It is human instinct to stare at a car accident. We craned our necks and stared over the edge of the little ditch as we slowly drove past in our bus. A white bakkie lay on its side in the ditch and we couldn't see if the occupants were still in the car. It must have happened just a few minutes before us driving past, as rescue people were busy rushing towards the accident. There is something terribly unnerving about arriving in a new country, comforted with the knowledge of travel brochures and TV programs that we were in paradise, and viewing first-hand a car - wreck. Your dream and illusions get instantly shattered. Well, not shattered I guess as it was just a small accident in the scale of things, but it's like the windscreen of your dreams gets a small, irritating crack in the top left-hand corner. We had been in Mauritius for a good 20 minutes. The G and T's on the comfortable flight over had definitely mellowed us out, and the in-flight magazine and overhead TV screens had added to the dream that we had already been sold in South Africa, and to be perfectly honest the dream revealed itself as true ? the little car accident was but a glitch on a glorious 9-day honeymoon in paradise.

The rest of the hour-long drive from the Airport to the Sugar Beach Resort was uneventful, interesting and hot. We cruised past some nice areas and some very poor areas. As we stared out through the windows no one stared back at us ? tourists to Mauritius have been coming here for decades and are just a part of the scenery. As we slowly drove through the town called Flic en Flacq the driver pointed out a few little shopping areas and markets, and pointed out one of the highlights of the town ? a good old Spar shopping centre, a favourite amongst South African shoppers. We arrived at the beautiful resort, signed in, had the obligatory cocktail, and were shown to our room. Two single beds greeted us ? not the ideal setup for a honeymooning couple. After gently explaining to the escort that this wasn't really suitable as we were hoping to do a bit of err, um, 'honeymooning' and a double-bed would probably be a bit more, err, um, 'convenient' she eventually understood what I was saying and suddenly got extremely uncomfortable and flushed. It was like I had used the words 'knobbing' or something, but her abject embarrassment was touching, and she soon showed us to a honeymoon suite, patted the bed reassuringly, and there were big smiles all around.

The next day, day one of our honeymoon, consisted of lying around on the beach in front of the hotel for a little while, and getting gently harassed by the vendors. We decided that breakfast cocktails would be the way to avoid this constant annoyance, but still the sales pitches came through the soft alcohol buzz. We retired to the massive, glorious hotel pool and bar.

Some people choose to parasail, to go on diving missions, to go mountain climbing or to go on wet bikes and so forth. After about 10 months of 7-day weeks of hard work and stress, we decided to lie by the pool, read trashy magazines and drink cocktails. When the cocktails climbed over our brains we would sleep. When we got too hot we would slip into the pool. When the combination of the sun and the cocktails made us feel amorous we would return to our suite to 'honeymoon' as mentioned earlier. Slowly our blood pressure dropped, we packed our watches away, and settled into an island time of sorts. This lasted for four wonderful days. Then it was time to upgrade.

The Le Morne peninsula is a breathtakingly beautiful location, and the jewel in the crown has to be Paradis Hotel and golf course. This resort caters for the top end holidaymakers, and due to a few lucks, the fact that my wife is a travel agent, and a few good friends in the travel industry; we had managed to secure five nights here. It was breathtaking.

Our first meal at Paradis was The Fisherman's Buffet. I was a bit unsure as to what this was all about, not really in the mood for piles of white fish in creamy sauce, but was pleasantly shocked at the feast. One of the side dishes was fresh tuna and salmon sashimi. I was urged to taste it. Which I did. Three side plates of it, with a bottle of red. It was the freshest, tastiest sashimi I have yet to enjoy. I managed to squeeze in a bit of seafood pasta afterwards, and declined the pudding, although my wife managed a little ice cream. I gently admonished her, telling her stories of girls who get married, give up on their looks and just turn into relentless eating machines. Funny talk from a guy who had just eaten four plates of seafood. She told me that she loved me for my sense of humour, despite the fact that I was trying to be serious. I rolled with it. We took the rest of the second bottle of wine back with us and retired to our room continue the great fun that is 'honeymooning.'

It had to happen. The waves came up. We had heard of a coral reef pass where some fine waves broke on rare occasion. We decided to go and investigate.

The waves looked great, and there were a few guys out. Luckily my wife surfs as well, so we decided to give it a bash. We bumped into another South African also called Craig on his ten-year wedding anniversary, and we decided to hire a boat together to take us out to the line-up. The waves were cracking over the reef and we had a good couple of waves each. A pleasant surprise when the last thing you're thinking about is going surfing. The next day the waves were good as well, and with my wife's implicit permission I surfed the whole day. That evening, happy, sunburned and dehydrated, I got stuck into the local rum cocktails with my new wife and I was convinced that if the world were to end tomorrow I would die a happy man. The world nearly did end. I woke up with a combination of sunstroke, dehydration and a raging hangover. I was seeing double, was nauseous and needed to lie down all the time. I spent the day supine, moaning occasionally. My wife left me in exasperation and went to lie by the pool and drink cocktails. We made up later.

We had a few days left and still much to do, so we hired a car and headed south. A whole new world opened up before us on the southern route. Massive bays with huge breaks in the all-surrounding coral reefs. Fishermen and fishing boats. An amazing, convoluted coastline and road that hugged the water's edge all the way. Places that looked like there were good waves to be surfed, but no one around at all. We stopped at a place called Baie du Cap, a huge, mushroom shaped rock that stuck out just off the shoreline. We waded through the little waterway and climbed onto the rock. We walked along a tiny, uneven path through the thick undergrowth and came out onto a finger of rock. Six or seven fishermen stood on the edge of the finger, lines thrown into a deepwater gulley. They waved at us and we waved back. In the background a nicely shaped wave broke unridden over the coral reef. We both stared wistfully at the waves. While looking out at this beautiful setup we both realised at the same time that we were really here on honeymoon, and not on some surfing safari, so we knew what we had to do.


Craig Jarvis
Published in Sunday Tribune Kwazulu Natal