Tag Archives: travel

A Blue Penny for One’s Thoughts?

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Mauritius is not only famous for an animal it sadly (and the world) no longer has, the Dodo, but for being the first colony of the former British Empire to issue postage stamps. The ‘Penny Black’, the world’s first stamp was issued by the UK in 1840 thanks to the efforts of Sir Rowland Hill. In 1847 the wife of the governor of Mauritius planned a ball and thought that sending out invitations to her guests using a system like the one in the UK would be a good idea. Luckily there was an engraver on the island by name of Joseph Barnard able to print stamps. He employed the design used by Hill and produced a red-orange penny and a blue two penny stamp. These have since become some of the world’s most valuable ones. An international consortium recently successfully bid for two examples (offer of £10,000,000) and they have returned to the island which originated them.


We visited the old Mauritius Post Office on the seafront. However, among the historical exhibits we could only see their copies. The stamps are so fragile that they can only be exposed to light for a couple of days each year.


Perhaps Mauritius’ most interesting museum is the Blue Penny situated on the Caudan waterfront. It’s housed in a lovely old eighteenth century building.

The museum is divided into thematic sections.

These are:

The age of discovery


The island builders


Port Louis


The postal adventure


Engraved memory (but still no original stamp displayed)

Paul et Virginie:

This recounts that emotional tale of love and death by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre first published in 1788 and which continues to haunt the island, indeed the world. It was wonderful to see Prosper Epinay’s original statue of the two tempest-crossed young lovers showing Paul assisting Virginie in crossing a stream in the forest. This sweet sculpture has been recently returned to the island through generous donations


Port Louis waterfront has turned into a smart and lively promenade. We were glad to have gathered so much information about Mauritius from the museums strung along it and were prepared for another visit to the capital.

Beyond Slavery

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Next door to Port Louis’ Slavery Museum is a building illustrating what followed the release from chains and manacles after the slave trade was abolished in 1835. It’s Aapravasi Ghat, now a UNESCO world heritage site, and consists of the remains of an immigration depot where indentured labourers, mainly from India, were received.

The British colonial government chose Mauritius as the first site for what it called ‘The Great Experiment’: the use of indentured labour to replace the slaves. The indentured labour force had to work on contract for up to five years and the scheme’s success prompted its adoption in other parts of the Empire. Between 1834 and 1920 labourers were shipped here from India, Madagascar, Mozambique, the Comoros, Yemen and China to work on the sugar cane plantations. Almost half a million landed at Aapravasi Ghat and over two million indentured labourers arrived around the world in the Carribbean, South America and south east Asia.

Regrettably a large number of these indentured labourers were treated very badly by the colonialists. They were subject to poor working conditions and made to labour very long hours. They were often maltreated and even whipped. Moreover they were in a situation where their work contracts were obfuscated forcing them.to work for years before they managed to pay off the terms of their indenture. It was largely thanks to the intervention of human rights champions like Ghandi,at that time a legal beagle in South Africa that efforts were finally made to alleviate the hard lives of the indentured, semi-slave workers in the colonies.


Since the majority of Mauritians descend from these souls it’s clear and very fitting that Aapravasi Ghat has been approved of as the island’s major heritage site .


The museum is very well laid out and documented detailing the procedures dealing with one of the greatest migrations the world has seen.

I am not sure if the famous ‘Windrush’ generation, too many of whomhave been appallingly treated in another recent Tory scandal, belongs to the indentured class of immigrants. One thing is sure in the two cases: both helped to save island economies threatened by labour shortages. Perhaps brexiticianists should bear this in mind before they continue to pontificate about their absurd policies.

To the Deer Island

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Our day sailing on a catamaran started near the old port of Mahebourg situated on the south east corner of Mauritius.


From here we headed towards the Ile des Cerfs following a picturesque coastline with mountains and hills reaching to the sea. I was glad to note the area spared from any ugly developments but wondered for how long it would remain like this.


We stopped for snorkelling on a part of the bay which rose to quite shallow depths and where the turquoise waters were remarkably clear. They provided a welcome contrast to the sea nearer the coast which had turned browner in colour due to the mud brought down by the overflowing rivers as a result of the recent rainstorms. It was fun swimming about the bay but we did not spot any fishes! More interestingly when we continued our journey we encountered a school of dolphins having fun leaping about the waves and teasing us.


It was in this bay that Napoleon won perhaps his greatest naval victory, the battle of Grand Port. Fought between 20 and 27 August 1810 over possession of the harbour the British navy suffered their worst defeat in the Napoleonic wars when the French managed to block the enemy’s frigates. Paris’ Arc De Triomphe has the name of this battle inscribed on its list of Napoleonic honours. A pity that Nelson had been killed at Trafalgar five years previously. It might have made all the difference if he had been present.


