3/23/2010 Adventure Park in Mauritius

The day began overcast with some rain on a little island east of Africa… Mauritius. I hopped on a bus and began my day with a trip to the beach to be followed by an adventure park in the jungle. The beach we went to was about ½ an hour away when traffic and small roads were accounted for. In reality it was only about four miles away. The name of the beach was Flic en Flac. I didn’t know this at the time but it is apparently a famous beach and was even featured in a movie or two.

Flic en Flac was beautiful. The waves broke out on the coral reef that surrounds the island. Because of the reef the sand was beautifully white, with little pieces of coral in it. The water was extremely clear and a good temperature. When first entering the water it feels cool but as you start swimming and moving around it becomes perfect. Along most of the beach you could only get in up to your waist before running into some coral. Then, at the North end of the beach, there was an area where I could go out up to my shoulders before running into the coral. It was here that I really wished I had my own snorkeling mask because I could look down through the water and see little fishes swimming around. I had just an incredible feeling that this was a normal part of life for those who live on the island. They come and swim on white, beautiful beaches, lined with palm trees, and see tropical fishes and coral reef on a daily basis. I was lucky enough to experience the daily beauty of a Mauritius beach as well.

After the beach we went into the mountains and the jungle toward the inner part of the island. We went off a paved road onto a small little road with tight switchbacks as we ascended the mountain and entered the jungle. We ended up at a little hill with a building at the top where other groups of SAS people were finishing their time there and getting ready for the beach. We walked up to the building and met the others. When we got there I saw girls with shorts on, and below the shorts their legs were swollen with numerous mosquito bites. Everyone told us to put on layers and layers of bug repellent. Just from seeing their legs no one argued.

I whipped out my 98% DEET bug repellent and went to town. I covered all unclothed areas: my legs, arms, neck, and face. However, my bug repellent was not a very good spray to cover clothing so I borrowed another bug spray to cover my clothes: back, front, and even my shoes. We were then given a small lunch of chicken and rice. However, the chicken was mostly bone, and the rice was very dry, so I didn’t eat a whole lot. The meal was given in a styrofoam box and the DEET that was on my hands actually got me stuck to the box a little.

After eating I received a harness that had two carabineers and a pulley attached to it. Our guide took us to the beginning of one bridge and told us that only three people were allowed on a bridge at one time. There were seven bridges on the first circuit and then the adventure course had seven, more challenging bridges. The first bridges were basic rope/cable bridges with wood slats to walk on. The farther you get on the bridge the wood slats may get further apart. Before we walked across a bridge we had to attach our two carabineers to a cable running above the bridge. These bridges swayed above the jungle and were especially tricky because it was really muddy up there and our shoes were slippery as we walked on the damp wood slats.

The adventure course was more challenging where the first bridge had rope hanging down because the wood slats got so far apart that you had to use the ropes to Tarzan it across. At one point I got my feet across but my body was parallel to the ground and it took me a moment to keep my footing and pull myself upright. On this same bridge I ended up doing the splits and stretched my groin out more than it is used to. The next bridge was a net tunnel where we had to make our way down using nets on each side of us. About halfway through the bridge, doing the splits was becoming normal. Then I got a good monkey swing going on where I held the top of the net with one hand and the side net with the other. I would move the foot on the side that I was holding. The bridge after the net tunnel was a bridge of logs hanging from two cables above us. We had to jump on the wet logs and swing it close enough to jump to the next log. Then there was a net wall where I just had to scale the net sideways. This was the toughest crossing. I have never been great at net obstacles and was very proud that I finished the wall, even though it took a while and all my upper body strength. After the wall was a short zip line and then two parallel ropes to walk across and two hip level, loose ropes to stabilize with.

I got to the other side, muddy and sweaty, but I did all of it!

*That night I found out that I only got a few mosquito bites on the back of my calves. This was pretty good compared to Erin and Elena who got more than 25 bites on each leg. – Go DEET!