Beautiful Blue Bay Beach

Most days in the morning, Cath and I took a walk to Blue Bay which is a splendid public beach with calm water, just down the road (a brisk 25 minute walk) from our campement. There are many restaurants around the area as well as an hotel. There are people selling their wares, small informal shops selling samoosas, dhal, gateaux piments, beer and general 'hot' local Mauritian street food, all very alive and bustling. People come here to spend the day on the weekend and public holidays, bring bags of food and generally have a wonderful day swimming, laughing, socialising, singing, dancing (the sega) and eating. So lovely to watch. Necklace sellers abound and all are smiley, sweet, chatty, gentle, and unassuming and don't push if you are not ready to buy anything.

Cathy swam while I watched her and the people around me. We had our favourite tree which was so thick and luxuriant that no sunshine could penetrate (suited me well as I'm allergic to the sun). On one of the days we decided to have a beer and went to one of the little shops. We ordered two beers and were handed two one-litre bottles. As they had already opened the bottles we couldn't give them back and we didn't quite know how, at 11 am in the morning, we were going to down a litre of beer each. However, we managed quite easily, giggled stupidly, chatted aimlessly and when we were ready to get up and walk home, we found that the sand and our legs had suddenly  become much softer. We wound our way back to the road, giggling hopelessly and managed to walk home, which sobered us up somewhat.

On another morning we visited my aunt, Cathy's great aunt, Tante Solange de F, who owns and still runs her own boarding house next to Blue Bay. We both have a deep respect for her, she is intelligent and open minded and you can chat to her about anything at all. She's great! We all went for a walk and got caught in a sudden downpour and were forced to take shelter. The downpour only lasted a few minutes and we resumed our walk enjoying the wetness and coolness of everything, as well as the fresh, clean air the rain had left.  

On the way to Blue Bay we passed many villas, campements, dwellings and shacks all seemingly mixed up together. You find a luxury villa on the one side and on the other side of the street, a shack, further along a modest dwelling and further still a luxury, huge campement. Everyone seems to live peacefully together, rich and less rich, modest and poor. It's a pleasant feeling of acceptance by everyone. Had I stayed longer and been involved in the politics though, I might have found that the situation was maybe not quite so idyllic, but I don't know.

I particularly like the view of an azure sea through this fence and am happy to allow myself to believe that life is tranquil and peaceful.