The Ile aux Cerfs is a picturesque place with its archetypal desert island atmosphere of white sandy beaches, palm trees and turquoise lagoons. We stopped for an hour there but could find no deer (cerfs) remaining. Fortunately we’d seen them during our visit to the Pamplemousses botanical gardens a couple of days previously.


It was a relaxing return trip to Mahebourg. The town was founded by the Dutch during their two brief intervals of colonization in the seventeenth century when they succeeded in eating the last Dodo. The town is named after French governor Bertrand Mahe’ de la Bourdonnaise.


It was, however, a pity that our trip did not include a visit to the town which contains two interesting museums, the Historical Naval museum housed in an ancient mansion and the Frederik Hendrik museum recounting the Dutch occupation of the island. It’s a good two hours by bus to reach Mahebourg from where we are staying but we have visited the main museums in Port Louis which similarly recount the history of the island.

Port Louis and Slavery

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Port Louis was not the original capital of Mauritius which was Mahebourg. Finding that location on the south east coast of the island too windy in 1606 the Dutch decided to move their administration to the better protected haven of Port Louis in the north west coast. Originally known as the ‘Harbour of Tortoises’ the capital got its present name in 1736 under the French in honour of king Louis XV.


Le Caudan waterfront, named after the eighteenth century French developer Jean Dominique Michel de Caudan, is the island’s most notable commercial and cultural centre containing some interesting museums

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From the nearby bus station we headed for the newest of these, the intercontinental slavery museum. Only officially opened last year the museum is housed in the former military hospital.


Still in its very early days the structure now has its walls restored back to their lava and coral stones. In it the museum presented us with some interesting projects. These included

1. Photos of facial moulds of ex-slaves collected by a nineteenth century French anthropologist to help in his investigations into the origin of Mauritian slaves.

2. Excavations of graves relating to old slave camps.

3. Research into the slave origins of selected Mauritian families.


Slavery in Mauritius was finally abolished under British rule in 1835 thanks to the efforts of persons like Wilberforce. There is so much to investigate in this disturbing phenomenon which has existed since biblical times and unfortunately continues into the present age with renewed force.


We are glad, however that a museum now exists on the island to bring this subject to the attention of a wider world public.

A Multicoloured Island

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A week has passed since we arrived in Mauritius. We are lucky to be here since we were the last ones to fly out through the raging storm afflicting Dubai when a year’s rainfall fell in less than 24 hours. Flights have resumed now but they remain far from normal and our new worry is how to get back.


Heavy rain has now fallen on Mauritius and our friend Rama today warned us to postpone our planned visit to Port Louis, the island’s capital, because of severe flooding. The tik-tok video he sent us of the Caudan waterfront was indeed frightening with spontaneous waterfalls appearing all over the area and cars and buses submerged. No dead registered so far fortunately.


Which leads me to consider the negative side of life in this otherwise idyllic island. Hurricanes do not hit this part of the world with the destruction wreaked in areas like the West Indies but they do occur. This year, for example, cyclone Belal brought death and widespread flooding to the area of the Mascarene islands of which Mauritius forms a part.


However, (fingers crossed) tsunamis have not yet affected this lovely but vulnerable island.


Going from natural to man-made calamities (although increasingly so-called natural ones are increasingly man-caused) Mauritius has had a remarkably placid recent political history.


The era before independence in 1968 did, however, produce riots and protest movements with subsequent deaths. These arose from issues regarding labour relations and racial tensions. The UK’s army was even called in to quell the disturbances.

Since those days Mauritius has had an enviable political record, especially when it is part of Africa. Let’s consider the countries who have governed it in succession from the Portuguese to the Dutch to the French and to to the English.

Let’s also consider the populace’s terms of employment from African slaves to indentured Indian workers after slavery was abolished in the UK empire by the likes of Wilberforce in 1835 to the influx of Chinese workers and now the growing number of westerners choosing thr island to work or just to retire in.


However, in an increasingly uncertain world there could arise a situation where locals arise against over-tourism in the manner of the current canary islanders. Tourism as a negative force? Sadly it’s near to that in many parts of the world including Italy.


Where issues of species extinction – sadly the Dodo is not the only animal to have been wiped out on this island witness the species of rails and pigeons – slavery, indentured labour, forced migration, imperialist dogma, racism, local mafia and international corruption have touched Mauritius it’s great that the island has retained its humanity and consistency still welcoming visitors on the way it has done us. Long may it continue in this truly democratic and multicultural fashion so well emblemized in its national flag.

