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We all got some good rest and while we didn’t plan on doing much in Abu Dhabi we did consider doing something after we woke up. We thought it might be cool to check out Yas Island which is home to a formula one track, but when I contacted them about a tour, they stated it’s fully booked up until May and the only alternative they offered was to go karting, something the kids are a bit too young for. So our plan to not do much stayed exactly that. The hotel had a rooftop pool which we utilized for a bit and we all very much enjoyed watching the planes take off. We headed back into the terminal early and took our time making it through the empty lines at check in, customs and security. The lounge was also empty, but we relaxed there for a while drinking beers and eating good lounge food. Boarding started early and we had to take the bus back to the plane, which of course Kilian very much enjoyed. The flight was less than an hour to Muscat and we landed early. Muscat’s state of the art airport is definitely one of the nicer ones we have been too. It is pretty new and is decorated with a lot of detail and glamour in mind. Getting stamped in was a breeze as they waved us past the building line up of people. Not sure whether it was because of Kalina or because we were obvious tourists. The same thing happened again at actual customs where everyone in front got checked through the scanners except for us. We were told to just by pass it. Luckily Oman has made entry much easier for Canadians and a free 14 day exemption is granted without needing a visa. We had tried visiting Oman back in 2014, but didn’t get through the border near Al Ain because we didn’t have transport lined up to get stamped into Oman at the border checkpoint which wasn’t walkable. So here we are finally in the country of Oman. We rented a car which took terribly long for whatever odd reason. The kids were getting cranky and the short ride to the hotel was not fun. Ashleigh sorted out the room while I found parking with the crying baby. Kilian was patient throughout luckily. It ended up being later than we hoped when the kids were finally asleep. Welcome to Oman! As a side note we are driving to the Wahiba Sands Desert tomorrow and will be off grid for the next four days! So no updates until we are back!
There hasn't been too much happening the last few days, so there wasn't a lot to write about. In a nutshell we have been relaxing mostly on the beach, at times at the pool as well. We fell into a comfortable holiday routine. Buffet breakfast followed by lounging until lunch time with quiet time while the kids napped. Ashleigh and I managed to play a couple rounds of cards as well this time! Cocktail time was either at the bar or in our room and we went to the buffet most nights. Kilian kept very busy and has lots of highlights to report on. We did manage to get him to stay at the kids club without us after a few tries. The club is quite nice and we even spend some time as a family in the clubs kiddie pool. Kilian got to play with a lot of toys there and also made Kalina and himself a pretty necklace. His favourite activity was feeding the in-house tortoises by putting apples on a skewer. He was very proud when the tortoises went for the apple without him dropping the skewer. We also had some success hunting the crabs and even trapped a few of them in his bucket. On my end I did manage to go snorkelling by the reef which was quite a far swim out. The corals seemed healthy enough and besides the usual tropical fish I did manage to see a bunch of small squid and one lobster. Our room was also great, but overall we didn't stir too far from the resort besides some short walks nearby. After recharging for a few days we are excited to continue our journey back into the northern hemisphere. We changed plans a handful of times so I spend quite a bit of my free time on the phone adjusting flights. We initially booked our next flight to Oman, with a short layover in Abu Dhabi which we then changed to include a few days in Abu Dhabi. We were hoping to catch the Dubai Expo before it ends at the end of the month. But after speaking to some others about their experience of standing in long lines for hours to get into a pavilion, we changed our flight back to just spend a night in Abu Dhabi on our way to Muscat and will skip the Expo, probably a smart move since the kids are not as patient yet. Most flights arrive at terrible hours in the Middle East, but at least ours was scheduled to arrive around 11pm. We even left early today so hoping we may also land earlier. We likely won't be doing too much while in Abu Dhabi during the 18 hours we have since we have already seen plenty of it back in 2014. Since we are getting in late, we booked a hotel near the airport. Initially Etihad offered us two free nights on our stopover, but they took that away when the layover is less than 24 hours! The Kempinski five star resort in the Seychelles was fine overall, but we much preferred our other stays while on the other islands. We couldn't even score a late checkout today and so Kilian, who luckily has become quite adaptable, had to take a nap on the beach today while Ashleigh hung out with Kalina in the air conditioned hotel lounge. We left for the airport early so we could spend some time in the lounge there while Kilian had the perfect view of the runway and watched the mostly small aircrafts take off. After a couple Seybrews we boarded our flight having scored the bulkhead seats. The kids were a little restless for the first half of the flight, but we managed to calm them down after they were fed. They both slept for the rest and we landed way early before 10pm in Abu Dhabi. Kilian got to say hi to the pilots again and then was all perky as we took a bus to the terminal. Our hotel is connected to the airport so it was easy getting to it and everyone was back to sleep well before midnight.
