Mauritius - A
Paradise On Earth. This is one country which is blessed with abundant natural
beauty. It has beautiful beaches with white sand that are very clean, pristine
blue coloured waters which makes one just keep staring at them, the lush
sugarcane farms – wherever the eyes can scan, the adventure activities (swim
with dolphins, snorkeling, diving, water skiing, sea walk, submarine ride...)
will make every one forget their age and ofcourse nothing can beat the
beautiful lush green hikes at Black River gorges, the water falls and the trek
to Le Morne. A minimum of one week is required to get a glimpse of this
beautiful country.
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| Private Beach at our Villa |
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| Sunset - Les Lataniers Bleus |
Day 1 – April 14th
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| Villa Filaos - Les Lataniers Bleus |
We reached Mauritius at 12:30PM. We had to wait for few minutes at the airport before the OLA Car Rental person could deliver the car to us. We had booked an economic car and we were given Toyota ALS. We put all the luggage, set the GPS to Les Lataniers Bleus and off we went. The roads are great, not much traffic compared to Bangalore and people adhere to traffic rules. It is left hand drive (same as India). The biggest difference was the use of “Round About”. We had earlier experienced them in UAE, but there we weren't driving. Mauritius has round-about everywhere. I guess with the amount of traffic they have, round-abouts work better than signals. Don't know when India will adopt any of such cool features and bring some traffic semblance.
It was about 1 1/2 hour drive from airport to our villa. The drive was beautiful. Mauritius is full of sugarcane farms. It is unimaginable – the lush green sugarcane farms are everywhere. All through the drive, it was the sugarcane farms, green mountains and blue water of the Indian Ocean. What a mesmerizing experience! On the way we stopped at Mc Donalds for some quick bites and straight to the Beach Villa. By the time we checked-in, it was 4PM and our villa was very inviting. Villa Filoas of Les Lataniers Bleus is bang on the beach and is huge. The attendants showed us around as Josette (the owner) was out. We unpacked and freshen up and headed straight to the beach. The water here is very shallow. We got to know that the depth of water is different at different times of the day and depends on tide. The beach was quiet and clean and we were the only people at the beach apart from a couple of people who were guests at Les Lataniers Blues. We played in the waters until the sunset. This actually became almost an everyday affair. After sunset we had an early dinner. The stay included bed and breakfast. Dinner was optional. We had requested dinner only for the 1st day. The dinner here is a community dinner where all the guests gather for a drink and dinner at a common dining area. Apart from us there were 2 ladies from Switzerland. This is the best part of home stays where we get to meet and talk to other guests and in the process we get to know a lot of information about other countries and their cultures. Josette does a good job on making everybody comfortable and she can discuss on any topic. The option for Vegetarians are few. Nothing exotic for dinner. However for non-vegetarians it was a feast. I wish I ate meat :(. Oliver (Josette's husband) gave a nice drink – rum and sugarcane juice. It was epic. We also had some cheese samosas. Dinner was Shu-Shu salad and some rice and curry. The meal ended with a nice dessert of Caramelized Banana with Vanilla Ice Cream. Shrishti was very tired and slept on the sofa half way through the dinner. It was a long day and we crashed after dinner.
Day 2 – Apr 15th
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| Eureka |
Day starts and ends very early here. We were up by 7am, had our tea and went for a walk on the beach. The kids were still sleeping though. Breakfast is served from 8AM – 10AM and tables are set on the beach adjoining the garden. This used be our best time. Breakfast typically included – fresh fruit juices, fresh fruits, different types of yogurts, fresh baked bread, muffins, cakes, pan cakes, fresh home-made jams (there was guava, banana, passion fruit etc). We enjoyed our breakfast watching the different boats on the sea and different birds in the garden. Breakfast on the beach was one of the best parts of the stay. We really loved it!
After breakfast we drove to Eureka. This is a colonial building, built in 1870s and is now converted into a small museum. The building has a beautiful backdrop of a mountain. It has a small museum, but very well kept. The lady at the reception also doubled up as a guide and explained to us the history and the artefacts in the museum. The kitchen was very similar to the kitchens in India. A small trail about 1KMs leads to a waterfalls. The falls was pretty good. Eureka also has a restaurant which serves very good dishes of local cuisine - Carole and Mauritian. It wasn't lunch time for us, hence we decided to eat at the next stop – L' Aventure Du Sucre.
