travelling around the Indian Ocean

 

Without understanding how much money would be added on for inter-island flights (and for a single supplement as no-one else wanted to share), I booked a slot onto a birdwatching tour of some of the Indian Ocean islands: the Seychelles (Mahe, Praslin, La Digue and Cousin), Mauritius and Rodriques, Reunion and Mayotte, and the Comoros.  As seems to have become the norm on birding trips these days, the other tour participants were not only older than me, but also hard-core birders, holding endless conversations about different bird guides, bird books and their authors, and getting very concerned as to whether or not we might see various endemic sub-species of bird species we’d already seen on a different island.

But I still enjoyed the trip, getting to see the beautiful scenery of the islands and the wildlife – giant tortoises, blue-tailed geckos, enormous palm spiders, and flying foxes (bats) as well as the birds – and learning snippets of information about the history and culture of those places.  The Guest Information folder of one hotel in Mauritius explained that “The Dutch first arrived on the island in 1516, but were unable to colonise it as the slaves that had been brought over from Africa ran away into the mountains upon their arrival.” And then when in 1598 a Dutch squadron landed on the island, “instead of expanding the colony, the Dutch contented themselves with devastating the fauna and the flora that caused the extinction of the ebony tree and the dodo”!  Remnants of British rule, such as driving on the left and 3-square-pin sockets, remained alongside the domination of the French language – apparently as a result of the Treaty of Paris when Britain took over the island but agreed to allow the continuation of various French customs including their language.  & whilst I didn’t hear any examples of it, I was surprised to read that the Mauritian creole of today still has Senegalese words that evolved from the Wolof language, as a result of slaves brought to Mauritius by the French when they ruled the island.

My favourite place was Cousin island, a nature reserve since its purchase by BirdLife International in 1968, and only open to visitors for a few hours each morning.  It is FULL of nesting sea birds, which show no concern when you wander right up near their nests – not to mention the Aldabra Giant Tortoises living on the island, which seem to love a gentle stroke of the neck!!

The trip wasn’t without its issues, firstly with a flight between Seychelles islands failing to load the luggage of two of us, apparently because our plane had reached its weight limit, but thankfully sending it on a later flight that same day.  Our visit to the French island of Reunion was particularly badly hit: first we could not take the planned boat trip out to see pelagic birds as the wind was so strong that the harbourmaster had closed the harbour for safety reasons; our second outing – many hours of trekking up a mountain to search near the top for the endemic Reunion Cuckooshrike and Reunion Harrier – not cancelled but made very difficult and dangerous by hours of overnight rain turning the path to mud (only three out of our group of eight made it up the path – thankfully we did at least see both birds); and finally, after a 5am departure from our hotel to take our onward flight, we discovered at the airport that a bus had hit our plane(!) and so the flight was cancelled.  We spent the day waiting at the airport, with a basic brunch provided at 11:30, but fortunately they managed to fit all of us onto the 4pm flight.  But then we had missed our connection and had to spend an unscheduled night on a different island in transit for the flight the next morning to the Comoros, where the only food they could get for us (it being a Sunday when restaurants there are closed) being chicken and chips! 

When we got to the Comoros, near the end of the trip, I felt as though I was ‘home’ in Africa.  Poverty, ramshackle homes made of corrugated iron, litter everywhere, friendly people, and a very laid-back vibe…  I know some of my travel companions felt less comfortable there, but I enjoyed it.  Everyone suffered from stomach problems in the Comoros, however.  For me they were mild, and for just one night, but at least half of the group were taking blockers for the last week of the tour - mostly the same people who were not fit or mobile enough to make it up the hillside trails.  I'm not sure how many of the birds and other animals they managed to see.  There weren't all that many birds (it's a largely volcanic - and degraded - landscape), but I enjoyed more geckos and skinks, mongooses, and the very common flying foxes.  & I always enjoy hearing the call to prayer, although those in the Comoros were the least musical I've heard anywhere in the world.

At the end of the trip, on the day when we needed to get from the main island of Grande-Terre to the small island of Petite-Terre where the airport is located, there was a strike by the maritime workers, so the ferries were not running.  Thankfully some private boat owners were profiting from the chaos by ferrying people across (at a price), but the queues stretched for miles and I was very glad I’d needed to stay an extra night before taking a flight out.

As I go back through my photos to add a few to this post, I'm really reminded of the contrast between the luxurious and beautiful Seychelles, where we started, and the poor and dirty Comoros (including the French island of Mayotte, which is geographically and culturally part of the Comoros) where we finished.  Absolutely worlds apart.