Indian Ocean

1st photo. Bandana, shorts, vest top – all boys and belonging to housemate. Shirt – £13, Beyond Retro.

3rd-5th photos. T-Shirt – $5, Buffalo Vintage, Portland, Oregon. Skirt – £10, Amy Winehouse Foundation pop-up shop.

I feel like every time I go to the sea it’s obligatory to document it. These beachside outfit photos are nothing compared to last time I was in Mauritius but without my trusty photography steed (James) or any adequate packing time I had a random assortment of both clothes and photos to go through.

I’m normally straight into the sea and swimming around with the fishes in Mauritius, and this is the first time I can remember NOT swimming out into the sea. The beach was lined with volcanic rock; the huge, porous black rocks you can see in these photos. Volcanic rock is my favourite rock to have by the sea; they are smooth and often flat on top, they hold onto the suns warmth (perfect seats) and also dry out quickly. British rockpools tend to be jagged-edged slippery deathtraps in comparison..!

I was astounded by the amount of different animals living between the rocks. As we all know by now, I’m obsessed with animals so I was in my element exploring. The sandy floor was lined with sea cucumbers, sea urchins, seahorses, baby flying fish, mudskippers, anemones, sea slugs, baby octopi and starfish. And this is all packed into a space of a couple metres! The main reason I didn’t want to wade out into the sea to swim was because I was terrified of destructing a whole ecosystem with my giant human feet, or worse, destructing my giant human feet on the backs of the spiny sea urchins. Instead I spent hours clambering amongst the rocks, taking time to observe and trying not to disturb.

Autumn in Mauritius

September and October aren’t normally the times of year I set off for the Mauritian sunshine but that’s how it happened this year. It was slightly odd digging through my jumpers and winter dresses to find all of my recently packed away summer clothes; coupled with our last-minute booking I had some bizarrely mismatched outfits in Mauritius that I would have never thrown on in London. But then again, it’s holiday: time to live in the moment and just go with it…

This is a slightly random assortment of photos, I’ve already told you why I was there and my thoughts so as you might expect documenting the trip and everything we saw wasn’t really first priority for me this time around. I’ve written a lot about Mauritius before (LINK SPEW), it’s a pretty amazing country with lots of tiny islands to explore and a crazy geographical range; mountains, rainforest, woodland, beach and city. People often describe Mauritius as paradise; I’m completely biased of course but I definitely agree, aside from the natural beauty of the landscape (JUST LOOK AT THE VIEW FROM OUR FLAT IN THE TOP PHOTO) it’s got an endearing charm all it’s own amongst the welcoming people and ramshackle little towns. All in a country smaller than London!

We stayed in a flat near to Port Louis (which I’ve posted about before here), the capital of Mauritius and home to a lot of my family as well as some of the most evocative buildings I think I’ve ever seen. The colourful, slightly dilapidated constructions always stick in my mind when I’m back in the UK. Last time I was in Mauritius James and I stayed in a super-fancy hotel (post here) so it was a totally different experience this time sharing a flat with my Mum and Dad, especially as it’s been about 8 years since I last shared a house with my parents/spent longer than a couple of days with them. Again, it’s holiday, time to just go with it…

The Sea

7 years ago today I went to the beach with Pete, one of many trips to the beach; uncomplicated and innocent, sand in shoes, a time of wide-eyed adolescence that you can’t really comprehend until it’s over. This particular day was the first time I met all of his friends, the teenage version of “meeting the parents”. His treasured friends who became my treasured friends: the beach became ours.

7 months and 7 days ago, Pete died. I could never have predicted I would be recounting those hazy, unburdened trips to the beach just a few short years later to a roomful of strangers at his funeral, grieving with those same friends. I thought I’d never visit a beach again.

I just got home from a tour that took me by the sea. New places, new beaches, new friends, the same 7 seas. Every single one takes me back to that earlier place in my life, a place which I couldn’t return to even if we were all still here. I still wake up knowing I have to make sense of something that will never make sense, no matter how long my life turns out to be. But I’m finally starting to understand what people mean when they talk about cherishing the past. My memories are not as scary as I thought, nor do they really fade; they vary, but they’re there. It’s always ourselves we find by the sea, all of our selves, past and present. They’ll always be there at the sea. I wish I’d learned that sooner in these seven months, but in a way, I will have always learned it too soon. Happy World Ocean Day.

“It’s always ourselves we find by the sea” – e e cummings and further discussed in this post.

Pete further discussed in these posts – 1, 2, 3.

