Coral Reefs and Dodo Birds

Our transit across the Indian Ocean remained peaceful. Transiting due southwest, seas remained calm and classes continued. We had not had a long ocean transit since leaving Hawaii and students and faculty alike were unaccustomed to multiple days of classes. We had grown accustomed to two days of school, three or four days of exploring a new country, back on the boat for a couple of days, and so on. Now we were looking at five or six days in a row of school work. Oh woe upon us.

Our days at sea are divided into three class periods of seventy-five minutes each before lunch and four periods in the afternoon. Following dinner there is generally a variety of academic and social functions, usually built around a 2000 (8:00 p.m.) talk in the Student Union called the "Explorer Seminar". It makes for full days, and there is always plenty to keep you distracted from preparing lectures or grading papers. On this leg, I was assigned by our Dean to give a seminar on the island of Mauritius - our next stop. My talk was a twofer, as I was paired with Louise, one of my traveling companions way back when in Kyoto. Louise, a lawyer, was slated to discuss the political, social and religious aspects of the island. My task was to present the physical side of the island - geology, biology and environmental aspects of the island. While I had never been to Mauritius, I was armed with a decent working knowledge of tropical islands, a bit of prior prep work, an excellent presentation stolen from my good friend Michel, and a deep long-term interest in the island formally inhabited by the Dodo bird, famed in song and story. As an evolutionary biologist, Mauritius is famous in my field as having once hosted the most famous extinction in the history of biology. This was one place I've been excited to visit for a very long time. The talk went well and I was primed for a short, but hopefully sweet visit.

Port Louis, Mauritius

The morning of our arrival into Port Louis, dawned cloudy with intermittent squalls. The island loomed on the horizon with several volcanic peaks thrusting out green and lush. Not surprisingly, with it's very similar geology the island reminded me strongly of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean. The island is not over built and the city of Port Louis looked quaint and a bit sleepy compared to the huge cities we had been visiting along our track.



Customs clearance went swiftly and we were soon on the dock, boarding a small bus. I had arranged for a snorkeling trip to the north end of the island for a group of ten faculty and staff and since our time was short, we were anxious to get going. After snaking our way through some morning rush hour traffic, we were quickly on a coastal road heading north. The road was in excellent repair and the buildings we passed were in excellent repair. While I can't speak for the island as a whole, the section we traveled through was quite affluent. Gone were the shacks and tumbledown buildings of India and Mayanmar. As we got out of town proper, we were soon passing through thick fields of sugarcane on both sides of the road. It was easy to feel like I had somehow been transported to Grenada or the Dominican Republic until the illusion would be shattered by the abrupt appearance of a Hindu temple in the distance. Familiar and foreign.

An hour's drive brought us to a little tourist community on the northwest corner of the island. There we were met by our two guides Potato and Poohbah. No, I am not making up those names. They had a small speedboat that comfortably held the twelve of us and we were quickly on our way across the water towards a sharp volcanic cliff island just offshore. The weather was threatening rain and we had a smattering on the ride over, but before long the clouds broke and we enjoyed bright sunshine the rest of our day. After a brief tour around the island, we picked up a mooring and got the chance to jump in the water.

On the way to the dive site

Our guides brought us to a nice little reef with a lot of healthy coral growth. I was pleased, especially after my last snorkeling expedition in Vietnam where the coral had been pretty impacted and the water quality poor. Here the water was clear and the coral looked to be in pretty good shape. Much of the coral seemed pretty young, growing on old reef that may have had some impacts in the recent past. We had heard that the island had suffered some hot water conditions in the past that had killed a bunch of coral. Things seem to be coming back in this part of the country at least. We saw a good diversity of fish although most were pretty small. I saw a couple of small lobster, some anemone and coolest of all - two Moray Eels out and foraging during the day, something I had never seen before. All in all a very nice experience.

We had lunch while tied up at the mooring. Home-made chapati and Phoenix beer produced smiles all around. The day went quickly and after another short snorkel, we had to head back to the beach. Our time in Mauritius was only one day long so we needed to be back on the bus and heading back to the Explorer pretty quick. By late afternoon we were back on board, happy but with a feeling of incompleteness. I could easily have spent a month on the island. I didn't really get to see the town and there were several very tempting peaks just screaming out to be climbed. This is a place I would very much like to return to. Of course, most of the places we've visited are places I want to return to…

We are presently back underway and headed for Capetown South Africa. We have six days there and I am greatly looking forward to getting to know the area a bit. I feel certain that we'll leave there wanting more, just like every place we've visited so far.