It was time to pack up the car one final time and drive to the airport. I did check traffic and it was all green until we started driving. We hit a traffic jam right before the airport and it was a runner that seemed a little bit out of it as he was in the actual lane of traffic desperately trying to catch a ride. Luckily the ambulance came as soon we pulled up to him. We still managed to drop the car and get to the flight on time. The airport isn’t very big so there wasn’t much to do anyways. Kilian and I managed to press out a souvenir coin through one of those machines which kept Kilian busy for a while after. The flight was fine until we got close to landing. Only a few meters short of the runway the plane fully accelerated back up into the air as we got plastered by heavy rains. Ashleigh didn’t like that, but we just made another pass and landed from the other side of the runway as the rainstorm passed over. After we exchanged some money I started haggling for a ride to the resort which was actually quite the frustrating experience. Prices were not only set, but they were also outrageously inflated, one could take a taxi for an entire day for this price in most places. We started to walk out of the terminal when a driver approached us and agreed to take us for still way too much, but slightly less than the rest. After the short drive we finally arrived at the resort and got welcomed with some ginger iced tea. We hung out in the departure lounge for a while until the room was ready and both kids were ready for their naps. Our room is very nice and Kilian has his own bed! The view is also great since we are overlooking the lagoon and the hills with the sound of the ocean clearly audible in the near distance. We are excited to lay low for a few days, not worry about cooking or going anywhere. We already explored the grounds a bit and to the kids excitement found a small enclosure of tortoises. We watched them eat and then took a walk along the beautiful beach. It is exactly how I pictured the Seychelles. Light coloured sand, with turquoise waters dotted with the occasional outcrops of massive granite boulders. The water is bathtub warm so Kilian and I jumped in right away. It is more humid here so it’s the perfect weather for me! After some wave chasing we walked the rest of the resort grounds near the beach and then got ready for cocktail hour. A live band kept the atmosphere chill and the bar snacks were plentiful. We did sign up for half board so both breakfast and dinners were covered! We hit the buffet dinner hard and Kilian who spotted a fully grilled fish was insistent on having it. So even he, to our surprise ate a lot tonight, and even went back for a second piece of fish! With full bellies and the sun long set, we wandered back around to our room. We did spot a small possum digging in the dirt which kept us entertained for a while. Bedtime was later for the kids but they both had a great travel day.
Today was our last full day in Reunion. It has been a great road trip and we enjoyed the things the island had to offer. Since it was finally a blue sky day we started the morning in the pool. Kilian helped me clean the pool by fishing out all bugs and then we practiced jumping in from the ledge. In the afternoon we drove to a nearby waterfall. It was a beautiful 30m high waterfall called Niagara Falls (not very creative). The naming conventions in general are rather simple. Basically every major town is called Saint “something” and then in between one has Petit saint “somethings”. It makes it hard to remember where we even stayed: St Denis, St Benoit, St Pierre, St Phillipe, St and St Andre (probably missed another dozen we passed along the way)? The rest of the town names are so hard to pronounce that when we tell locals where we stayed they just look confused. My favourite was telling people we stayed in Le Tampon, the tampon town - a very interesting name indeed. While I am sure the people of tampon have a great story of how their town name came to be, it was more amusing for us to not know and instead keep our imagination open. The landscape and natural sights here have been truly amazing however, and even though we struggled with the town names we always somehow managed to find places thanks to Ashleigh navigating me. She only send us around circles a couple of times, all of which we got over even with sometimes whiny kids in the backseat.
