Rodrigues

Rodrigues Island is a small volcanic island in the Indian Ocean, 560 km east of Mauritius, of which it is a territory. On the north coast, the capital Port Mathurin features colonial buildings including the former governor’s residence. In the southwest, the François Leguat Giant Tortoise and Cave Reserve is home to fruit bats and giant tortoises, plus underground caves

Rodrigues is surrounded by coral reef and some tiny uninhabited islands that lie just off its coast. The tenth District of Mauritius until 2002, it was granted autonomous status and has since been managed by the Rodrigues Regional Assembly for its everyday governance. The capital and largest city is Port Mathurin and the island was home to around 40,000

Following the capture of Mauritius by the British in 1810, Rodrigues became a dependency of Mauritius and was administered as such throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. During both French and British rule, the island’s local affairs were largely managed from the main island, leaving the Rodriguan population with limited control over their own governance. After Mauritius gained independence in 1968, Rodrigues remained part of the Republic, but the people of the island increasingly expressed a desire for greater participation in decision-making and more autonomy over local matters.

Due to the island lying far off the beaten track of seafarers at that time, it received few visits. From 1601, the Dutch began visiting the island more regularly for fresh supplies of food. In 1691, the Huguenot François Leguat and seven companions landed on the island, intending to set up a farming colony of Protestant refugees. Farming was not successful, but there was an abundance of tortoises, turtles, birds, fish and other seafood. During the 18th century, several attempts were made by the French to develop the island. African slaves (ancestors of the present population) were brought to Rodrigues to develop stock-breeding and farming. In 1735 a permanent French settlement was established, subordinated to Île Bourbon. In 1809, after a brief battle with the French, British troops took possession of Rodrigues. After British occupation, slavery was eventually abolished in 1834. By 1843, the population had declined to a low of 250.

Early in 1968, HMS Cambrian, which was part of the Beira Patrol following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Rhodesia, was diverted to Rodrigues to quell a reported uprising by some of the populace. The uprising consisted of a number of individuals who had been arrested by the local authorities for breaking into a warehouse and appropriating a supply of sweet potatoes. Other locals went to the authorities and by violence released the arrested persons. At this point, it is believed that the authorities requested assistance which was provided by HMS Cambrian. On her early morning arrival, the ship's 4.5" guns were fired (with blanks, it is believed) and an armed landing party was provided. This resulted in the offenders being rounded up and imprisoned again.

We were in Rodrigues by 10:30 am. Their immigration seemed to think we were all a problem but eventually we got through, although Ching and Olaf had their luggage pulled apart.

Then we got into our large bus and had 15 minute drive to the giant tortoise sanctuary which had been established in 2016.. Although there had been tortoises here when Leguat, a French huguenot, came to Rodrigues when fleeing religious persecution in France. He arrived here around 1680 and recorded the tortoises, but were hunted by sailors for food and all disappeared. So the Aldabra tortoise was imported from the Seychelles. Olaf wanted us to have a tour of the sanctuary first and then to end up with lunch there. However they were unable to provide a guide and we ended up having lunch quite early and setting off on our tour at 1:30 pm. The lunch was in a very pleasant area, and the chicken and rice was quite good.

We found that there were 31 of us on the tour of the sanctuary and the guide spoke in a mixture of French and English. Apparently there were three types of tortoise but I never quite understood what these were. The track that we had to follow round the sanctuary was very up-and-down and quite uneven. We ended up in a 500 mete long cave full of stalactites and stalagmites. It was completely dark, and a little bit difficult at times. Bee See and myself were allowed to be at the front so that we could follow the guide with his large flashlight. We stopped in several places and had to wear helmets to protect our heads which indeed was necessary as we banged heads against the rocks in very many places.

The cave complex is part of the tortoise sanctuary. Grande Caverne: Located in the southwest, it is the only electrified "show cave" in the southwestern Indian Ocean. It is equipped with state-of-the-art raised walkways and eco-friendly lighting.

