These are the pages of our Mauritius Travel journal… Click here if you missed Day 1.

Day 2: Friday 25th November 2011.

And then… we opened the curtains to a new island day. Who knew paradise truly exists? I am amazed at how majestic and exquisite Long Beach is. Turquoise waters, fine white sand, palm trees and all from just standing on our patio. I feel like we have stepped into one of those picturesque calendars but we have a panoramic view.

Greg figured out how to work the Espresso machine and then we took a stroll – a whole 4 meter walk to the beach, felt the already hot sun on our shoulders and heard our stomachs rumble.

We headed back to room 106, got ready and hit the buffet breakfast. Fruit, cold meats, eggs and bacon for Greg and pancakes for me and… the grand moment… VANILLA TEA. Bliss. There is something magical about drinking vanilla tea from Mauritius IN Mauritius.

At 10am, we met with Clyde Vacher, the Communications & Public Affairs Manager of Sun Resorts at The Shore Bar. It was quite marvelous to meet with someone so warm, welcoming and passionate about the hotel. He has a great sense of humour and we went through everything Long Beach. He also went through our impressive itinerary with us and told us that if we needed anything else, he would be on his mobile. He wished us well and we headed back to our rooms to get towels, sun cream and headed for the beach.

The water sports offered are so impressive that Greg and I were like little kids. What to do first?

The peddle boat seemed good. We peddled out, rocked gently and looked back at the resort. Just gorgeous. The water is so warm and turquoise that I am just dying to go swimming and snorkeling. I brought my snorkel kit from home and Greg and I explored. It was only when our tummy’s grumbled at us that we headed for Tides restaurant. I had the delicious beef burger with “the works” and Greg had the Dorado fish with lime and lemongrass sauce. One of the great Mauritian drinks is Vanilla Rum (either on it’s own, which is a bit too much for me…or with coke…it’s dangerous because it is so delicious.)

We sipped on those and then realized we had a 45 minute Hammam spa treatment at The Sea Spa at 2pm. Tough life. Someone has to do it.

We had no idea what to expect.. I’m not familiar with the Hammam treatment so this was going to be interesting. We made our way down the windy, palm tree path and found The Sea Spa.

It is situated by a lake, with lush tropical plants, bird life singing and running water. I already feel relaxed.

We were led to a change room where we put on robes, slippers and disposable underwear. Yes… Even Greg. I had a good chuckle at that. We were led into a heated room where black soap was rubbed onto our bodies. It smelt strongly herbal and healthy. After we were smeared in the soap, we were given bottles of water and sat in a sauna for 10 minutes. I love heat, but I struggle in heat that makes me feel claustrophobic. I loved the sauna and the healthy aspect of it, but stepped out once or twice to cool down a little. After our 10 minutes were up, we went back into the heated room and they rinsed us of the soap. We then lay down on towels and were scrubbed down with an exfoliating mit. Good bye dead skin cells. I felt invigorated. They hosed us down again and then sent us off for a cold shower. Just gorgeous. We got back into our robes and lay outside on two loungers with water and citrus and rose water mixtures. Such a unique treatment and quite lovely. I actually fell asleep to the water trickling from the sculpture, the tranquil music playing, the birds tweeting and a gentle breeze.

We casually got dressed, left the spa and took a relaxing walk back to the beach. All that dead skin was gone, now I could actually spread sun cream on and tan freshly. Greg decided to try wind surf, which was thoroughly entertaining for me and I had a few good giggles (sorry) as the wind surfer “fwapped” into the water. I give him 10 out of 10 for perseverance. Finally Greg came out of the water with a little boy glint in his eyes and big boy cursing. It’s the wind sails fault. Obviously.

We soaked up the rays until they started to disappear behind us and then headed back for our room. Vanilla tea was sipped on while our books were read on the day bed on the patio.

We headed off to The Shore Bar where Greg enjoyed the Mauritian Phoenix Beer and I enjoyed the Phoenix Cider. A Jazz band is playing and the Piazza has come alive with people having drinks, going to the 5 different restaurants and there is a magical, unique vibe – it’s islandy but cosmopolitan too.

We ate at CHOPSTICKS. I feel like I’ve entered into China. The décor is gorgeous with it’s wooden and red accents. Greg ordered the sour and spicy seafood soup for starters and for mains, we ordered noodle dishes. Chicken for me, pork for Greg. They also kept refilling little thimbles with Jasmine tea. This is magical. For dessert, Greg ordered the trio of ice cream – the coconut was the best, the strawberry was tasty and the granadilla was tangy. As Greg said, they gave the glands a good working over.

At 10pm and being the second last table to leave the restaurant, we decided to skip the parties and headed back to our room for an early night. The salty, fresh air and sun took a lot out of us… feels good to be unwinding. We had a good laugh though. At 22h30 we were in bed on a Friday night…in South Africa it was only 20h30. Lights out… we needed a good sleep for the busy day in the sun we had planned.

Day 3… tomorrow 🙂