Île Rodrigues — Just a Little Further
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Just a Little Further
Rodrigues is a small, volcanic, autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about 350 mi (560 km) east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Islands, a French Overseas Territory.

Population: 41,000 (est 2014)

Area: 42 sq mi (108 sq km)

Currency: Mauritian Rupees (Rs)

Time Zone: Mauritius Time Zone - UTC+04:00

Port Mathurin is Rodrigues' largest “city” and our port of entry.

Passage stats ... We arrived at night and stood off till morning light to negotiate the circuitous, shallow route into the harbor.

Total miles planned: 1985 / Total miles sailed: 2036

Passage days: 13.5 / Average speed: 6.3 knots

Flying fish: 26 Squid: 1 Birds: 1 booby Fish caught: 1 dorado

One odd issue about the anchorage in Port Mathurin is that it's quite small. When large supply ships come in, all the boats in the harbor must be escorted out of the anchorage until the ship docks or departs. Once the coast is clear, they're all allowed to come back in and re-anchor. Quite the hassle and very time-consuming for us yachties, but then those are the rules and we're the guests. This happened twice while we were in Port Mathurin.

On market day, Port Mathurin is a bustling town. The fresh fruits and veggies are wonderful, albeit expensive. We enjoyed the interaction with the friendly vendors. Figuring out the currency and exchange rate is always an exercise in higher math.

Francois Leguat Giant Tortoise and Cave Reserve

The Francois Leguat Giant Tortoise and Cave Reserve was open daily and located on the southwest end of the island. We'd heard about it from other cruisers and decided it was a must-see while we were here. We checked at the bus station, confirmed departure times and made plans for an early morning departure. The buses here are similar to those in most third world countries ... old, rough-running, brightly colored and endearing names like Lover's Choice and Prince. We reconfirmed we were on the right bus and sat back for a cross-island adventure.

After an hour-long, jostling ride on narrow, bumpy roads, we finally saw a sign for the Reserve. The bus stopped and the conductor motioned us to get off and pointed towards a rather narrow road up a hill. He informed us it's about a 20-25 minute walk, and as the bus chugged off, we set out. We walked … and walked … and walked … up hills, down hills, around corners, up more hills. We were walking at a reasonable clip and after 25 minutes, we kind of expected the Reserve to be right around the corner. It wasn't. We saw another sign… at least we were heading in the right direction. One thing about walking, you get to see lots of things you'd miss if you were whizzing by in a car. We saw small houses and lots of goats and cows. The earth is bright red and there were lots of flowers and a few gardens along the way. The land was rocky and not very arable.

One remarkable thing about Rodrigues was the number of gigantic spiders in huge webs between utility wires and tree branches. Not just one spider, mind you, but we counted as many as 17 in one massive web. I learned later that these are red-legged golden orb-web spiders (Nephila inaurata), native to several Indian Ocean islands. They're non-poisonous, but even birds and bats get caught in their huge, strong, sticky webs. Evidently, they normally string several webs together to form enormous "homes" in order to cover as much surface area as possible.

We finally arrived at the Reserve, bought our tickets and donned hard hats for the guided tour. The guide was bilingual. He would provide a long dissertation in French and then a very short sentence in English. Most times, the French was easier to understand than his English. We descended a large flight of wooden stairs onto a boardwalk which wound through thick foliage.

The island was teeming with native wildlife when the Europeans first arrived. Tortoises by the thousands roamed the land. Birdlife was plentiful including the“solitaire” (like a dodo bird), but all were traded or eaten to extinction in a period of of about 50 years. Now only one fruit bat species is all that remains of endemic mammals. There are only two endemic bird species still around (Rodrigues fody and Rodrigues warbler) and they are considered endangered. Our first stop was a close-up view of several of the rare “blonde bats” (pteropus roderiensis) that are endemic to the island. They were on the verge of extinction back in 1970 when only 120 remained, but intense conservation efforts and captive breeding has increased their numbers to near 3,000 now. Looking at their little faces, you can see why some folks call them flying fox.

We climbed another long flight of stairs out of the canyon and looked down from the rim for a more expansive view of the tortoises below, then headed to the Grande Caverne. Quite honestly, we've seen and toured many caves, so we weren't all that enthused about seeing more, but there was no alternative. After tolerating the bright, hot sun for over an hour, the cool temps of the cave were quite appealing.

After a long spiel in and about the cave, we were finally allowed to return to the visitor center. Walking back to the bus stop, I was hoping to see a Rodrigues fody and the Rodrigues warbler… both endemic species and endangered. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for, but when I saw a bright scarlet bird in a tree, I was pretty sure it was a fody. Well, it was, but it was a Madagascar red fody, not a Rodrigues one, and quite common, it seems.

Solitude and St. Francois

We had dedicated a couple of days to boat chores and so I didn't feel guilty about negotiating another day for seeing more of Ile Rodrigues. I was still hoping to see the two endemic birds that seem to hang out in the early morning near the Forest Station in the tiny village of Solitude, a quick bus ride from Port Mathurin. We confirmed what bus to take and were on our way by 0745. When the bus stopped at a tiny bus stop in the middle of nowhere and the conductor pointed to a path through the forest, we were a bit skeptical, but we got off and headed down the steep path. Sure enough, after a couple minutes on a heavily rooted, dirt track, the path merged with a road and we spotted a bright pink building down the way which turned out to be the Forest Station. The Forest Station guy wasn't really interested in talking to us (could be my terrible French!). We asked the best place to spot fodies and he said “in the forest”. No kidding! After walking for what seemed forever, we caught a glimpse of a warbler, but no pic. Several kilometers more netted us views of lots of goats, a dead mouse, more huge spiders than I care to acknowledge, several feral chickens with chicks, several Madagascar red fodies, scads of ubiquitous mynahs and house sparrows, a sleeping pig, banana trees, several odd looking flowers and plants, but no Rodrigues fody.

It was mid-morning, we were back in town and decided to head via bus once again to the east side of the island to the tiny coastal town of St. Francois for lunch. The bus chugged up the same hill we had just descended and finally headed towards the east end of the island. The views were great and different from what we'd seen on our way to the Tortoise Reserve. We arrived in St. Francois just around lunch time. Our friends had bragged about a little thatch-covered beach resto that served fresh-caught grilled fish, lobster, chicken… whatever was available for their oil-drum-cut-in-half grill. We spotted Robert and Soulange's little place about a kilometer or so from the bus stop. They only had about six tables and, lucky for us, one was available.