L' Aventure Du Sucre (http://www.aventuredusucre.com/en) is about 20 min from Eureka and is an old sugarcane factory (established in 1875) which has been now converted to a Museum. This is definitely a must visit place at Mauritius. It has beautiful landscapes and also a very good restaurant. We first had lunch at the restaurant. There is lot of open space with lots of trees and well maintained lawns around the restaurant. It was raining and this added to the beauty. We had a relaxed lunch. There was limited Veg options as they were setting up the venue for an evening party and hence the lunch menu was kept very limited. After lunch we went to check out the museum. It will take a minimum of 1-1 1/2 hour to check out the museum. Since an old sugar factory has been converted as museum, one can see the boilers, crushers, filters etc. At the end of the museum, one gets to tastes different kinds of Rum and also 12 types of Sugar. This was an amazing experience. We had no clue that there could be 12 varieties of Sugar and each has it's own taste and purpose. Just be careful with the Rum tasting though. They have some awesome flavours, and one can go overboard :) Unlike other drinks, Rum kicks in after some hours and it can be really strong...
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| Giant Lilies at SSR Botanical Garden |
From here we went to Sri Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden (Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden). This is a must visit place and please take a guide. Otherwise it will be like visiting any other garden around the corner. They have wide variety of Palm Trees, huge lily ponds, giant tortoises and some rare spices. Definitely worth the visit. You will need atleast 2 hours to explore this garden. Eureka, L'Adventure Du Surce and SSR Botanical Garden are all in the same area (very close to each other) and can be easily covered in a day.
After this we headed back to our villa. If one is not staying in North Mauritius, then it is best to get out of Port Loius before 5PM as the traffic is at it's peak between 5-7PM and getting in and out of Port Louis can be very tough. We reached our villa by 5:45PM and immediately got into the water. It is very relaxing to watch the sunset on a low tide beach. By now, the Rum had kicked in :). We just had some maggi noodles for dinner and slept early.
Day 3 – April 16th
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| Giant Tortoise @ La Venille |
First place was to visit “La Venille” (http://www.lavanille-reserve.com/index.php/en/). There are 2 routes from the place we stayed. One of the route is “The Scenic” route. Can't find enough words to describe this beautiful route. This route runs along the south-west coast. On one side is emerald-blue sea and on the other side of the highway is lush green mountains. In between there are short routes full of teak wood tress, followed by sugarcane plantations. The route is just mind blowing. We did not feel like blinking our eyes – what if we miss something. And to add to this, not a soul on the highway. This route was as epic as the route from Khardungla – Nubra Valley in Leh Ladak.
We reached La Venille around 10:30AM. This is a park famous of Giant Tortoises (you can feed the tortoises) and it is also the breeding centre, there are a lot of crocodiles, the insect museum is beautiful – didn't know there were these many colourful insects and some of the rare species found in Mauritius like the fruit eating bats. Other important point to note is – the restaurant at the park called “La Crocodile” serves “Crocodile Meat” as a delicacy. Pankaj had a crocodile meat burger. He said it was ok and not that great. Anyways for people like me (who are vegetarians) there is no difference.
The giant tortoises were really huge and were many in number. We had a great time feeding them and posing with them for some pics. The breeding centre was very informative. The insect museum is a must. The collection is very colourful and varied.
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| Kids Snorkeling @ Blue Bay Marine Park |
From here we went to the Blue Bay Marine Park. This is a public beach famous for corals. There are glass bottom boat rides which take the tourists to the corals and we can snorkel to get a close look at the corals and marine life. Unlike the private beaches, there was huge crowd here as it's a public beach. We booked our glass bottom boat ride which was leaving immediately (TOTO agency – there are quite a few agencies providing the service who all have a make-shift shops on the beach). Luckily the boat rides limits the number of passengers. We got into the boat which was leaving and it had another group of 8 people. The corals are very close to the beach and the glass bottom gives a very clear view. The boat anchors at a point where there are a lot of corals and fishes and then whoever is interested can wear the snorkeling gear (provided by the agency) and get into the water. Kids got into the water and had a gala time swimming in the ocean. This was their first snorkeling experience. They love it. Pankaj and I don't know to swim :( However Pankaj dared to get in with a life jacket and stayed close to the boat. I chickened out :( The fear of water was too much for me to get in. I have promised myself to learn swimming. Hope - I will keep up my promise. We spent about an hour here and then headed back to the beach.
