Pictures from Mauritius: Grand Bay Coastal Rd

This morning I left home thinking I had a doctor’s appointment in Grand Bay. Grand Bay is a small coastal town (and very touristic area) in the north of the Island. This is where I lived with the kids last year before husband came to Mauritius to work. It is certainly a lively town by Mauritian accounts and is home to lots of restaurants, bars and discos.

Then I couldn’t remember the exact time of my time of my appointment and called to check: well it wasn’t today, but tomorrow! I had planned taking pictures of another village not far, but then I thought I could as well take some pictures in my old neighbourhood instead.

I handed my car over for a wash at a little place on the coastal road and went for a walk. Do you imagine for a mere Mur300 (that’s USD8.5), I got a completely clean car, inside-out and let me tell you it was a disaster and I was quite ashamed – I feel much better now!

The road is not very big and people here drive fast, specially the bus drivers. It is however very walkable, just be very aware of the road. I start with our closest little shop and the vicinity, a small temple behind. This guy sells everything you need – water and ice cubes, tomato sauce and cold beer, fresh bread in the mornings. I think he has been there forever and nothing in the shop has changed since then. But it comes very handy! These small shops are all over the island, nearly very road has one.

Just a couple of cute flowers on the road. Bougainvilleas are everywhere on the island, all colours, doubles or singles. Just beautiful. The other ones, I don’t really know what they are, but they are certainly very cute!

There are small accesses to the beach everywhere, most of them are marked, others aren’t. All beaches in Mauritius are public, so basically you can walk wherever you want. It doesn’t mean everybody is happy with you stopping everywhere, but technically you are allowed.

Our ‘local beach’ looks like this! Nothing the complain about, though we probably only ever went for small walks. At the one end of the beach there is a small temple. I really like it there. Nice and quiet. Always a few persons around talking. The small dogs came to my encounter, most stray dogs are very friendly. I tend to just ignore them, but I have yet to meet an aggressive one.

The strange thing is, every time, I come to this temple it rains! It didn’t fail today either – I don’t why, I promise I am very respectful! But as you can see on my pics at the beginning the sun is shinning, now it’s dark and drizzling and in a few minutes the sun will be back!

I walked back onto the main road and I stopped for a picture of the house and the doggie was barking and then spotted me. He stayed there till I walked away. haha, funny thing. He has a good little hang out spot and can see everything that happens around.

I continued a bit up the road as I wanted to get a picture of the temple from the other side.

As you can see the sun is back and shinning on me! The rock you can see in the picture above is Gunner’s Quoin. One of the iconic satellite islands on Mauritius. It is an ancient volcanic cone of basalt rock. There are a few endemic fauna and flora on the island and it is a nature reserve today, with restricted access. Where ever you are in the north you tend to see it.

Mauritius is such a beautiful place. I think when you live somewhere you tend to forget what’s around you. It is actually nice to just take time and walk around.

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