Odaiba

Tokyo Bay in Odaiba! These photos bring back memories of such a dreamy and sunny day. I wore my brightest blouse to match the weather (those leggings were ditched about 5 minutes after these photos were taken). Odaiba is home to a lot of varied attractions, predominantly based around science and technology but also including food, shopping and entertainment – something for everybody!

There was a festival atmosphere on the day we went, with buskers, street performers and food vendors everywhere. The silver building is the Fuji Television building – I’ve wanted to see this building for an incredibly long time. It’s so huge! We spent a lazy half hour in the bay watching the boats with Rainbow Bridge in the background and of course the mini Lady Liberty watching over us. It was so tranquil sat by the boats on the sand; Tokyo is renowned for being one of the busiest places in the world, but in Odaiba we found a moment of serenity.

Brighton Rock

Hello from Brighton! Brighton is one of my favourite places in the UK. The colourful buildings, the quirky shops and stalls, the rich cultural history and of course the seaside! I’ve especially always loved the connection to mods in the sixties. It’s a bit day-dreamy of me but I often think I was born into the wrong decade!

Back in my teens I was really into mod style; as a curvy girl with thick dark hair I had a lot more in common with the sixties girls I read about and saw in films, than with the skinny blondes that were popular in early ’00s media. I’m still drawn to those influences – beehives have long been my go-to “stage hair” and as you know I love my white boots.

This dress was a Christmas present and one of the rare items in my wardrobe that’s not vintage or secondhand. It’s from Pop Boutique who do also sell vintage – I received two pieces by them and have been wearing them constantly! I was down in Brighton just for the weekend – my parka-wearing, scooter-riding pal is originally from there so we ran around indulging our inner mods. The two days flew by – isn’t that always the way with holidays? Here’s hoping I can get back soon to do some record-shopping or hit up a scooter rally…

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Tiny Islands

Today I’m going to share Ile Aux Cerfs and Ilot Mangenie, two beautiful islands just off the east coast of Mauritius and about a ten minute boat ride from where we stayed. Mauritius itself is a very small island and these neighbouring islands are about the size of one or two football pitches.We spent the most time on Iles Aux Cerfs as Le Touessrok has a boathouse there offering various activities for free. We tried out kayaks and pedal boats and explored the mangroves, trying to catch a glimpse of the monkeys. We also took a trip by speedboat to visit a waterfall. On the way we passed lots of colourful houses and a tree filled with sleeping Mauritian bats. The bats are endangered and theres been a lot of conservation efforts to increase the population so it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat.

We stopped on Ilot Mangenie for lunch with friends; it was completely idyllic. The dogs were strays who were hoping for scraps of food; you can see James is frowning at one rather persistent canine under the table but all in all they were very well-behaved, sitting patiently next to our table. There are over 400,000 stray dogs and they all look pretty similar as you can tell from the two I photographed. Strange to think they might all be members of the same family. James doing his best Hollister model impression.

Le Touessrok

Welcome to Mauritius! Thank you for all your good wishes and kind comments on my previous post. I’m back from an absolutely amazing 10 days which went far too quickly. Travelling is such an important growing experience; you can learn so much about yourself when in an unfamiliar country or culture. I think encountering the world first hand with an open mind is one of the most enriching activities life has to offer!

I’m very lucky that I have had the opportunity to travel a lot in my life as nearly all my family are located abroad. I’ve found the places I’ve visited in Europe have all had a similar flavour and my favourite travel experiences have been further away. Anything with a long-haul flight! This is my sixth trip to Mauritius, a tiny island next to Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean and about 16 hours away. It’s my favourite place in the world; a tropical paradise ranging from sandy beaches to rainforest and volcanos.

Le Touessrok is a luxury six star resort on the East coast of Mauritius. It was AMAZING.The beautiful buildings house numerous restaurants and bars, a leading world class spa, a water activities centre, a library, shops and of course, all the rooms! I made friends with the hotel cat, Maurice and enjoyed all the wildlife, whether it was endemic pink pigeons saying hello over breakfast, or schools of whitebait flickering around our feet in the sea.

It was so tranquil wandering around the palm tree filled grounds filled, I tried to match in my favourite palm tree dress (last seen in a far more wintry ensemble here) and new straw hat. James and I spent numerous mornings swimming in the pool, attending free yoga classes and enjoying the food. If you follow me on twitter you’ll have already seen the wonderful food; with papaya, melon, coconut and passionfruit all in season the fresh juices and fruit salads were especially delicious! Next time I’ll show a completely different side of the island; the bustling capital city. I’d love to know your thoughts on travelling and if you’ve been anywhere far away?