pole position at Le Mourouk

the lagoon on front of the Mourouk hotel

Rodrigues has its own beautiful Macarene music, joyful and full of rhythm. We enjoy a live concert of Francis, who could easily be seen in the movie of “Casablanca”…..

A local girl catches Robinson”s eye, Tonia, who plays music and dances beautifully. Lahela, Emanuelle, Tonia, there is a clear pattern here in the girls Robinson fancies…

Tonia in the band

Another long expected music event takes place directly at the beach of our hotel: a party with life concert of some bands and DJs from Mauritius and La Reunion.
Within 2 days they manage to build a complete stage, lighting system and a sound system that can blast across the entire island.

Ready to party at the beach

The kids danced with the laser lights, while Gesine got surrounded by Rodrigues men, dancing wild to the music under the moonlight.

partygirls

Every trip on the island is a trip of joy. We hike along the coast and get spoiled with remote beaches and untouched nature. We drive up into the inland on the road of the 52 curves, passing some motor bikes and buses, some cows and goats.The kids love to wave from the windows of the car and shout a “Bonnschuua” (Bonjour) or a “Schötäm” (Je t’aime) to “everything that has legs (Sienna’s definition). On the roofs people dry octopus from the lagoon, a local speciality.

should be enough for this week…

Rodrigues also offers some very impressive caves, where we can go more than half a kilometer into the dark, discovering some beautiful art of nature in the light of the torch.

Le caverne a Anse Quitor

The island was home to thousands of giant turtles, geckos and birds until the Dutch came and sold the turtles to Mauritius as a specialty. There is the project of re-developing the extinct turtles of Rodrigues (there are over 1000 on the island now) and to create a space resembling the island in former times, when it was untouched by humans.
You may think, we wear helmets to look a bit like turtles with their Panzer – the truth is, that we were already equipped to enter the underworld of the caves. Now, if you wonder, why the kids do not have helmets, it is just because they do not have any kids’ helmets…

breakfast time

too heavy for me

a new friend

the kids were very curious about this kind of playing

Back in the lagoon, F: Muss ich diese Gewinne auch versteuern, wenn ich in einem Offshore-Kasino spiele?Ja, es spielt keine Rolle, wo Sie spielen, alle Einnahmen aus Online-Glücks casino online spelen müssen versteuert werden, egal woher sie stammen. the wind strikes again. We had 10 out of 10 days with wind!

Gesine jumping, alone in the lagoon

Robbie going for a backpack ride with daddy

peace and happiness on the water

A hike along the coast takes you to Trou D”argent, a very cool lonely bay.

The local watercraft of choice is the pirogue, a sleek but simple gaff-rigged wooden sailboat, which takes the fishermen out to the reef to fish. We go for a sail and snorkle in what seems like a massive aquarium with fish of all sizes and colours.

pure blue

THE CREW (note Sienna being fully prepared for checking out the fish)

The kids love it here, day and night:

sorting the shells

playing chess on the beach, Mami kiting in the background

blue blue eyes

Along the beach we hike to Petit Graviers, and enjoy the peacefulness, clean air, purity of nature.

wild colours and the hint of a rainbow

today\”s project: making the boat beautiful

It is a magical place which invites us to take time to feel peace inside, to feel the joy and love of life, to be grateful for these wonderful moments. During this year we have found some happiness deep inside through a connection to nature. This is what makes us happy here, being surrounded by such a peaceful and stunning landscape.

Rodrigues was discovered by Diego Rodrigues, a Portuguese explorer, in 1528, when the island was a nature paradise without any humans. Subsequently it was visited, inhabited and exploited by the Dutch, French and English. Colonizing went very slow, in 1826 the island had 123 inhabitants. In 1968 Mauritius became independent and Rodrigues became one of its districts. It was not until 1970 that electricity was made available to houses of the 40.000 inhabitants.
It has a size of only 100 km2, surrounded by an amazing lagoon twice as big.
The island provides an amazing environment for sustainable living: a warm humid climate year-round, no dangerous animals, a large variety of vegetables and fruit, and plenty of fresh water. Approaching the island on the 72 seat ATR, we get a first idea of the beauty of this incredibly big turquoise lagoon surrounding the island.

the magic lagoon of Rodrigues

We have booked in the Cotton Bay Hotel, a beautiful hotel with the old charme from ancient times filled with the friendly atmosphere of the Rodrigues people.

Cotton Bay Hotel

The Rodrigues people are mostly descendents from Africa or Mauritius and Madagascar, they consider themselves to be Creole. You feel a wonderful friendliness, open smiles and laughter.

friendly happy people

In the bus I quickly get reminded that we all live in one world and we are connected. In front of me there is a guy wearing a hat with the logo “Nette Menschen trinken Kuemmerling” (nice people drink Kuemmerling – not my favourite herbal alcohol), clearly a hat from some German who got lost on this island.

Compared to other remote islands, Rodrigues seems to offer the people a great life: almost everybody has a cement built house, roads are built and public buses connect the different corners of the island, school is free and available for everybody, there is enough to eat for everybody from agriculture or the ocean. Rodrigues even holds 3 deep sea fishing world records, e.g. a 561 kg Pacific blue marlin.

For us, the beauty of the ocean is beyond everything we have seen so far. We spend our days with Willy and Nathan, the local kite boys, who take us out to an amazing downwind kiting trip along the waves at the reef to the remote Ile de Chats, where they prepare fresh fish on the barbecue for us.

Nathan and Willy, the local kite boys

Gerry enjoying the ride to Ile aux chats

and playing…

kids on boat, parents in lagoon

paradise untouched

fresh fish and self made lemon limonade

a lover\’s paradise

There is so much wind that we are glad to have our new 6 m2 kite with us. Kiting becomes even more playful and addictive than it was so far.

The landscape behind our hotel looks a bit like the Scottish highland. We climb the local hill through high grass weaving in the wind, with goats all around us.

view of Cotton Bay

looking East, towards Australia

father, son, ocean, earth

We asked an airbus pilot from Paris who also spent two weeks here with his wife and son why he came here and he nailed it on the head: “to clean my head”. Life is slow and pure, I love the solitude…

Cotton Bay Sunrise