Africa-Press – Mauritius. After quite a few years I had the opportunity to revisit curepipe where I spent a good part of my youth as a resident schoolboy. The high street has remained largely unchanged from st Helene Church to the market area facing the town hall.
It was bustling with activity all along. Sadly the sidewalks remained uneven, broken in places, sloping in some areas and often punctuated by a sheer drop on to the asphalt at street crossings.
Perhaps this explained why there were so few elderly citizens walking as their arthritic knees, poor balance and spinal disc disease just could not handle it. All the more the pity since the health benefits from active walking could have helped in this elderly group prone to diabetes and related conditions.
Perhaps also it explains why there were few tourists to be seen: coming this far from northern climes they were unlikely to be backpackers with limited means, more likely the tourists would feature middle age and above groups who possess the means to travel afar.
They can’t have been enamoured with our pavements and dilapidated sidewalks. There were the usual catcalling shows between different college groups in front of the Royal College.
This was a show in itself with bemused tourists watching perplexed. Few tea and coffee places along the route – a pity since Mauritian chai could have been a tourist attraction.
Step outside the main roads: the side streets are ill maintained often with no sidewalks and open drainage canals – enough to deter all but the bravest tourists.
Still it felt like home. I could happily spend the rest of my remaining years there – bar the high humidity which is less tolerated as thermoregulation decreases as we age.
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