You think you want options.

But do you, really?

Making choices is such an essential element of planning a holiday.

Number of days per location is a critical one for me. High-end hotel with all the jazz; or mediocre, with enough comfort to sleep well; or basic and brutal, but low cost enough to then splurge on a great meal out? Let’s not start on choosing what suitcase to take, which airline to choose, or heaven forbid, the black sandals or the brown Birkenstocks!

Do choices tire you? Is the over availability of options evidence of an overworked world?

As I mentioned yesterday, Mauritius is truly multicultural, and with it, comes many benefits that we have noticed in our short time here. Mauritius is vibrant and unique. In one short block, you can see a mosque, a colourful sari store, a handicraft shop with local carvings, a food stall selling fresh pineapple pickled lightly in vinegar and brown sugar, a Madonna figurine simply placed by the road, and of course the obligatory American fast-food outlet.

And so, somehow our Sunday included a visit to just that… McDonald’s :()

But let’s start at the top.

A simple, but great breakfast was served inside today, given that light rain was still falling following some heavy overnight falls. Scrambled eggs, toast and a small amount of bacon; fresh pineapple, grapes and strawberry yoghurt were all placed on the table alongside tropical juice, a good-sized pot of tea, and surprisingly one of the best croissants I have ever eaten. Got to love a country with good French influence and the impact it has on its bread and pastries!

Blog writing (me), and book reading (Dave) took up some time and eventually we set off in our little Hyundai i10 hire car at nearly 11:30am, but hey, we are on holidays and I’m still feeling pretty unwell.

First stop for the day was to a cemetery. Yep, a graveyard was our destination of choice! Grocery shops, food markets and cemeteries are pretty much top of the list ‘must sees’ for us in every place we visit!

To be fair, we don’t always visit local burial sites, but they are often such a place of interesting information and a specific reflection on the communities that live or have previously lived in any given place. St Martin Jewish Cemetery is such an example. During WWII approx. 1600 Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and heading to Palestine, were intercepted by the Bristish and interned as enemy aliens in Mauritius until mid-1945. Sadly 128 of them died. A small museum now stands beside the memorial and alongside the graves of those men, women and children.

Next stop was Flic en Flac, a highly touristy beach-side town about 15 km south of where we are staying. We didn’t stop but drove by the vast array of shops, street food stalls and restaurants, and many, many high-end hotels and resorts. This is a popular spot for the rich and famous, though I don’t think they often venture outside the security gates 😉

Mauritius has a population of 1.3 million, and 10 McDonalds’. (@Amy, where does the apostrophe go?). That’s not a good ratio. Possibly better than Wagga (which has four!), but still not great!

So, you’d think I’d raise my eyebrows and move on… but alas no. We ate McDonalds for lunch!

I do have the infinite privilege of pretty much always choosing what we eat, and where. But I am also privileged to be married to a man who rarely complains about my choices but does like the odd bit of fast food. The original idea was he would eat McDonald’s and I would find something else, but by the time we found a car park and walked to Macca’s, my hunger took over and I ordered for two!

It wasn’t great, but Dave is determined to convince me it’s his way of exploring a country’s culture… though its food. At about $8 for two, at least it was cheap!

A quick fact about Mauritius that you might not know… they have a club for Royal Enfield Motorbike owners! Dave’s prized possession is his RE 350 Signals, so he couldn’t believe his eyes when he spotted one coming towards us on a narrow back road we had accidentally ventured down. The window was down in a flash, and the young Enfield fan and Dave quickly exchanged their RE stories. He pointed across the road where another eight or so Enfield’s stood and said he was about to catch up with them as part of the Mauritian Royal Enfield Bike club. Cool! (no, we didn’t join them 😉 )

Mauritius is home to Le Morne, listed as a World Heritage site in 2008. A quick glance at the map (gosh I love how easy it is to use an eSim and have data for map use) and we realised it was only about another 30 minutes south to get to the rugged 550m mountain which sits right next to the coast on the southwest end of the Island. Le Morne is steeped in cultural myth and legend has it that in the early 19th century it was a common refuge for people who escaped slavery. After the abolition of slavery in Mauritius (1 Feb 1835) it is said that a police expedition was dispatched there to inform those who escaped slavery that emancipation had made them legally free. The arrival of the police at the base of the mountain was (according to legend) misinterpreted by the former slaves who had scrambled to the summit fearing that they were to be arrested and re-enslaved and subsequently leapt to their deaths from the rock 🙁

There was an option signposted to walk to the top of the very distinctive mountain, but 3.5km each way up a very steep incline was not an option I even vaguely considered! (some choices are easy 😉 )

Not even double-strength Nurofen could sustain me any further, so we headed for home. Seems like Sunday afternoon drives are a common pastime here in Mauritius – I think it took an hour and a half to drive back! (Single lanes, parking on the road, regular speed cameras, and too much overtaking – but that’s another story!)

Now what to choose for dinner – the local restaurant we ate at the past two nights is closed on Sundays and neither of us feel like driving too far in the dark. Sadly, the only option might be a place nearby called “Quicken’s Fried Chicken” … the name does not bode well 😉

I’ll let you know tomorrow 🙂

p.s. A few random pics of the supermarket we visited on our travels today, very good prices and lots of choice 🙂