Archiv für den Tag: 17. Oktober 2010

Standing on a higher ground

This night we had some rain. Thus the sky was overcasted this morning and we used the opportunity to climb up to Belle Venue. Belle Venue is located at the top of the highest hill of La Digue. On 1.2 km distance you have to climb up more than 300 m height. That means, the uphill draft is very big. Surprisingly there were many houses beside the steeply street anyway. It was extremely hard to climb up. But the sight was impressingly.

At noon the sun was back at the sky and nearly all clouds were vanished.

I wonder that people are living at that steeply hill. They have to carry all goods, food, water, building material and other things up that hill to their houses without a car or so. I was told, that people used to live in that houses long before cars came to the island.

I’m still in paradise

I’m really in paradise. It’s warm – OK, it’s hot, but I like it. 2 to 3 times a day I’m having a shower. Sweat, salt water and sand are covering my skin. Using sun lotion at the beach gives me a natural peeling, so I don’t need to go to a beauty salon – luckily I never need to go to a beauty salon, ’cause I’m male.
Every day we visit another beach at this island. We’re using rented bikes for getting to the beaches. The distances are short – maybe 3 or 4 km. But, nevertheless, my back hurts much. It’s not only because of I’m a bit out of shape and not fit – I don’t use a bike regular, so I’m quickly exhausted. The other reason for my hurts is, the bike, I got, was too small for me. On the second day the renter put another seat on my bike, so the seat was higher. With the higher seat it was easier for me to get up the hills. The highest hill is about 333m over the sea. If you think about the size of the island (3 km long and 2 km wide) you can imagine of the gradient of the streets. Also the bad condition of the streets with many road holes is a reason for my hurts and on many positions the roads are not affixed, but only trails or beat tracks – biking is not easy under such conditions, even if you got a tracking bike.
Another important fact is, here they don’t have street lights and also the bikes don’t have lights. The natives don’t care about this, they drive very quick and  risky. So be extremely careful when riding your bike after sunset.
If you love spiders, come on here: you can find spiders easily that are of the same size as your palm.
You can also find many geckos. Funny sounds are in the air. I don’t know if that are birds or other animals. Even it sounds like monkeys, I guess they are from birds or the flying dogs, a kind of bats. The flying dogs or flying foxes are flying even during the day. They are eating fruits. Unfortunately my shots are not the very best.