It's green. Very green.

First impressions of Mauritius, that is.

Actually, that's not quite true.  Our first impressions were of that very distinctive landscape, surely so recognisable to anyone already familiar with it and altogether surprising to those of us coming to it for the first time.  (Oh yes, third 'kerching' in a row!  We are ticking off  those new countries one day after another!)

It's been a long day and the internet is rather slow, so I'll just post a few impressions for now and return to add a few more details in a later post.  For now, let me share what I'll take away from a day in Mauritius.  Well, the Dodo, of course.  No, of course it's not a real one.  But the last sighting was here on the island, we are told.

Phoenix beer, which was the perfect accompaniment to lunch.  We drove past the brewery at the end of the "motorway", which had a lot in common with the road of the same name in the Isle of Wight, i.e. it had roundabouts.  The motorway here also had traffic lights and pedestrian crossings too and Anderson, our guide told us that at times, people set up stalls and sell fruit and other such things from the side of the road.  Love it.

Another unlikely similarity with the Isle of Wight: the coloured earth.  I think, on this occasion, Alum Bay wins, though I'll concede that our view is possibly swayed by the fact that the heavens opened and we had to run for cover before we'd really seen what's what here.

And of course, it's that rain which makes Mauritius so very green.  So beautiful, in fact.

We had a lovely day here and I'm looking forward to sharing more of what we saw.  But for now, I'll leave you with this glorious view from the Black Valley River Gorges viewpoint.  See you in La Reunion tomorrow!