Rodrigues

The weather's been a bit miserable since we arrived and, believe it or not, a might bit chilly. I think our blood is running somewhat thin after all those years in the tropics.  We've dug out the fleecies, long pants and socks and even have a blanket on the bed at night!  What a change.

Apart from the little town and capital of Port Mathurin, we haven't yet managed to see anything but, so far it's lovely.  The people are of French and African descent and are all smiles, friendly and helpful, primarily French speaking. There are fresh baguettes available every day and a spotlessly clean market daily which has to be the best supplied market we've seen since Fiji.  The streets are also spotless as the shops don't give out plastic carrier bags so none to fly off onto the trees and fences or lie in the gutters as we've encountered everywhere in abundance for many years now.  What a pleasure, they should ban the damned things worldwide.

Rodrigues lies about 350nm east of Mauritius and is an autonomous region of Mauritius which is part of the Mascarene Islands.  Its origins date back to the Portuguese, French and subsequently the English who took over from the French and abolished slavery, leaving behind the current African descendants.  It seems a bit of Dutch and Huguenot influence can also be thrown into the melting pot as well.  It has a small population of only about 40,000 and although we hear that its economy is based on fishing, farming, handicrafts and a developing tourism market, we see little evidence of these.  Around Port Mathurin, there are very few fishing vessels, the ground is volcanic so very rocky which must make it difficult to farm on a large scale and we've seen no tourists other than ourselves, yet no one seems poor.  In the early years, the inhabitants relied heavily on tortoises, turtles and an abundance of other seafood.  Now many foodstuffs are sent over from Mauritius on a regular supply ship.

Something that I read which I thought was very interesting is that when Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the sound was so loud that it was heard all the way to Rodrigues 4,800 km away.  It was loud enough that the naval ships were sent out to investigate if there was a ship in distress firing its guns.  To this day, it remains the loudest sound in recorded history.  Incredible.

In the meantime, we desperately need a new fan belt but can't find one the right size.  It appears that our alternator brackets were severely compromised which caused excessive vibration and the subsequent damage to three belts but step by little step, Paul is getting it sorted.  We'll more than likely get a belt flown in from Mauritius and then get additional spares when we get there.  For the time being, we're running on half a belt split longitudinally but so far so good.