Since it was almost 5pm and it gets dark very early here, we decided to take the highway which runs along the airport and is busy (instead of the scenic route). By the time we reached our villa, the sun was just setting. Each evening the sunset was different. It was amazing to see the different hues. It was just magical!
Day 4 – April 17th
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| Swim with Dolphins |
Today, we had to get up early as our first activity for the day was - “Swim with the Dolphins”. Prior booking is required for this. This activity is available only in the Tamarin area (west coast of Mauritius). Luckily we were staying in this area and the starting point for this activity was just a 500m from where we stayed. Yan, was the person who was taking us for this activity and he had confirmed he would be picking us up by 6:30AM and there he was on dot at 6:30AM. The Swiss friends who were staying at Le Lataier Blues were also joining for this activity. Yan picked all of us and we went to the Tamarin Water Sports Club (which was the starting point). Here we got into a speed boat and off we were into the ocean. We had hardly gone for 25 min (about 2-3Kms from the shore) and there Yan spotted 2 dolphins. Kids got ready in their snorkeling gear ready to jump into the ocean to swim with the dolphins. They were very excited. This activity is to be taken up only if one knows good swimming. Pankaj and I had to just sit and watch the dolphins from the boat while the kids jumped into the ocean on the signal from Yan. I hid my anxiety, didn't want to scare the kids from the activity. These are wild dolphins and they swim very fast. It is very difficult to spot them and once spotted it is more difficult to keep pace with them. The dolphins are also smart, they swim afloat for some time and then go deep and when they re-emerge they are far from where they were spotted earlier.
Soon Yan got a radio signal from his mate, that there is a huge group of dolphins (15-20) around 3Kms from where we were. Then soon all the boats were speeding in that direction. Within few minutes we reached the spot and there we see the huge group of dolphins. It was madness. As soon as they were seen, a signal from the guide and everybody jumps in. Shree and Shrishti had a once in life time experience. They were so excited and did not stop talking about how it felt, how the dolphins looked and how cool it was to swim alongside the dolphins. I really felt, I wish I could swim. After multiple rounds of swimming with dolphins, Yan took us to a spot which was very good for snorkelling to see the corals and beautiful fishes. From here we went to a beautiful spot where a small rock is in the ocean and the water around it is crystal clear and not very deep. One can jump here and swim around the rock. Shree was tired and she opted out. Shrishti jumped in with her gear and off she was swimming around the rock.
It was around 9:30AM and sky suddenly appeared grey and we could sense the rain coming. It was also time to return back to the shore. We just made it in time and then there was huge thunderstorm. The ocean and the mountains looked beautiful in the rain. We got back to the villa and had breakfast watching the downpour on the ocean. We could see few catamarans out there which had just started for a day trip. We pitted the passengers on them as the forecast was for heavy rains.
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| 7 Colored Earth @ Chamarel |
We had fresh sugarcane juice at George View Point. There are lot of berry trees along the roadside throughout the Black River Gorge. We saw lot of local people picking the berries. We were recommended not to visit the Black River Gorge on weekend as lot of local crowd visits this place on weekend and they also pick the berries. All the spots are worth visiting. If one has more time, then a hike through the national forest is also great. Since we had planned a trek to Le Morne the next day, we did not plan for any hike in the forest.
It was late (by Mauritian standards – though it was around 6:30PM) by the time we returned back. It was pitch dark and rain had just stopped. Next day early morning (5:30AM) we were supposed to leave for a trek to Le Morne and with the rains, we were wondering if we could make it. Luckily the forecast for next day was bright and sunny and our guide Yan (yes this is a different Yan) confirmed that the trek is ON.
