XXI Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton relay heads to Mauritius |18 April 2017

The long journey of the Queen’s Baton ahead of the XXI Commonwealth Games is still ongoing and after leaving Seychelles, it headed to neighbouring Mauritius.

The Queen’s Baton, which is carrying a message from the head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, arrived in Seychelles last Tuesday from Tanzania, making Seychelles its ninth stop out of a total of 70.

In Seychelles, the Queen’s Baton was taken on the traditional relay around Mahé on Wednesday, helped by numerous athletes, students and teachers. During the relay on Mahé, the Queen’s baton stopped at various locations which included the Clock Tower in Victoria, Pointe Larue primary school, Anse Royale primary school and AVANI Resort for various animations.

On Thursday, the Queen’s Baton went to Praslin and La Digue and there, it made stops at Grand Anse Praslin secondary school, Vallée de Mai and Anse Source d’Argent on La Digue.

It left Seychelles for Mauritius on Saturday morning, where it will continue its journey through the remaining 60 Commonwealth member nations.

The Queen’s Baton relay for the XXI Commonwealth Games, which will take place in 2018 on the Gold Coast of Australia, is on its longest ever journey, covering 230km across 70 nations. The Baton weighs 1.3kg, which is also the lightest Queen’s Baton ever built.

The Gold Coast is a culturally diverse, artistically vibrant and digitally savvy city which is also home to a number of Seychellois, who like us, will be excited to welcome the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Team Seychelles to their city.

It should be reminded that the elements of the Queen’s Baton represent the past, the present and the future. The past is represented by the macadamia wood on the back of the baton, which is indigenous to the Gold Coast, the present is characterised the stainless steel stringer in the middle of the baton, which has all the nations the baton will visit in the order they will be visit and the future is represented by the front leading edge, made from recycled plastic from the oceans and waterways.

The Commonwealth dates back to the mid-20th century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the member states as "free and equal". The symbol of this free association is Queen Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also the monarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, known as Commonwealth realms. The other Commonwealth members have different heads of state: 31 members are republics and five are monarchies with a different monarch.

The following photos were taken by Romano Laurence during the Queen’s Baton relay on Praslin and La Digue.