Making the Most of the Opportunity

The verandah at the River House

Mauritius is so much more than the Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens, the Sugar Museum and Factory, the Safari Wildlife Adventure and Swimming with Dolphins. 

These are all photos to boast about, life-experiences to tick off the list of "1000 things to do before you die," and postcards to mail to people on the Christmas card list, but the whole experience of travelling is so much more than this.

Cardinal bird

When you reflect a moment, there's nothing in Mauritius you won't find on Discovery Channel - but then, there's nothing in the whole wide world of scenery, folk-lore and cultural traditions that you won't find some day on Discovery Channel. So why travel anywhere when it means leaving the comfort of your fireside armchair? 

For me, travel serves a special purpose. I am something of an unconventional tourist in that I studiously avoid "attractions" and "sights." When I visited Venice, I spent much of my time there sitting in back-street bars, just drinking coffee, because I wanted to feel Venice and understand what made it special. It's not just the unique setting; it's how that setting and the town's history have moulded the society of the city.

When it comes to being in Mauritius, I think this little chap is part of the answer. The Cardinal bird in his absurdly brilliant scarlet plumage. Every time I catch a glimpse of one darting in and out of the bright green foliage, I feel a frisson of excitement. I'm not seeing him in an aviary or bird sanctuary; I'm watching him hop around while I have breakfast.

Then there are the other unfamiliar birds that flock around - just as sparrows and starlings used to flock around at home when I was a child, before Britain started to use pesticides intensively and EU legislation encouraged farmers to maximise revenue by grubbing out hedgerows. 

The noise at breakfast - and on through the morning is the background to an Attenborough commentary in a BBC-filmed jungle: a shrieking cacophony of bird-calls.

If I sit on the verandah with my morning pot of coffee, the music of birdsong is totally relaxing and creates the perfect environment for thinking things through, then thinking it all through from another perspective, then analysing the options and finally shelving the entire topic, because of a simple adage I learned while I was living in Italy: "Nothing is really that important that it needs a decision today - if ever."

I took a decision that I did not have to do anything in particular while I was in Mauritius except to take the opportunity to work out - in an unhurried and relaxed kind of way - how I proposed to live the balance of my time on Earth.

A look of wisdom, peace and confidence

I had a birthday last month  and I would like to have some clear objectives before I turn 70 - next year. 

My Lincoln blog reveals my fondness for living next to one of England's finest cathedrals, but I don't want to limit my life to the Cathedral coterie. I want to keep working, coaching, training and find new ways to help people. I stopped promoting my business activities but people keep tracking me down, so I suppose I am just not meant to stop work quite yet.

My grandfather was a wise old man, an amateur historian whose academic research is now safely housed in the library of the University of Hull, though he himself left school at 16.
I have great admiration for his academic prowess and, like him, I would like  to become something of a grey guru.He radiated a sense of wisdom, peace and confidence, and looked very much like the unknown man in the photograph I found when I searched Google images for a suitable illustration for today's blog post.

While some people might head off to an ashram in Tibet to find themselves, I would not want to be lost in a crowd of others all much like myself, all earnestly searching for enlightenment. Nor do I fancy hard beds, early morning chanting or a very basic vegetarian diet while I ponder my future. 
Nor, for that matter, while I ponder my past.

In Mauritius you never need to think about what to wear, and you know you will not look far to find simple, nutritious, inexpensive food. If it rains today, it will shine tomorrow, and in less than an hour you can drive away to a complete change of scenery - and probably a complete change of climate.

Alternatively, you can be a conventional tourist at the Four Seasons, or the Oberoi, or any of a dozen other wildly expensive and fabulously luxurious exclusive resort hotels. 

And if that's where you choose to be, you can be quietly confident that you won't bump into too many weird people like me.