Day 5 - April 18th
Yan is the only official guide in Mauritius who organizes trek to Le Morne (http://www.trekkingmauritius.com/). The trek needs to be planned and booked in advance as he does not organize the treks everyday. The last part of the trek is very difficult and requires one to literally climb using all the four limbs (hands and legs). The trek is not recommended for small children and old people. Le Morne has been declared as the UNESCO World Heritage site. Yan and his team will brief on the history of this site during the trek. |
| Views from Le Morne |
The trek in itself is very adventurous and will take about 3-4 hours to climb up and return back. We started the trek around 6AM and were back by 9:30AM to the starting point. The trek requires one to be physically fit. We were recommended to go lite – only water and some mints/candies and that really helped. The trek starts off with a well laid path. The views are spectacular. I thought I was fit, but this trek really tested my fitness. Had it not been for Henri, I would have given up. Shree and Shrishti went ahead with the others in the group. I was the slow poke :) To add to this, something stung me on the thigh and this further slowed me. I was able to walk after few minutes of break but the pain continued for couple of days. After the 2nd milestone which is about 350m altitude, the trek gets difficult. At points we had use ropes to climb, for most part we were climbing the steep rock with all four limbs. The group had reached the summit with Yan. Pankaj, Henri and I were the last ones to reach the top. All the time I was wondering, how we would trek back on such rocky steep slopes. Shree and Shrishti were almost in tears when they saw us. They thought we would not make it. They were overwhelmed by the difficulty of the trek. By far this has been our toughest trek and we had no idea on the difficulty.
At the summit, Yan briefed us about the history, we took pictures and rested for some time. The views here are breath-taking! The colours of the ocean were spectacular. Experiencing the 360 degree view of the island, one tends to forget all the difficulties we went through. It was now time to return. Tips from Yan made the descend very easy. We had to just sit and slide with our hand firmly pressed. This really helped us. I used this tip the most. My pant was really in bad shape after the descend. After reaching the starting point, we could not believe we had actually completed this trek. This was one trek, which we will never forget in the years to come.
We were back in the villa by 10AM and were very hungry for breakfast. All of us were very tired and had a long quite breakfast by the beach. After a hot bath we were fresh and recharged, and were all ready to explore more of Mauritius.
We decided to visit Port Louis and checkout the capital city. We parked our car at La Caudan Water Front and went straight to the food court to grab some quick lunch. From here our first stop was Blue Penny Museum which is bang opposite the food court. The museum is pretty small but very informative and well maintained. Here we saw the various ship models of France, British and some middle-eastern ships and the various routes they took. The key exhibit here is the first Penny Stamp which is blue in colour – known as Blue Penny Stamp. To save the original colours of the stamp, the lights to view this stamp are lit only for 10min every hour (check their website for the timings). We were just finishing our visit when the lights came on.
From here we went shopping at Craft Market and MAST. We bought a small ship model at MAST. They have some beautiful ship models here – wish we had a huge house to keep a big model. We then picked some Gelatos at the food court and enjoyed at the waterfront.
Day 6 – April 19th
Our day used to start pretty early in Mauritius. This could be because we would sleep early. Today the tide was very low. We could walk about a kilometre into the ocean with water below our knees. We took advantage of the low tide and started walking into the ocean. It was fun. We collected lot of shells, saw some fishes and crabs and also saw a small sea snake.After breakfast we drove to Port Louis for “Submarine Ride”. Blue Safari at Grand Baie (http://www.blue-safari.com/en) is the only agency who organized Submarine Ride. The ride itself is expensive, but it is worth the money. The experience is worth every penny. Earlier we were planning to do the sea-walk too. But it seemed very scary to go down into the sea. Hence skipped the plan.
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| Lush Green Sugarcane Farms |
We reached Blue Safari office and took the ferry to the main submarine. We were all very excited. We were guided into the submarine. Because of a technical issue (there was very tiny leakage), the captain decided it was not safe to go into the water. We came back to office disappointed. Luckily we had another day at Mauritius and we had no major activities planned. Our ride was re-scheduled to next day. There were few tourists who were given a refund as they were either leaving Mauritius on the same day or had other activities planned. This was lesson for us – anytime in future such activities should never be planned on the last day of vacation.