‘Mon Plaisir’

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It rained on and off for much of last night. The sound of the drops was delicious – not at all like the often grim patter one gets in Europe.


In the morning the weather settled a little and so we decided to catch a bus to visit the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic gardens. Named after Mauritius’ first president, the ‘father of the nation’, it’s situated in the town of Pamplemousses (French for grapefruits)

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The gardens hold a rich collection of plants especially palms and are the oldest such garden in the southern hemisphere having been founded in 1767 by Pierre Poivre the governor of the then French island.


Among its spectacular specimens are the giant nenuphars or Victoria water lilies growing in a very long pond. They are said to be able to support a human but we did not wish to test this theory.


Other aquatic plants include sacred lotuses and nymphaea.


The old governor’s mansion, named ‘mon plaisir’, stands near the nation’s father’s samadhi. From here a long avenue is lined by trees planted by world politicians and royalty including one by Princess Margaret.


Corners of the gardens are dedicated to medicinal plants, orchids and spices.


Perhaps the finest plants in the gardens are the collection of palms including a magnificent specimen of corypha umbraculifera. Living up to eighty years this palm dies shortly after it blossoms with buds that can reach over twenty feet in length – a true creational amalgam of Love and Death.


I loved the way the gardens were laid out in largely French classical fashion with long straight avenues. The ponds, on the other hand, are more influenced by the English landscape garden in their ‘natural’ layout.


The gardens also house a collection of animals including deer (cervus timorensis),

giant tortoises (aldabrachelys gigantea)

and a lively assortment of water fowls.


Along the avenues is a smattering of memorials. I was particularly pleased to see one dedicated to Bernardin de Saint Pierre, the author of that proto-romantic novel based in Mauritius where he lived for some years, ‘Paul et Virginie’.


Fortunately the rain stopped during most of our visit. We only had to overcome one hurdle in order to return to our hotel: finding a bus back. Without any numbers shown on bus stops and even on buses, without any bus route maps, with little knowledge of the local creole patois and without any timetables to consult this proved a bit of a challenge but the Mauritians are a very helpful people and we managed to get back just in time to avoid a further tropical downpour.

Towards the Black River

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After lunch we continued our island exploration by visiting a rum factory. Until recent times sugar cane was the most important crop on the island and Mauritius rum is reckoned to be some of the best on the planet. First we visited the equipment used in extracting sugar from the cane and the fermentation vats.

Second, we were invited to sample different rum varieties including coconut and vanilla flavoured tipples. The rum works were surrounded by a lovely garden.

We then entered Mauritius’s largest natural park the Black River gorges and forest. This forms part of the Chamarel region, one the most scenic areas of the island. Reaching a viewpoint we spotted the Black River dividing into two spectacular waterfalls known as Alexandra falls.


In the luscious forest surrounding us the trees included tropical pines, palms and baobab. There are several hikes to be made from here. Unfortunately we could only manage a short walk with the time at our disposal but Mauritius is truly a rambler’s paradise.

A section of the forest has been laid bare to reveal an astonishing phenomenon, that of different rocks displaying a variety of colours from blue, through brown to red according to the ferric amount they contain. I’ve seen photos of these rocks revealing much more lively shades than we were able to capture. Is that due to the way the sun’s rays hits them at different times of day I wonder?


Further down was a paddock containing giant Aldabra tortoises. There wasn’t a peep from any of them, not even a twitch from one of if their flippers. Perhaps they were hibernating? I don’t quite think so since, although Mauritius is now entering its winter season, temperatures remain well into the high twenties.


We returned in twilight via Port Louis, the Mauritian capital. Traffic around here was intense even in spite of a stretch of six lane motorway. More practical to solve congestion around the city is the 26 mile long metro light railway, built with help from India, which has recently been inaugurated. It goes to the town of Cure-Pipe which used to be the place where the old steam locomotives would have their boilers cleaned out – hence the name. For until 1960 Mauritius used to have an extensive standard gauge rail system covering the whole island. From that time to 2019 it was bereft of chemins de fer. Now, in common with many other world urban centres, railways are making a comeback.

Michaelangelo’s Secret Room

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Below Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, in the Medici Chapels of Florence’s San Lorenzo church there is a small and mysterious space, known as Michelangelo’s secret room. It is here that the great artist hid for some weeks to escape the death sentence. In 1530, the Medici had just returned to Florence and all those who had actively taken part in the Florentine Republic (1527-1530) were wanted, including Michelangelo.

Here are some of the masterworks the sculptor created for that new sacristy which counter-balances the old sacristy by the architect of San Lorenzo, Brunelleschi.

