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Published: January 11th 2016
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An island in an ocean that I've long wanted to visit was Mauritius. A lush, green atoll deep in the Indian Ocean lying like a tiny speck next to Madagascar off the coast of Southern Africa, Mauritius is a beautiful southern hemisphere gem. We have long postponed making the journey due to the distance and travelling time, but with the children getting older and having made a good number of long haul trips, we thought we'd give it a go. The 3 hour time difference makes this long haul journey much easier to recover from, so once we got to Dubai it was due South to Mauritius on the same timeline.What a sight it is to fly in to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport in Mahébourg on the south eastern coast of Mauritius. To see the lush mountains and valleys and the calm turquoise waters of the island protected by coral reefs by air is a real privelege. We weren't disappointed on our drive from airport to resort either, taking one of Mauritius' main roads round the coast - with the term road being used loosely, it's probably as wide as a UK residential street! The road runs very close to the
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Seven coloured earth ocean at points, where locals are fishing, dogs wandering on the rocks and children splashing safely in the protected waters....and mothers doing their washing and hanging it between the trees.
We stayed in the Four Seasons Resort at Anahita, a beautiful all-villa resort half way up the east coast of the island. The resort sits amongst mangroves within a lagoon and boasts a championship 18 hole golf course, as well as numerous residences alongside the stunning holiday villas. You can choose to navigate the resort on foot, or on pushbikes, which we did. This was a really excellent addition to our holiday, it gave the children a bit of freedom, spiced up what would have been a long walk to the beach from our villa, and provided daily exercise. The resort was incredible. The food outstanding and ever changing. The local culture is a mix of French/Indian/African/Asian with a few other nationalities in the mix too. They generally speak Creole, but their English is fantastic due to all legal and government exchanges being handled in English. The diet is diverse, with a very strong Indian influence. Most restaurants we found the dishes were a real confusion of Indian and
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Resort Tortoises Asian which they proudly herald as Mauritian. We tried a host of new flavours and ideas, none of which disappointed. The biggest disappointment was that trying to recreate them on our return home was nigh on impossible as we don't have the access to the ingredients that they do!
Although the Resort would have happily kept us amused with it's plethora of daily activities, we wanted to explore the island. The hotel suggested the best way of doing this is to hire a car with a driver and go on a guided tour. We decided to concentrate on the National Park on the southern half of the island for this and headed off on the narrow roads for an 8 hour tour. This took in the Grand Bassin, sacred lake and Hindu Temple Ganga Talao which was really beautiful and so thought provoking. The children particularly loved the monkeys which roamed free at the entrance and around the Hindu statue of Mangal Mahadev, who are very tame and happy to steal food from your hands! We moved from there to the Black Ridges and the highest viewpoint on the island, breathtaking. Next stop, heading down from the top was
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waterfall jumping Chamarel Rhumerie which do an interesting short tour and have an excellent restaurant. We left there and headed further down to the Seven Coloured Earth, a geographical formation of sand dunes comprising of approximately 7 colours. At this point we are near the bottom of the island, so we took the hour drive to Gris-Gris, facing due south it is the only point around the island that isn't protected by the reef. Here you experience the strength of the waves, though swimming or even paddling is strongly forbidden, not only due to the strength of the waves but to the high chance of meeting a shark in the waters. I found it fascinating, looking south to think that Antartica is the next landmass. Another trip worth making is to the west and slightly north, to Port Louis. The capital of Mauritius, Port Louis is the country's economic, cultural, political centre and most populous city. We visited the citadel, which sits high above the city, offering panoramic views of the bay, docks, city and surrounding mountains. We went back to lower ground to have a walk round the market, an invasion the senses and truly fascinating if not a little intimidating
at times. The fruit, vegetable and spice market was of particular interest to me. I was astounded at the low prices for what we class as super foods or for usually expensive spices. I couldn't resist buying some fresh turmeric root and I made very good use of it in varying recipes on my return home. We enjoyed a lunch at the pier, which has a basic offering of restaurants and bars, as well as a shopping arcade with an interesting art installation as a roof...lots of different coloured umbrellas, acting as sun (or rain!) shades. This made for some wonderful photographs when the sun came out.
If I thought that seeing Barbados from the sea was astonishing, then seeing Mauritius from the sea blows that notion right out that water! We took a day Catamaran trip, suggested and organised by the Hotel. We were the only passengers alongside 3 crew on a generous sized Catamaran which we reached by speedboat out of the lagoon. We were treated to a parasailing session from a pod on the sea, another stunning way to see the island. We sailed south along the east coast of the island and stopped to snorkel
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snorkelling in the Indian Ocean and have a boat barbeque in a reef lagoon which had the most piercing turqouise blue water I've ever seen. It was another one of those poignant moments that will stay with me forever. The sheer beauty of the blue and the deeper blue of the ocean and the vivid green of the island. We were taken in to a gorge on our way back to the resort to swim and jump in the lower sections of a waterfall. We were met off the catamaran by a local guide, who safely and efficiently got us climbing, scrambling, jumping and swimming..and provided amazing care and patience to our less keen 'jumpers'! This was definitely a highlight of the children's holiday. So far removed from the usual health and safety barriers of our every day life, completely exhilarating.
In between the fabulous days out, we spent a number of days within the resort taking advantage of the water sports, restaurants, young adults centre and the water taxi to Ile aux Cerfs - a must see island within the lagoon, with a rushing inlet of turquoise water and white sand. The hotel also offer Segway tours of the estate, which again were
a highlight for our children. The giant tortoises, resident in a sanctuary within the hotel grounds were a daily highlight for me whilst enjoying a cycle to the beach, or just around the grounds. Mauritius was phenomenal, each of us have come back with different highlights, but all with very fond memories. It's been a game changer, in that the fear of the long haul flights have been replaced with a wanderlust on a new level, to go further afield and explore further on future trips outwith our comfort zone.
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