our trip to Mauritius and Rodriguez Island in April-May 2002....here are some pictures
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 Mauritius, the southwest at Mt.
Brabant. Here the rich people have their hotels...at $ 300 a night |
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The "coloured earth", a tourist spot with volcanic sand- skip that. |
Conus rubiginosus- an elusive shell from the Pt. Louis harbour dredgings. |
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The Souffleur in the southeast of Mauritius. If you like climbing, you can find shells here... |
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Victrois regina, the giant see-roses of Pampelmousses. Free entry, a real must at Mauritius... |
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Lets move on to Rodriguez, Mauritius' little sister some 600 km in the east, the easternmost outpost of Africa in the Indian Ocean, in fact. |
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They will try to sell you a trip to Coco Island. Dont do that, its really boring there... |
Instead, walk along the long lonly beaches and find your paradise.... |
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Trou D Argent, the very east. Only to reach after a loooong walk... |
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On these hills, the last specimens of Tropidophora articulata can be found.... |
The species used to be common all over Rodriguez, but is now becoming extinct. |
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In all other places where the species used to live a few years ago, only empty shells with traces of rat-bites are found. Since the excessive spreading of rats on Rodriguez, most endemic landsnails have become nearly extinct. |
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Rodriguez Island is surely one of the last paradises on earth. Its inhabitants are well off, friendly and happy. Tourism has not left its usual traces yet, and visitors are welcome. My hope is that the pictures shown here may inspire those of you willing to spend some time in a place without TV, no mobile telephone - connection and absolutely no predictability of schedules. The landscape and the recreational value of Rodriguez is top- but dont expect a malacological revelation - the endemics of Mauritius and La Reunion seemingly have not found their way to Rodriguez, and some families of Mollusca are entirely missing. Cowries are scarce, too, except may be for moneta, annulus and caputserpentis. The only thing I noticed was an exceptional richness in fancy Epitoniidae on the beaches, and a red-blotched Haliotis-type I have not yet been able to identify. Yes, and those juvenile-looking annulus of course, which may turn out to be something really exciting and new. My hope is also that the unique environment we found at Rodriguez will remain in the good state it still is, despite the effects of civilization one may notice, shown here by the fate of the large landsnail T. articulata which will most certainly become totally extinct within the coming decade. For those interested, a small selection of various molluscs from Rodriguez are available upon request (we have collected them on the beaches, no living shells were taken). We also have a small set of subfossil though intact Tropidophora articulata from a site where the species must have thrived a few centuries ago, before man entered the island... |
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the
stormy south of Mauritius
