Many croissants after our arrival, nineteen days in fact, we are now preparing to leave this little gem of the Indian Ocean. Sitting in the saloon yesterday watching the masts of our neighbours, in line with ours, jostling and jiggling around you’d think we were all fighting for a position on the start-line at the …

There were tropic bird nest boxes hanging on the chain mail that clad the basalt cliffs we noticed, as our ‘car jaune’ yellow bus sped along the National Highway on route to St Denis, presumably there to replace the natural ones in the cliff-face, hidden after the measures to secure rock fall were draped over …

Le Reunion de Trois Cirques (The Reunion of Three Craters) Cirque Salazie – Cirque Mafate – Cirque Cilaos It is wonderfully cool here in the marina at the moment. I was going to start this blog yesterday morning but then I got caught up in filling in forms on line and sending them to the …

Mauritius Radio called us up as we started our passage between the two islands but our response could not cover the miles between us, so they left us alone. Henk from our neighbouring yacht in the marina ‘Jori’ said they also called him and told him to get out of their waters! He was five …

Malcolm, Christine and the family were down for the weekend recently and Malcolm was determined to get the outboard motor on his tinny working. It has only been used a few times in the past eight years. After much resistance and reluctance, it relented and spluttered into life, at first without conviction and then, admitting …

On occasions Rob comes up with the most delightful ideas for an excursion and I became curious when he disappeared into the kitchen yesterday and started making noises not linked to washing up dishes or pouring drinks. Upon exploration I discovered he was packing a snack of Fruit cake and chocolate biscuits and filling a …

26:24.42S 114:27.50E That evening we cooked in the outdoor kitchen near the tent instead of the big camp kitchen and I’m glad we did because we met numerous really interesting people from WA; one lady travelled the world’s universities in her role as an adviser to students on dissertation presentation and a chap had helped …

20:39.40S 116:59.53E Yesterday, here in Te Opu, Rob was busy. He telephoned Travis who lives in The Ritz, the other little homestead not far from the main house and Shipton. Travis has sold all his young bitch’s puppies, one to Perth and the rest within Kojonup. Within minutes of the phone call Rob and Travis …

Pearl buttons to be precise and the town was born in 1883 and rapidly developed into an area filled with Chinese, Japanese and Europeans along with local aborigines ‘blackbirded’ into forced labour aboard the pearl luggers like the perfect model you see in the picture. The industry of pearling was a dangerous one and thousands …

It may seem incongruous but while deadly Covid 19 still grips the world, and the regime in China is sabre rattling over Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and threatening Australia and the US; while Melbourne in Victoria goes at least in part back into Lockdown, we, along with many families whose children are now on school …