Mayotte – 27 October 2010.
Our last day was a full day out and was our favourite by far. The guy who ran the programme had lived in Mayotte for 8 years and knew where to find a delightful secluded white islet, away from the crowds. Just getting to the one he’d chosen was thrilling. The water colour kept changing deep turquoise to deep blue, and you could see the coral reefs very clearly from the boat even when we were miles away from the shore. Even in the impasses, we could look right down. They called these areas ‘piscines naturelles’ (natural swimming pool). The lagoon truly had one of the most striking colours I’d ever seen. Pictures just did not do it justice. In fact, instead of swimming in it, I spent the first hour near the islet just sitting on the boat, taking it all in visually to try and imprint its vivid colour on my brain.
We then just had to wait for the islet to come to the surface at low tide. We got there about 40mins beforehand so it was quite neat to watch the island come to life and watch the sand dry up so that we could step on it and have a quick picnic. One of these days that I’ll remember forever.
The next stop was another island where there was a waterfall on the beach and a bamboo forest on top (I cannot remember the name of this specific island but there can’t be that many with a waterfall on the beach so the local tours would know the one). It was beautifully lush. We didn’t have enough time to explore the forests (too many mosquitoes were biting anyway) but the waterfall was very cool and refreshing. There were also some wild makis just to add a touch of exotism... and though it looked as if there was no one else at all on this small island we were strongly advised to take our belongings with us at all times as sometimes people did hide in the bush to steal things. Around the island with the waterfall the water colour was more emerald than turquoise. We totally enjoyed that day, and for 65 euros (with picnic) we felt it’d been a bargain.
Our last day was a full day out and was our favourite by far. The guy who ran the programme had lived in Mayotte for 8 years and knew where to find a delightful secluded white islet, away from the crowds. Just getting to the one he’d chosen was thrilling. The water colour kept changing deep turquoise to deep blue, and you could see the coral reefs very clearly from the boat even when we were miles away from the shore. Even in the impasses, we could look right down. They called these areas ‘piscines naturelles’ (natural swimming pool). The lagoon truly had one of the most striking colours I’d ever seen. Pictures just did not do it justice. In fact, instead of swimming in it, I spent the first hour near the islet just sitting on the boat, taking it all in visually to try and imprint its vivid colour on my brain.
We then just had to wait for the islet to come to the surface at low tide. We got there about 40mins beforehand so it was quite neat to watch the island come to life and watch the sand dry up so that we could step on it and have a quick picnic. One of these days that I’ll remember forever.
The next stop was another island where there was a waterfall on the beach and a bamboo forest on top (I cannot remember the name of this specific island but there can’t be that many with a waterfall on the beach so the local tours would know the one). It was beautifully lush. We didn’t have enough time to explore the forests (too many mosquitoes were biting anyway) but the waterfall was very cool and refreshing. There were also some wild makis just to add a touch of exotism... and though it looked as if there was no one else at all on this small island we were strongly advised to take our belongings with us at all times as sometimes people did hide in the bush to steal things. Around the island with the waterfall the water colour was more emerald than turquoise. We totally enjoyed that day, and for 65 euros (with picnic) we felt it’d been a bargain.
posted by Sylvie at 9:41 PM
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