To finish off our afternoon we fired up the wii and played some Mario Kart - the kids got into it as well and kept throwing things off the couch long after the game ended. Tomorrow we move on to a new place for another vacation from traveling. Road trips are great and we enjoy how it mixed up our traveling after laying on the beach for a few weeks. I am however looking forward to not having to drive, buckle kids in and out of the carseat a dozen times per day or going around the infinite traffic circles. Check back tomorrow for our updated location! We managed to get in a morning at the pool, even though the weather wasn’t great. We didn’t check out until after the kids woke up from their naps and then started our drive to the coast. We had planned to visit a waterfall but it was pouring rain so instead we just headed to the guesthouse. We arrived around 3pm but checkin wasn’t until 4, which the host made clear to us when we arrived. So we had an hour to explore the rugged coastline a few minutes away. We admired the waves for a while and Kilian reminded us that there were sharks in these waters by pointing at all of the warning signs. Our guesthouse is very cozy and the host is super friendly. We hung out in the garden until dinner and then our feast started. We signed up for a dinner at the guesthouse since we were tired of our own cooking. We had appetizers with some cocktails first and chatted for a while with the host. The kids were busy playing with the shells and checking out the kittens. We moved the dinner to the patio where we got served some delicious local and organic food. We even got to try the famous heart of the palm tree, the inner core basically of the tree. After dinner and some red wine we put the kids down and then enjoyed our fruit bowl for dessert outside. The host lined up a bunch of different infused rums for us to try and we then played a new dice game. It was a nice break to socialize a bit more at nights with others, so we had a great time at this tiny guesthouse.
The following day we checked out early after breakfast and then started our journey through the wild south coast. We planned for a handful of stops along the way. The first was to check out the rugged coast again. We hiked along the basaltic rocks while getting sprayed by the mist of the crashing waves. A big part of the south is uninhabited since it is the runout zone of the volcano. We passed many different lava flows that were all signposted by the year they occurred. We hiked up to a small viewing point of one of the more recent flows to admire the wide flow down to the ocean. We couldn’t see the volcano today though since it was hiding in the clouds. The drive was very scenic and even though Kilian was complaining about sitting in the car, we took it slow so we could enjoy the scenery. A couple stops were off limits today so we couldn’t walk down to a small natural pool nor did we get to walk across the old suspension bridge since it was getting fixed. So we arrived in St Andre earlier than planned and settled into our new place. Ashleigh finally managed to find a massive huntsman spider that terrified her greatly, even though I reassured her it would leave us alone. I was not willing to chase it, as the hand size creature was very fast! Instead we asked our host for advice and he offered to come over and vacuum it up, a great idea that was successful! In the afternoon we swam in the pool and then went out for dinner. Many food places close during the day and don’t open until night. Since it wasn’t quite 6pm yet our attempt to find a pizza place was unsuccessful and instead we went to Burger King. Kilian loved the slide maze and the ice cream and we got our craving for fast food satisfied. We picked up a few more items for breakfast and lunch and then called it an early night after a busy day of driving. We have been busy trying to plan out what’s next, so blogging got reprioritized. The highlight of the last few days was the croc park that we went to. Kilian was very excited to see the many crocodiles that were lounging in the shade. Ashleigh thought they were fake until they opened their mouths wide! Besides the crocs the small park also had some lemurs and other small critters, all of which we observed for a while. Kilian got to try out a bouncy castle but he didn’t quite understand the concept of safely running into the air filled walls. At least he had some fun though! He especially enjoyed a small ball pit maze and by the time it was lunch he was soaked in sweat from all that playing. We found a shaded picnic spot and cooled off a bit, but it was a hot day so we headed back to our place to cool off. In the afternoon we went for another drive to St Pierre, the nearest city. We stopped at the supermarket and stocked up on food. English is still not widely understood. I couldn’t even ask how to find a shopping cart and the guy I was talking too, even after much hand gesturing and adding my French accent to “shopping cart” didn’t understand what I wanted. We found them eventually without help and so I drove Kilian around the store. Since he was loving the cart we took it all the way past the parking lot on to a small trail while Kalina was in the stroller. It was a nice break not having to carry any kids for once. We stopped at the coastline as well and it is quite rough here with huge waves. There was nobody in the water here as most areas are not safe for swimming. Either the currents are too strong or the risk of sharks too great. Apparently Reunion has some of the highest number of shark attacks per capita so swimming and surfing is banned in most areas except for lagoon covered waters or beaches with shark nets. But we didn’t come here for the swimming, at least not the ocean swimming! The following day we were socked in at our place. It rained most of the day, but the kids and Ashleigh did venture into the pool even though the temperature outside was in the low 20s, too cold for me to jump in. In the afternoon we walked a bit and tried to sit outside whenever we could during rain breaks. We kept the kids busy with various activities, but overall time was going by slowly. We are looking forward to moving on to our next stop soon!
