1 February 2023

It's been exactly a year since we set off, with a plan, but we weren't entirely sure. Was that really it now? Do we no longer have to work? Can we just go wherever we want now? Will it all work out? Questions upon questions...
We spent almost two months exploring Mauritius, we really enjoyed it and even Markus' prostate operation didn't put us off. We said that Mauritius was a good place to stay and took a direct flight to Australia.
The first impressions in Perth were overwhelming and we were also impressed by the visit to a football match. The visit to the red centre with the flight around Uluru and so on... more is in the article about Australia and has already been told ....

After travelling around the sparsely populated north for a fortnight in our camper van, we decided not to travel any further. It would have been too much, we first had to process what we had experienced. So we returned to Mauritius. From 2 October, we were back in Mauritius and got to grips with settling down on the island.

Then there was also the meeting with Birgit and Uwe and later with Mike and Linda, it's nice that we know each other and can deepen our friendship. It actually feels like we've known each other for a long time.

After much clarification, we decided that we wanted to stay. Now we had to look for a place to stay, which wasn't so easy. A large selection, but also enormous price differences make the search tedious, we found a property on the Homegate-like platform that we really liked, so we contacted Geraldine and Samuel. Unfortunately, the property was already taken... and it came as it had to, Samuel enquired after a few days whether we were still interested. Fortunately, the potential tenant didn't pay. We were totally thrilled after the viewing. So we signed a tenancy agreement. Now it was clear that we wanted to move to Mauritius.

What was it like... You will certainly miss the work and the stress, we didn't miss any of that. Of course we missed our family and friends a lot, but we knew we'd see everyone again in December and January. Thanks to modern means of communication, we have seen and heard from everyone in between. Thank you very much, we have and will continue to look forward to all contact. You weren't that far away!

Moving on, of course we needed a bank account, so Hartmut Sieper put his network to good use and we got bank accounts and a carer without any major paperwork. We needed a means of transport, so we quickly arranged a test drive in the Haval 6, which had been under evaluation for some time. And bought, delivered at the airport when we get back, how cool is that?

Retired Permit is the name of the residence permit we are seeking. This requires a lot of documents from Switzerland. This could now all be done online. A blood, urine and stool test with a doctor's visit was also necessary. Everything was done and sent off when we arrived in Switzerland.

Then an unforgettable holiday home with lots of encounters and hugs, which did us a lot of good. We were given a lot to eat and drink. Now we need to take it easy for a while. Fortunately, we will see some of them again before our next holiday home.
In the Rösslibar we meet Fritz with his work colleague, who loudly tells him that these are now the two who live in Mauritius. It's crazy, we can't believe it ourselves.

After the odyssey described above, we get our vehicle and have now moved into our villa in Belle Mare, or more precisely Point de Flacq. The permit is still missing, but that should be done in a few days. We are already quite well set up, but more about that in a later post and then we can start planning the next trip.

We are very grateful that we were able to experience all of this without any major difficulties. We would also like to thank you for your support and encouragement whenever we had something to talk about.

Sincerely, Sylvia and Markus