Mauritius to Rodrigues 22-27 April 08

Welcoming Creole beach paradise

22 April 2008. Mauritius International to Rodrigues, Mauritius (IFR 2:36).
As could be expected, it took a while to get through the security checks and immigration, but as soon as we called the airport operations office, they took good care of us and drove us to the plane. Then there was another call from the operations office, who asked me to go back there to call the tower. They gave me a mobile phone number to call. When I called the number, it turned out to be Mr Sookdeb from Civil Aviation. He welcomed us to Mauritius, said he had followed us on the web and wished us a pleasant stay in Mauritius and Rodrigues. He apologized that he was not able to welcome us in person on the day of arrival due to the large number of state aircraft associated with the conference.
The welcome in Rodrigues was equally warm and friendly, and I was invited to a brief meeting in the board room with the airport director and other airport staff. They apologized for delaying our Rodrigues schedule by two days due to a parking problem. We were told that it was the first time a single engine piston airplane had ever landed at Rodrigues.
We hired a car from Avis since they had a desk at the airport, although we knew it would be more expensive than the local car hire company. What we didn’t know, though, was by how much – 60 per cent as we found out later. So, folks, if you ever go to Rodrigues, hire your car from Chou Chou de l’Ile. We drove to the east coast where we’d booked at a cheap b&b, Chez Claudine, with a great location by one of Rodrigues’ most lovely beaches. For about 50 euros a night, we had a spacious room with its own sink and, for the first night, we had the top floor of the house to ourselves, so ‘private’ access to the bathroom. However, that all changed the following day when a German family arrived with their 2 whining children. Maybe it was our fault for not specifying that we wanted a private bathroom. Claudine and her husband Bernard were friendly and helpful so we decided not to complain.