An overview of my 1979 trip to Mauritius, courtesy of the wonderfully hospitable Biltoo family, can be found by clicking here or below:
Here is an extract from my sixth letter, which is in effect my diary entry for 24 July 1979:
We went out with Garçon in the car quite early and went south. We visited Gris Gris and Telfair Gardens and then we met Janee (Garçon‘s wife) from the hospital nearby (she is a doctor)…
Then we all went to Grand Bassin and visited Janee’s sister. Then we all went home [Garçon and Janee’s house in Rose Hill], had dinner here and then Anil and I went out for a walk and met some Creoles and had a good time.
Mercifully there is no photographic evidence of me and Anil having a good time with the Creoles we met. I’m going to guess that it involved drinking rum and I suspect the use of some “whacky backy”in less legal circumstances than our first foray into such herbal remedies, at a wedding a few days earlier.
Writing some 40 years later, in July 2019, I believe the politically correct term for “Creoles” is “Mauritians of African Origin”.
One strange coincidence, writing 40 years on, is a more recent connection with Telfair Garden. Last week (July 2019), AB de Villiers came to open a cricket facility for my London Cricket Trust charity:
Here is a link to AB’s Instagram posting on Deptford Park…
…while here is a link to AB’s posting about Telfair, (now a major resort of course), which AB visited just a few days before visiting Deptford Park.
Some contrast. But how weird is that coincidence?