We had an amazing two weeks of holiday. Thank goodness we are back in peace and not in pieces (we kept hearing that in South Africa). And, our greatest accomplishment, we traveled for two weeks with three small suitcases, one large rolling duffel and did not do laundry. We came back with just about nothing clean, and we used everything other than two tennis rackets. I pride myself in my packing skills. (I don't pack for my kids, but I do give them lists).
We left school a day early (saved us about £500 PER TICKET) and flew over night to Mauritius. We landed, waiting more than an hour for a person to get us our rental car. He was working on us the entire time, all on paper. I drove for the first time in a developing country, other than South Africa, where I drove in 2006. Only trouble with this was that the indicator and windscreen wipers were switched even from our car in England - made for a lot of wipers in dry weather. We drove to our airbnb with a stop for lunch. GORGEOUS along the coast. We drove up up up, along crazy windy roads, into a farm and up to our little cottage. We chilled there for the evening, at their home-cooked Mauritian dinner (jackfruit curry, beans, rice) for dinner. Kids swam. We got eaten alive. Next day we drove to this hike that was 1.4 miles, but SO steep and SO slow after a short walk through the sugar cane fields. All fours required. No bubbies or savtas on this hike. And we got to see the most beautiful waterfalls. Sam was stressed at the beginning, but made it in the end with a great attitude after the first 30 minutes. We then drove to the other side of the island to go to the Sugar Cane Museum. We learned a lot, but it was WAAAAY too much information and way too many words. We went back and chilled in the evening. The next day, we woke up and went to Chamarel where there are amazing earth colors from a long ago volcano. We then went to drop our bags at our resort. Google maps told us we could drive on this side road, which happened to be IN a sugar cane field. My nightmare was that the road would end with no way out to the real road. It happened. There were huge boulders between us and the real road. I freaked out, turned and drove along the road and found a place that was easy enough to drive over. Not my favorite part. Our car was RED with dust. We dropped our bags, went to return our car and then went to the waterfront of Port Louis. It was also not my favorite. We had a bad lunch and then walked to the Port Louis Market. That was super cool, but it was super hot and crowded, and we wanted to head to the resort, so we didn't spend too much time there.
Our next leg was six days at Club Med. Elie got certified for SCUBA (he was a CHAMP and loved it!). Koby found a friend, Lars from Ghana, and mostly hung out with him but complained a lot. Sam found two friends, Liv from London and Arabella from Estonia, and we barely saw her. I dove once, but then I got a cold, so I played tennis most of the week. We swam every afternoon. I snorkeled twice, once with Koby and once alone. We did a few of the evening activities. Sam and Koby did a lot of trapeze. Sam did this thing called "the catch," where she goes on the trapeze on her knees and then grabs someone's hands on another trapeze, swings with him and then drops. Koby hung from his FEET! We read a lot. Played soooo much Splendor and Lost Cities and some Uno. I appreciated EVERY SINGLE MEAL that we didn't need to prepare or even decide where or what we were eating. Those resorts are a mother's dream. All in all, it was wonderful.
Elie doing one of his pool lessons
Koby!
We left early on the 26th to fly to Johannesburg. We went directly to our hotel, had lunch and then learned that the Apartheid Museum - pretty much the whole reason we went to Joburg - was CLOSED for more than TWO WEEKS!! WHAT??? So disappointing. We hung out, went for a long walk around Melrose Arch, had dinner and slept. The next morning, we went on a tour of Soweto. We saw the different levels of housing, and we got a walking tour in one of the poorest areas. The kids have never seen people live like that before - we felt like we had more on us than the people there owned. It was very eye-opening for them. Matt and I did a township tour in Cape Town 18 years ago, and we have seen poverty around the world, but this was our first time in Soweto. We learned a bit about Apartheid and about the Soweto Uprising. We saw Nelson Mandela's house and went in - we saw two documents from the State of Michigan! We also saw Desmond Tutu's house, on the same street. We later met up with one of Matt's colleagues, ate and slept.
Our last leg was a safari in the Kruger Park area. The place we stayed is in Balule Game Reserve, which is a private reserve, but the gates are open with Kruger, so it has all of the big five and pretty much everything. We did an evening drive when we got there, ending at a BBQ. Elie and I went on a bush walk in the morning (5am!), while the others drove, then we did an afternoon and evening drive. We spent an entire day at Kruger. We spent half a day at an animal rehabilitation centre, then we did more drives after that. And finally on the last of the 5 days, we did a morning drive and then got a ride to Joburg. We were meant to arrive at the airport at 5 for a 7:25pm flight. In the end our flight was delayed until 4:05am, so we went to a hotel near the airport, chilled (I ran), ate and then slept from 8:30-1am when we went to the airport. The kids LOVED the safari. We loved this one family we met and spent the entire five days with. They would have stayed for wayyy more days.
I was not the most relaxed. It turns out I just don't love traveling that much, but man, everyone had such a great time. They realize how lucky they are. This was an experience of a lifetime.
