Going to be trying something new for a while and see how it goes by writing a few shorter posts for one location if it's a full day like this one was on Mauritius. You'd never want to get through it all it would be so long I'd never finish!
The captain had warned us that these ports weren't used to a lot of cruise ships and it was true, not much going on in this terminal, even though it was a really nice, large, modern one.
There were a few musicians
and dancers there to greet us as we walked out, but they only performed when they saw people coming, not the ongoing performances like we'd had in other ports. The traditional dancing here is a lot of skirt swaying to drum music.
Our first stop of the day was the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Garden, located in the city of Pamplemousses. It's one of the oldest such gardens in the southern hemisphere. There are some truly incredible trees in here.
This one was one of my favorites, I've never seen such a tangle of tree vines!
I also enjoyed the many tree lined pathways.
Inside the garden is the Mon Plaisir Chateau (this "new " castle replaced the original) which had been built by slaves for the French governor during the 1700s. He and botanist Pierre Poivre, created the garden, importing seeds from around the world to end French dependence on Asian spices.
There is a bronze bust of Poivre in the garden, he was a man whose influence also reached the Seychelles, islands where he introduced cinnamon.
Another nearby monument in the garden is dedicated to the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who was a Mauritian politician, statesman and philanthropist. He was a leader in the Mauritian independence movement, and served as the first Chief Minister and Prime Minster, of Mauritius, as well as its sixth Governor General. SSR fought for the rights of laborers and led Mauritius to independence in 1968. He is considered the "Father of the Nation".
It was interesting that throughout the garden there were trees that had been planted by various notable individuals who had visited there. This tree was planted by Indira Ghandi in 1970,
while the tree on the right was planted by SSR himself in 1973.
This garden wasn't about the flowers but I managed to find some Bird of Paradise.
Another of the crazy trees!
There were many of these little Waxbills flying about.
I think we saw more different types of palm trees here than we have anywhere else in the world, and by now we've seen quite a few gardens.
I did a tree bark collage in a previous post and decided I'd do a couple more for this one. There were just so many varied colors and textures everywhere i looked.
The star of the gardens are the giant water lilies, whose seeds were brought here from the Amazon..
As they emerge from the water they are spiky and wrinkled balls that unfold
into a round tea tray shape, up to 72" in diameter, within a matter of hours.
The flowers open white one day and close red the next.
The flower sinks to the bottom of the pond on the 3rd day, developing into a seed capsule containing about 500 seeds.
The lily pads also make a nice landing spot for birds to come and take a drink from the pond as this one did.
Look closely here for the shimmering dragonflies that were flitting around.
A few more pieces of tree bark, with some bamboo thrown in for fun.
This type of palm with the squared off fronds, called Licuala Spinosa, could be found throughout the garden.
SSR Garden also contains a nice creep of Aldabra giant tortoises. It was only a tiny group compared to what we would see later on.
I did think it was interesting to see how deep their footprints sank into the mud.
There were a few deer inside the garden as well.
What looked like a rock in front of the nearby tree is actually part of the root system.
One other spot within the garden was a replica of an 18th century sugar factory, one which would have been manned by slaves. Sugar cane is still grown throughout the countryside on Mauritius and is a major part of the economy of the island. More about this lovely island in the next post!
Another good one!
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