The two nights in the hills went by too quickly and today we left for a drive after breakfast. It was an amazing blue sky morning so we were excited to explore as we were weaving our way further into the interior. Our mission for today was to drive up to The Volcano, as it’s simply called here or le volcan to be more accurate since English is still hard to come by. The road up to it is packed with plenty of viewpoints and small stops. The first one was overlooking a gorge towards the ocean similar to the one we saw in Mauritius. The bigger views today were towards the highest peak in the Indian Ocean that eluded us yesterday. It is a big mountain and whoever had the privilege of standing on top on this fine morning was lucky! The next stop for us was at a 230m deep crater and since Kalina was sleeping, Ashleigh and Kilian went for a walk to check it out while I stayed behind. We were gaining altitude at this point and just hit the 2000m mark. The landscape changed to small shrubs and once we got closer, it changed to wide wind swept plains that looked more like we were on Mars rather than on earth. The ash covered landscape was the first reminder that we were approaching one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The paved road ended here and the pot holes started. It was a bouncy few kilometres to the top of the pass at 2300m which also marked the entrance of the volcanic area. The view across to the active crater were impressive to say the least and while there wasn’t any current activity, a lot of the recent activity was evident. There is a small crater below which looked very neat from our viewpoint. We hiked along the ridge for a bit to get better viewpoints in this barren landscape before heading back to the car. Since there was little shade, we decided to have lunch elsewhere. Until now we just had ice cream so everyone was hungry. However both kids passed out as soon as we started bouncing around the road and so we kept on driving all the way down and didn’t stop until we got to our next place near Trois Mares. We are staying here for three nights since the location is great for small side trips. The place is overlooking a sugarcane field and the ocean can clearly be seen in the distance since we are still around 600m in elevation. It is much warmer again and the humidity is back but we do have a pool! We settled in and explored the area a bit, which wasn’t easy since the roads are extremely steep. The kids went to bed early after a pizza dinner and while I planned to go to bed early as well, it’s now already late again.
Today we woke up to nice weather and perfect temperatures for some hiking. After breakfast we started our drive up towards Bebour forest. The road was narrow and had plenty of hairpin turns that made the kids stomachs turn. Kilian would let us know when he needed a quick break and I would pull over if I could. The drive was less than an hour, and the scenery was amazing. The many fern trees made the forest look like a movie scene especially as misty clouds were rolling in and out. We drove to the end of the road and then hiked up to the lodge which has a viewpoint of one of the cirques. It is a massive gorge backed by big mountain peaks. We luckily got a few glimpses of the mountains, but Piton des Neiges, the massive 3000m high shield volcano was unfortunately hiding in the clouds. Other smaller peaks looked impressive though! From here we did a small loop through the forest. Kilian did really well and walked the stairs and planks and only needed help through the deep muddy sections. We had a snack break and then followed the birds and butterflies back to the parking lot. It started to rain, so it was perfect timing to zip back into town for lunch and a nap. Kalina slept for nearly two hours which was unusual, so we didn’t get out again until late afternoon. This time we headed to a nearby hiking trail that weaves its way through the jungle towards a 250m tall waterfall. This time Kilian got to sit in his backpack carried by Ashleigh, which we are still trying to figure out and I carried Kalina. We got some incredible views of the distant falls and went as far as we could until we reached a deep creek crossing. It was already getting late so we headed back, stopped at the grocery store for some snacks and then headed home for some sausages and late snack dinner of cheese, olives and wine.
