Grand Baie

The first beach I went to in Mauritus was in the Northern region of the island - Grand Baie. This place is a definite must-go for any tourist. The area is filled with delightful stores (all of them look like they were picked out of five star hotels and laid out neatly). Definitely the kind of place you can shop at if you've got bank accounts in Dollars and Euros.

Just behind these pretty stores, I caught sight of the blue-green waters and it gave me such a high! I sprinted all the way to the beach and pulled out my camera and clicked away!

The sand on the beaches is white and SO soft, I cannot describe it! It almost felt like talcum powder! And it felt SO good under my feet, I kept running to and fro between two trees just to feel the sand under my feet and I'm pretty sure I scared a couple of kids with this behaviour.

And the water! Gosh, how can this be sea water? It is so soft and smooth and (somebody please throw me a thesaurus here). It feels like the whole ocean is a giant swimming pool. There aren't any waves - the sea is extremly calm and relaxed - probably where the Mauritians get their laid-back and relaxed attitude from!

It's heavenly to sit on the benches under the trees and look at the beautiful, calm waters - I could've stayed there for hours!

At Grand Baie, I really wanted to go on a Glass Bottom Boat ride. Quite self-explanatory, but anyway, a glass bottom boat is a regular boat with a large portion of the bottom made of glass. Initially, this doesn't matter of course, but a few miles into the sea and you start to see all sorts of exotic marine life. Beautiful, large corals - some as big as cars, I tell you! And in such brilliant colours, shapes and patterns. I couldn't stop ooh-ing and aah-ing. And then the fish start appearing. Nasser, who owned this boat, pointed out all sorts of wonderful fish. The ride lasted about an hour and on the way out into the ocean, we passed by several five start resort beaches, where we saw cartloads of foreigners bathing in the sun and the water. Lots of people were enjoying different kinds of water sports also.

Midway through the ride, Nasser stopped the boat and gave us pieces of bread to throw into the ocean. All of a sudden there were hundreds of fish everywhere, hungry for bread, crowding around our boat. It was so exciting. I held pieces of bread a little under the surface of water and got a total high from feeling the little fellows nibble at my fingers. While feeding the fish, it was a treat to look through the glass and get a clear view of all the fish.

Blue-Green happens to be my favourite colour combination. To get such an overdose of it was simply overwhelming! Miles and miles of calm, blue-green waters with the sun dancing all over in little gold patterns. Sheer bliss!