Grand Baie is known for water sports and lot of cool cafes. We had our lunch at “Cafe 1974”. Lovely joint very close to the public beach. Food was really delicious. Since we had lot of time, after lunch we visited “Chateau Labourdonnais” (http://chateaulabourdonnais.com/en/). This is a beautiful Chateau amidst fruit orchards. The chateau is very well maintained. At the end of the tour they had some rum tasting. We got to taste some awesome RUM. They had different flavoured Rum. We liked it so much, we ended up buying few bottles at Mauritius Airport – duty free :)
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| Chateau Labourdonnais |
From here we visited Apravasi Ghat,which is right opposite the La Caudan Waterfront. This is the place where all the bounded labourers and immigrants entered this island. Apravasi Ghat has a very informative museum. Unfortunately we were not aware of this as it has opened up only few months back. We reached the place just few minutes before closing. However on request, the officials there allowed us to explore the museum. We are very thankful to them. If it was not for them, we would have missed a wonderful museum and all the details it provided. Most touching part of the museum was the place where the immigrants had to stay before they could get the clearance/visa to work on the island. The immigrants (90% of whom where Indians) had to go through lot of hardship.
After spending some time here, we went back to the waterfront for some frozen yogurts. It was a Sunday and there was some cultural activities on at the Waterfront and the theme was Indian. We enjoyed our frozen yogurts and drove back to the Villa.
Day 7 – April 20th
Our earlier plan was to visit Chelsa a newly opened theme park which was very close the place we stayed and then go to the airport directly. But since our submarine ride was postponed to today, we rescheduled our plan. We were staying in south-west, submarine ride was in the North and airport was in the South-East. So the best deal was to check-out after breakfast, drive to the North, finish with the submarine ride, have lunch at Grand Baie, drive south and check out some places around the airport.After breakfast we settled our bill and bid goodbye to Josette. We drove straight to Grand Baie as our submarine ride was scheduled for 10:30AM. We reached Blue Safari office by 10:15AM. We were taken to the submarine boarding point. We hoped there would not be any issue today. Each of these submarines vessels can take up to 8 passengers and a captain. The vessel itself goes down 35 meters and the total trip would take about 2 hours of which 45min-1hr is under water. We were anticipating that we will experience sea sickness or some kind of nausea. But it was absolutely amazing. It was as good as sitting in a bus. The experience is great and worth the trip. We saw lot of fishes – colourful, we saw a turtle (which is very rare) and also a ship wreck. It was once in a life time experience. This is best way to explore marine life without out getting wet :) Ofcourse people who do scuba diving will not agree with me.
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| Inside Submarine |
After the submarine ride, we were given some soft drinks before we were dropped by a boat to the blue safari office. It was an incredible experience and worth all the hardships. It was now time for lunch. We had lunch at a restaurant in Grand Baie. There are a lot of good cafes around Grand baie's public beach. We had a lazy lunch as we had lots of time to kill before we board our flight to Bangalore. After lunch we drove to Mahebourg. This is a sleepy beautiful village on the South East coast of Mauritius and very close to Mauritius. We spent some time at National History Museum. I would not say this as a must visit place. But if one has time, then it is worth a visit. The museum would take about an hour to explore. From here we walked around the market or Mahebourg. Apparently Monday is supposed to be a market day at Mahebourg. We did not find the market day any different from the market day in Bangalore. We also tried some local snacks, which are very similar to Indian snacks, but with a Mauritian touch. We did not want to spend more time at airport, hence we went to Blue Bay Marine beach. We thought we will watch the sunset and then go to the airport. However we missed the information that Blue Bay Marine beach is on the east coast and there will be no sunset. We had some cheese samosas at the beach and spent about 1 hour reading books. Its weird - when you are all set to return, you don't feel like doing anything. Your mind is already in the mood to go back home and all the thoughts revolve around things/tasks at Home.
After the sunset time, we started our drive back to the airport. We stopped to fill gas as we were supposed to fill the tank half full and then return the car. The car agency person was waiting at the designated spot. We returned the car and got into the airport. Our return flight was with Air Mauritius and was for 5 1/2 hours. We had a good flight and returned home with lots of amazing experiences and memories of Mauritius – Truly the Paradise on Earth.
