Last Blurry

Again I like the way these blurry pictures show movement in a crooked way. It seems natural.

Sunset Light

I like the way the photographer's shadow reflects on me and my horse. The picture was taken at about 5:30pm near sunset time.

Landscape

It was really amazing how big this ranch was, and to think it was devoted entirely to raising race horses.

Another Blurry Photo

It is hard to take good picture while your horse is moving. The guy in front is the guide and if you look further back you will see a herd of deer that crossed our path while riding. The horses seemed to be very scared of the deer and they became very sensitive pointing their ears straight up. There were also a couple of dogs that were walking with us during the ride, and some of the big deer chased them around.

Ranch

This house was lost in the middle of the huge ranch where we did our ride. I thought it was a very nice scene with a couple of wooden tables, a bicycle and a rooster right there in the middle of what seemed to be an abandoned house.

Blurry

Blurry nice picture. I like the way the light hits the face of the horse and how the movement makes it seem like a real horse riding moment.

Helmet

It was mandatory to wear a helmet; I was surprised. The last I did horse riding was about 6 months ago during spring break in Colorado and not even there, right in the middle of the land of lawsuits did they force me to use a helmet. Instead in Mauritius, where few lawsuits occur, I had to wear one.

More Esplendor

I felt honored to be riding such a horse. I had ridden fine horses before, but none of this caliber. Cinq fois champion de L'Ile Maurice! Must have been a really fast horse. David who owns race horses has told me before that I am too fat to be a jockey. I weigh 61 kilos and the average for a jockey is 51 kilos, so I need to lose 10 kilos before even considering doing competitive racing.

Esplendor

About 10 years ago this horse, Esplendor, was at the top of it's race performance. It was 5 times national champion of Mauritius and it still maintains a smooth trot and gallop.

From the top

These horses are very tall like all race horses. People had to use the steps in the back of the picture to get on them. Also the smell of horses was lovely! It reminded me of when I used to do horse riding as a kid.

Fellow Riders

None of the people who rode that day had ever been on a horse before, so they had someone walking the horse by their side the whole ride. Very boring! Poor people, they didn't even get a chance to try the horse on their own.

Horse Riding

Since this past Monday was labor day in America, I got the day off here in Mauritius. I used the free time to go horse riding in a ranch near my house. The national sport of Mauritius is horse racing and this is one of the places where they train horses for their races. The recreational ones like the one I rode used to be race horses in the past, so they are really fine animals.

Hippocampo

When I took this picture I only saw the one seahorse in the middle. After I went back home and was reviewing the pictures, I realized there was a second one in the top left corner. Very very interesting creature.

Aquarium

They have a couple of rare fishes I hadn't seen ever before, but the tanks are really very poorly kept. This one here was perhaps the only one with no algae on the glass. In the others the water was murky and you couldn't see clearly inside the water.

Flying Waterfall

If you look closely, you will see that the last waterfall at the bottom doesn't really reach the lake below it. The water flies.

Tamarind Canyon

Tamarind Canyon view. The river with its many waterfalls continues all the way down to the ocean.

After the Jump

Swimming with shoes and a wetsuit full of cold water is tough. In fact I think it was the most tiring part of the whole thing; even harder than rappelling or hiking.

Jump

I did this one twice in fact; It was about 8 meters high from the rock to the lake. The first time it was a little scary but then after you tell yourself that it is only water you are hitting it's not that bad.

End of Rappel

Very beautiful scene really. Rocks, lake, waterfall, rope, trees and rappeler.

Krish

This was our main guide, he was the first to install ropes and the last to go down. In this picture you can get a perspective of how far down the little lake is after the waterfall.

Canyon View

The canyon is called Tamarind Falls canyon, the river is called Tamarind Falls river and the waterfalls are called Tamarind Falls. No French name this time.

Interesting View

The two Austrians were trying to get a picture of the bottom of the waterfall from the edge on top. You can see in the back how the river continues down the canyon.

45 Meters Down

Waterfall

This was one of our guides setting up the ropes for our rappel down the 45 meter waterfall. There wasn't a lot of water flowing down the river, but they say that in summer time that water level rises considerably and the rappel is much harder as well as more fun.

The Team

There is Amelia there left and the other two were Austrian.

Vertical World

On Sunday morning Amelia and I went to Tamarind Falls in the south west part of the island to do canyoneering. Basically you walk down a river and rappel down it's waterfalls for half a day. The weather was excellent although the wetsuit felt a little cold in the morning. There are more pictures that I took with a waterproof camera and as soon as those are developed I will publish them.