From the Tortoise Sanctuary it was 30 minutes to the hotel. But we then found that they had a new system of check-in, which was absolutely ridiculous and nobody was allowed to go to their room until all the passports all had ben registered. Olaf had asked that he be allowed to do them all while we went to our rooms, but the stupid girl on reception trenchantly refused and insisted we all sat there while she went through registration. We were not amused at all as it was getting colder and I wanted to swim. They were quite impervious to the fact that David told them how stupid their system was. The room itself, once we found it, had a pleasant aspect with two chairs outside on a patio with a view of the sea across their gardens.

I went for my swim and this was a pleasant infinity edge which it was somewhat chilly. I unpacked a little and we had a snack on the deck chairs and then got ready for dinner. This was a buffet at 7 pm and the food was a reasonable quality but we were on a long table for 12 which is never for us an ideal way of having a meal. The table was red plastic, which did not help improve the ambiance. All the rest of the restaurant tables were wood. But a very pleasant cocktail and we sat on our balcony afterwards for a few minutes.






Rodrigues is a world-class kite surfing destination offering a massive 200 km² lagoon . The centre of the action is Anse Mourouk in the southeast, which features consistent 10–25 knot trade winds and shallow, 1.5-meter deep crystal-clear waters perfect for all

An invigorating swim at 7:30 am before breakfast at 8.00. We had breakfast outside on the balcony by ourselves and enjoyed it more than a communal breakfast. We took off en grupo at 9 am and visited several beaches on the island all of which were really delightful and the watercolours in the lagoon were quite outstanding ranging from pale blue to deep green and we could see the channels and the passes that allowed boats to get through the reef. The reef varied from about 500 m off shore on the eastern side of the island to 7 km offshore on the west side.

We also stopped several times for breathtaking views and there were many offshore islets in the lagoon, one of which was stocked with all the animals species on the island in case of a drastic illness that might cause extermination of all the animals on the main island. In that case restocking could eventually take place with uncontaminated stock. We then visited the museum which was really interesting apart from a seven minute video to start with. Unfortunately, we did not have long enough in this museum to take full advantage of it.

We then had a 45 minute stop in the capital, Port Mathurin. The town was not very uplifting. We walked around the block, visited the tourist information office which was fatal. Then back to the hotel with a stop at the church which was built in the 1930s practically all by hand with fantastic effort on the part of so many of the locals. It was the largest church in the Indian Ocean that has now become the largest cathedral. We felt it had little charm but it took 2500 to 3000 people. Two masses were held here each Sunday and one mass daily but attendance was falling.

Once back at the hotel, we went for a walk along the beach in both directions before I had a swim in the pool which was deserted of other people. Then a snack and some wine in the room until 6:45 pm when we went to have a cocktail with the manager, Nikesh. We had met him down on the beach and had another chat with him about a hotel‘s problems and he had invited us to have a cocktail with him in the evening. The cocktail was the hotel's signature cocktail , slightly spicy or rather too gingers for Chris, but very welcome all the same with some great tapas too. We chatted to him for over an hour about all his problems and he heard some of ones that we too had suffered over the years. We them went in for dinner which we enjoyed on a table by ourselves, but the music was very loud and echoed throughout which somewhat took the shine off fairly reasonable food. Once back in the room we found that the staff had written "C Rodriguez" in twigs on the bed, very twee.

I had a swim before breakfast and then we spent 2+ hours in the room on the patio before gathering at 11:30 am for the transfer to the airport. We have been informed the previous day that four of us, David, myself Sue and Ching were on a different flight to the rest of them, but only half an hour later. The others were scheduled to takeoff at 2:10 pm and us at 2:40 pm. They took off roughly on time but then we were delayed by almost 100 minutes so did not get to Mauritius airport until almost 6 pm. Olaf had sent the rest of them off to the hotel and waited for us at the airport