially difficult trip. So for now I will love you and leave you and catch you on Facebook, email or both.