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Published: October 24th 2007
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We arrived on Mauritius on September 2nd in the morning and, after haggling with the taxi drivers, got a ride up the east coast to the little town of Trou d’Eau Deuce. We spent two days here walking around the town, relaxing on the small beach area to the north near Belle Mare, and enjoying the local food. Having come in the spring and before the tourist season the area was very quiet. The weather for the most part was nice but the water was too cool for swimming or snorkelling.
On the 4th we took the local bus up to Centre de Flac and then on to Port Louis on the north west side of the island. Port Louis is the largest city on the island and has some interesting museums we wanted to check out. We toured around the Cauden Waterfront, saw the old parliament house, Company Gardens and then over to the Natural History Museum. Because Mauritius is the home of the now extinct Dodo they had a replica of the ill-fated bird and some of the other animals found on the islands in the area. On the 5th we walked around the city some more and
checked out the Photographic Museum which had some great early photos of Mauritius as well as some early photography equipment. We also tried to go to the Blue Penny Museum which has two of the rarest stamps in the world but we missed seeing them.
From Port Louis we headed north up the coast to the town of Trou aux Biches. The beaches in this area are beautiful and with the tourist crowds light the beaches were fairly quiet. We rented bikes one day and rode up the coast to the next town up, Grand Baie where we enjoyed the local beach, walked around the shops, and enjoyed the local food.
On the 7th we broke down and rented a car for the rest of our time on the island and with our newfound freedom we decided to roam inland to check out the sites. We headed to the town of Pamplemouse and the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens. The grounds have a great display of the local plants as well as many species that have been introduced over the years by the European spice traders. There were also some of the giant tortoises brought over from one
of the local islands and some stags that were introduced from Europe in the 1700’s.
After the botanical gardens we drove over to L’Aventure du Sucre where we learned everything you could ever know about sugar production on Mauritius. We sampled some of the 20 different types of sugar they make on the island. From there we headed back to the northern coast and saw the small Notre Dame Auxiliatrice church in the town of Malheureux and then headed back over to Grand Baie to enjoy more of the local Indian food.
On the 8th we drove down the west coast to the town of Tamarin to check the surf. Finding no surf that day we continued down the coast and on to Chamarel. At Chamarel there is an interesting and rare area where the volcanic soil reacts with the rainwater and the soil changes into several different colors. From Chamarel we drove back north to the Casela Nature Park where we were able to see many of the local animals as well as some from Africa and Australia. From here we drove to Flic en Flac where we stayed for the night.
On the 9th we drove down to
the Black River Gorge National Park and did some hiking in the area. After our hike we drove down to the coast again and spent the rest of the day travelling around the south part of the island. We stopped at the beaches on the Le Marne Peninsula, Bel Ombre, Souiliac, and then finally stopped in the town of Mahebourg where we stayed for the night.
On our last day on the island we took a boat over to the Ile aux Aigrettes which is a nature reserve just off the town. We did a two hour walking tour of the island where they showed us the rare pink pigeon, more giant tortoises, skinks, and geckos. The island also gave us some great views of Mauritius. After the tour we headed back into town where we toured the Notre Dame Des Angos church and the National History Museum which had some great artefacts from around the island from the spice trading days. From there it was off to the airport for our flight over to Johannesburg to meet our friends Craig and Kimmy.
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Rick
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Beautiful Waterfall!
Hi Rich, What a gorgeous waterfall..............man, you've been gone for more than a year now.......AWESOME!!!! When do we get the South Africa update?? Rick