Back from Mauritius.

I'm just back from Mauritius - the flight's twelve and a half hours each way, so we are feeling tired. But it is good to be home, even though we loved Mauritius and its neighbour island Rodrigues.   We travelled around a lot and saw so much, including some of the conservation work being done.

 I didn't blog much about this before I went (too busy, too nervous).  But all this is part of my research for a book about Gerald Durrell and Mauritius.  The island meant a lot to him and the intervention he planned with huge care thirty five years ago has been quietly developing and flourishing.

One result is the saving of five species of birds, birds so close to extinction that they were down to 12 or fewer individuals. There are other notable successes too, which make Mauritius a pretty remarkable story. 

Anyway, I talked to many people in Mauritius, went into protected wildlife areas and had some memorable experiences, like being in the middle of the forest surrounded by some of the birds that everyone thought would be extinct by now.  These are two pink pigeons...

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and these are echo parakeets, the only native parrots left in the whole of this section of the Indian Ocean. They are a cousin of the Indian green parakeet but quite different from them in many ways. 

Part of the rescue strategy for these birds is to release them into the wild, and also supplement their diet while their numbers continue to build. This keeps them wild but gives them the best chance to reproduce and thrive.   A bit like we feed birds in the garden, I suppose.   

Apart from having several expeditions with naturalists, exploring the island and meeting up with some old friends who live on Mauritius, we also visited Rodrigues island. You reach Rodrigues by a small turbo prop plane which buzzes over the ocean for an hour and a half,  finally landing at an airport where very free range chickens roam about.

Rodrigues is part of Mauritius but has its own assembly, a bit like Scotland or Wales in relation to England. It is said by many mainland Mauritians that Rodrigues is like Mauritius was 30 years ago, laid back, easy going and unsophisticated.  Most of the population is descended from African slaves, and they're noticeably charming, friendly and public spirited compared with almost anywhere else I've been.  And although they might not be considered sophisticated, they certainly seem to have their heads screwed on about looking after their very special island. So far they've stood out against the building of luxury hotels and resorts, they've rejected the polluting fish farms that are now being planned in mainland Mauritius.

It was clean, it was safe and many of the local people live in traditional ways. Here are some of them gathering seaweed to use as fertiliser.  The time was 7 AM, and they were already hard at work before it got too hot.  Since Mauritius is in the tropics, by 11 AM the sun is directly overhead and anyone with any sense then goes home. 

 Now, back in London in November, it's time for me to start transcribing some of my interviews, preparing for more interviews (in Jersey and the West of England early next year) and also get down some of my personal impressions of Mauritius and Rodrigues before I forget.