In 1975, during renovation work, some drawings, sanguine and charcoal sketches re-emerged from the walls of that small room. Many of these refer to Michelangelo’s memoirs or projects of his works. Among the latter there’s the Allegory of Night: a sketch for a statue – which Michelangelo would later create, once he had reconciled himself with the Medici family – still visible in the New Sacristy… the last Florentine masterpiece he sculpted before his final departure for Rome.

We were privileged to see this arcane chamber after having been accepted for a booking five months previously. Only a limited number of persons are allowed at any one time here and of the four booked we were the only two who turned up yesterday in one of Florence’s rainiest days this year. Thoroughly soaked we were admitted down a steep passageway behind the famous statues of Day and Night sculpted by perhaps the greatest artist of the renaissance.

We were thus the only two in Michaelangelo’s hidey hole for a good half-hour … apart, of course, from our guardian, a very personable and well-informed young man from Catania. He filled us in with details about the amazing charcoal sketches, some with sanguinia red pencil touches.

Here is a selection of the photos we took of this hallowed recess. Maybe you may recognize the proto-shapes of statues to come from Mr M. Buonarroti?

It was an amazing experience to be there and think about the confinement in such a small space of this very great artist. I pondered on works of art written in prisons and hidden places: Pellico’ with his ‘Confessions of an Italian’, Dostoyevsky, Ezra Pound and Louis Wain were all names that jumbled into my mind. Does physical confinement open the mind I wonder?

Returning to the new sacristy we entered the huge mausoleum the Medicis built for their family which became extinct with the death of the imbecile Gian Gastone in the eighteenth century. However, all that pomp of marble and gold counted for nothing to me when compared to one of Michaelangelo’s sketches when he was forced to be immured to save his life.

We exited into the the market surrounding the fine Brunelleschi church of San Lorenzo with the rain still pelting down and headed for a bar down a street lined by stalls, almost all of which were manned by orientals selling not so much mangoes and idols but Florentine leather bags …perhaps made in China?

By the evening the rain had ceased and we were able to enjoy the classic view of Florence from the Piazzale named after the city’s greatest artist

Searching through my photos I came across these recording a visit there in 1983.. I would not have recollected the visit if the photos were not there to prove it had occured. I do not know whether we had to book it or even pay for it. Perhaps there was less hype then about the place and, having gained entry to the new sacristy, there would have been no fuss about showing us the secret room. We were young then and married for less than ten years. Hopes sprang eternal: some realised, others, like wanting to have children, dashed to the ground. It was lovely, therefore, to say that we have returned over forty years later to an admired spot of our youth.

Taidd Ryfedd 15

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CHAPTER 15

Wulfstan continued his search for the saviour dragon the following day. This time he headed for the plains beyond Dunara leaving the mountains behind him.

A long and level road led to a walled city called Meadawa. In this city he had heard there was a temple dedicated to a great, wise person who had sought enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. The temple stood on one side of a wide square. From the outside it didn’t seem to be a very significant structure, looking more like a warehouse than a religious building.

Stepping inside, however, was another matter. Beyond the entrance lobby a large hall opened out  one one wall of which spread a line of golden statues of deities. Strangely Wulfstan could not see their faces for these were covered with red kerchiefs. He wondered why. Was this an auspicious sign? Or not? Perhaps even a sign of mourning?

He observed a person clothed in a dark grey robe reaching his ankles. Perhaps he might be a priest, devotee of the golden statues. Wulfstan approached him.

‘Good day’, said the figure.

‘Good day,’ acknowledged Wulfstan. ‘You are a monk of this temple?’

‘Indeed I am a Bhikku, a monk of the temple, the temple of our community of  Meadawa. It is known as the “Puhuasi Temple”.

‘What a wonderful interior. How did it come to be here?’ asked Wulfstan.

‘I will explain’, replied the monk who was clean shaven.

‘This temple derives from the original Puhuasi temple which is to be found in Taihuai in Shanxi and is also called the temple of the Jade Emperor. Within that temple is the Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings where Maitreya is enshrined. There are also the statues of Sakyamuni, Amitabha and Bhaisaijyaguru,

‘How old is your temple?’

‘Not very old. It happened that just over twenty years ago our old men realised that we did not yet have in this town a place for the worship of our gods. After all we are new arrivals to Meadawa. However, thanks to the contribution of our community we managed to find this building, purchase it and renovate it.

‘Do you only use it for prayer?’

‘Oh no. we hold classes for all ages in various subjects. In particular we teach our traditions and our culture within the community.

Wulfstan and the Bikkhu passed from the main prayer hall into another large room. Here an extraordinary sight awaited them.