Our Honeymoon

Glorious Mauritius - April-May 2003

After a dream of a day at The Belfry, we set off to Heathrow for a 13 hour flight to Mauritius, a glorious little gem of an island in the Indian Ocean. Stephen's dream of going there was finally coming true, and indeed it was the most wonderful holiday of a lifetime. We stayed in Dinarobin, a five star resort which truly lived up to its billing as a paradise destination. Sumptuous accommodation, wonderful food, and a real place to relax, swim, sunbathe, water ski and generally enjoy life to the full.

Below are a selection of photos. Please click on the thumbnail to see a larger version.


The night before the wedding at a family meal at The Belfry	The bridal suite at The Belfry - we weren't expecting this, and it was really luxurious	We even had our own balcony above the club house overlooking the golf course	On arrival in Mauritius another luxurious room awaited us, complete with fresh fruit	A glorious double bed somewhat over-endowed with soft furnishing

And our own private balcony complete with sofa	The view from our balcony - all the rooms were in little thatched huts like this	100 yards' stagger from the beach - this is the jetty used for boating and water skiing and used by locals for fishing after hours	Every night there were spectacular sunsets along the beach	Like this, for instance!

...or this...	...or perhaps this!	The atmosphere was amenable to relaxation - you only had to wave a hand and the waiter brought you a drink, or even chips!	A huge swimming and paddling pool complex at the hotel	But we didn't stay in the hotel all the time - here on a tour of Mauritius, Stephen is sitting under a Banyan

Another spectacular set of banyan trees in the gardens at the capital Port Louis	The bandstand in the centre of Port Louis	The new waterfront development with shops and cafes	Sarah resting in the Caudan development	Another view of the modern part of Port Louis

Extinct volcano in the mountains just outside Port Louis	One of the most important Hindu shrines outside India	And the embodiment of Hanuman - a monkey eats a donated banana outside the temple	Tea, as it grows in the plantation	A typical view in the Mauritus highlands with dense tropical forest

Another typical Mauritian tropical view, with banana fronds in the foreground	Stephen in a small cafe where we stopped for lunch	And here is coffee, growing near a local tourist attraction	The spectacular falls	And the coloured earth - an area where mineral pigments produce a rainbow coloured earth, which is naturally sterile

Another view of the coloured earths	It rained quite a lot in Mauritius and here is a typical moody view - but the rain was warm so we didn't mind	The view from our balcony at sunset	We went on a wonderful submarine trip to the reef - here is one of the larger fish we saw	This is a fish caught in the porthole of the mini-submarine which carried 12 people

The submarine dived to 30 metres, and here are some of the fish and corals at the bottom	And another view of fish and coral	And a final view of the fish at depth	The memorial to Sir Sewoosegur Ramagoolam, the founder of modern Mauritius	The memorial is in a large botanic gardens. Here is Stephen with the giant water lillies

And the beautiful lily flower	Another view of these awesome, tropical and very hot and humid gardens	Trees with huge root systems	And some more of the strange and beautiful tropical lilies on show here	Back at the hotel we spent a lot of time learning to water ski - here goes Stephen on rather a choppy ocean

And here he is back again safely. He was a bit better than me, but I mastered two skis by the end of the holiday!	Our last night in Mauritius by the pool after dark - what a beautiful place, and I hope we return one day	A final surprise from the airport - a gift of lilies to take home. Here they are after we returned.