Today marked the beginning of a very different trip, a driving holiday through the French island nation of Reunion, a neighbour island that’s 200kms away from Mauritius. After our last breakfast in Blue Bay, it was time to say goodbye to our beach vacation and leave for the airport. Before we could board however, we needed a negative antigen test for Ashleigh and myself. Luckily a pharmacy was near the airport, so it was only a ten minute detour for the taxi and the whole ordeal took less than 15 minutes and only cost $14 per test so very reasonable compared to the PCR test in Germany. With negative results in hand we checked in for our flight with Air Austral and then headed straight to the lounge for second breakfast. The kids were busy in the playing area while we had more coffee. When we got to the gate for boarding, the aircraft wasn’t there yet so we explored another lounge that overlooked our gate. We snatched up a bunch of waters, pop and snacks from this lounge which we were later grateful for. When the brand new A220 showed up, Kilian was squealing with excitement. It’s super cute that he gets so pumped for boarding planes. We asked and got the bulkhead row, they even gave us the entire row which has two seats on one side and three on the other. Kilian got the window seat and I took the aisle. Ashleigh got the row of two seats to herself. We departed a bit late even though the plane was empty with maximum 30 people onboard. This was our first time flying the A220 and even though I was somewhat excited to initially fly a turbo prop (which according to Google used to fly this route) Ashleigh seemed glad to be on a jet instead. The flight took less than 30 minutes and came with stunning views of both Mauritius and Reunion. The views of Reunion reminded me of Jurassic world, an island with high and lush mountains and tons of greenery. Unfortunately the views of the upper reaches were shrouded by the clouds today. It took some time to find our rental car but after three tries we found the right place. Luckily people were helping us out, even though their English so far has been basic for the most part, which isn’t too surprising. When we finally got our five door Citroen, and once the AC was on and we hit the road, both kids passed out almost immediately. The highway is in great condition so far and reminds me more of a highway in Europe rather than an island nation. We stopped at a large grocery store and while Ashleigh stocked us up for the first days, I hid under a tree writing the blog, and the kids slept in the air conditioned running car. Our first stop was away from the coast, more inland where it is ten degrees cooler. We are staying in a small town with lots of hiking opportunities nearby. The host did not speak much English at all so she checked us in using Google translate. The house is very modern and spacious, even comes with a pool table and wrap around deck equipped with a bbq. Ashleigh made us all baguette sandwiches for dinner and Kilian watched TV. It’s already cooling down and the rain is keeping us indoor for tonight. We are excited to go on some walks in the area tomorrow!
We originally booked the place in Blue Bay for three nights but decided to extend it by a night since our room was the only one available for an extra night and we were having a good time here. Kilian enjoys playing with the other kids and we spent the last few days mostly by the ocean and pool. Kilian even got to test out the paddle board that the Czech family brought with them. While both kids are not a fan of sand, we have been building a few sandcastles and today went on a treasure hunt by digging a massive hole. To our surprise we found a golden surprise, that is the local Phoenix beer which comes in a golden can. Kilian was pumped to find it and it was actually unopened even though some beer must have evaporated somehow. Besides beach time we have been going on walks, and chasing the fish in the crystal clear water daily. Kilian is getting better at finding ways to entertain himself, whether it’s chasing birds, lizards or anything else that moves or playing in the pool. Today Kilian went into the small pool without a vest, and to our surprise just full out stepped into the deep water sinking down like a rock. I quickly fished him out, and while he seemed startled by it, he was otherwise ok. It scared us more than him and so we have been spending a bit more time with him swimming and going under water at times without his vest so he doesn’t get used to it too much. Besides the daily wipeouts whether it’s Kilian or the other kids, things have been mostly quiet here. I did manage to step on a yellow wasp today which stung, that’s the only highlight I can report. We have been eating at the burger shack daily rotating through their menu but are feeling otherwise ready for change. While the idea of picking a random flight out was initially enticing, after checking the departures list, it would likely have landed us back in Europe which we are not ready for. Instead browsing through direct flights we did find some other interesting options. The one we ended up booking for
tomorrow is not a big jump by any means, but it’s still a new place! We are now getting ready for our next chapter! Stay tuned for more details tomorrow! |
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November 2022
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