Mauritius

September 2015

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Having had a nice all inclusive holiday in Antigua at the start of the year, we had decided to treat ourselves to another one in Mauritius. This time, Wendy’s sister Linda came with us. We flew Air France from Birmingham on the evening of Thursday September 17th via Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. It was a packed plane to Mauritius and very cramped. The 10 hour flight seemed to take an eternity.

We arrived at the impressively named Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport (their first President) in the South East of the island. Stamped into the country, we were met by our transfer minibus and a guide called Ahmed. He gave us a choice of routes to the hotel at Trou d’Eau Douce and we opted for the twisty eastern coastal road. This was beneficial for two reasons. Firstly, we had nice views of the ocean right next to the road but more importantly, there was a Hindu (Ganesh Chaturthi) festival and in a couple of towns, large religious processions stopped the traffic and we could witness and photograph it from the minibus as the pilgrims walked past. It was a spectacular start to our visit. Our guide filled us in on all our questions about the culture. The traffic drove on the left. This was because although the island had been originally Dutch and French it was only when the British took over that cars were invented so they adopted the British way rather than European.

About an hour north of the airport, we reached the Silver Bay Hotel just outside the small fishing village of Trou d’Eau Douce (a large banner proclaimed it as the ‘Town of Fraternity’). The Silver Bay was a nice intimate hotel where you felt as if all the staff recognised you. We were given a cocktail in reception while rooms were sorted out. Wendy and I had a lovely spacious en-suite garden room with Linda just down the block. The local colourful birds were very tame always exploring the possibilities of food. The grounds were full of palm trees and colourful flowers. There was a large restaurant/bar, then a swimming pool and the option of sunbeds either on the lawn or on the spectacular beach with brilliant white sand and an azure Indian Ocean.

The food was lovely. Breakfast and lunches were buffets with plenty of choice. I enjoyed English breakfasts every day. Lunches were often local dishes – fish, meat stews, grilled meats. Evening meals were alternatively set meals and buffets with various themes – Mauritius, Indian, Chinese. I stuffed my face all week. Alcohol wise, the Phoenix beer was a decent local brew, there was red wine with the meals and a selection of rum cocktails during the day and evening. Most evenings there was some kind of entertainment – a singer, local band or dancers. One night there was a Sega band with the drum beat provided by a goatskin tambourine. The band wore colourful pyjamas. The sega dancers wore colourful billowing skirts. Wendy had a go on the tamberine and both sisters danced with the dancers.

Once settled in, we went to the bar and drank the entire Rum Cocktail menu (5 of them – our favourite being the Planters Cocktail that we tended to favour all week) plus some extra ones. I went back to the room to put some trousers on, decided to take a 5 minute nap and woke up two hours later. Returning just in time for a set meal, I found the two sisters also rather tipsy having continued to drink while they waited for me!

The official Mauritius website said “Mauritius will enchant you, will uplift your soul, making you feel that you belong to the chosen few. Every visitor enjoys personal attention. Every encounter is an opportunity to discover a friendly face. Behind each smile lies the promise of a unique holiday. The contrast of a multitude of colours and tastes, the island, set in its turquoise sea, is an oasis of peace and tranquillity. Mauritius, a melting pot where past and present are smoothly blended together, offers an essential beauty that will compel to return to its shores time and time again. May your stay with us remain engraved in your memory forever.” Which was nice. And true.

From the CIA Website, I gleaned this information. Mauritius is located approximately 2000 kilometres to the south eastern coast of Africa and lies 800km east of Madagascar. The country covers an area of 1865km with 330 kilometres of coastline. Mauritius is 45km in width and 65km in length. The highest point is Mont Piton (828m)

Although known to Arab and Malay sailors as early as the 10th century, Mauritius was first explored by the Portuguese in the 16th century and subsequently settled by the Dutch in the 17th century who named it in honour of Prince Maurits van Nassau. The French assumed control in 1715, developing the island into an important naval base overseeing Indian Ocean trade, and establishing a plantation economy of sugar cane. The British captured the island in 1810, during the Napoleonic Wars. Mauritius remained a strategically important British naval base, and later an air station, playing an important role during World War II for anti-submarine and convoy operations, as well as the collection of signals intelligence. Independence from the UK was attained in 1968. A stable parliamentary democracy with regular free elections, the country has one of Africa's highest per capita incomes.

There are around 1.3 million people of which 49% are Hindu, 26% Roman catholic and 17% Muslim. Most people in Mauritius are bilingual and are equally fluent in English and French. Creole and French are the main languages in the everyday environment and several oriental languages are also spoken.

The economy rests on sugar, tourism, textiles, and financial services, and is expanding into fish processing, information and communications technology, and hospitality and property development. Sugarcane is grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 15% of export earnings. The monetary unit is the Mauritian Rupee.

I didn’t realise that the Dodo bird was indigenous to Mauritius. Portuguese for ‘stupid’, these birds had no known predators on the island to fear and no real need to evolve its wings for flight. Consequently, it fell prey to the early settlers who just hit them over the head with a stick. Animals introduced by settlers also further threatened it by eating its eggs. They were extinct by 1865. Mauritius now seems to use the Dodo as a symbol for all its tourist tat. I got a Dodo fridge magnet. Sad.

I had arranged to go scuba diving for the first two days with Dive Passion. Ricardo picked me up at the hotel on my first morning (Saturday) and took me north a few miles to the Dive school based on the grounds of a posh hotel in Belle Mare. I was joined by 3 others, 2 of which had not dived in a while so Ricardo suggested an easy first dive. We took the dive boat out to the coral lagoon, kitted up and fell backwards into the water. The first dive at ‘Aquarium’ was a peaceful slow dive in sweater temperatures of 25’c. I spotted a turtle, a school of barracudas and Ricardo revealed an octopus in a hole. Shallow diving at 20m the dives only lasted 45 mins. We came back to shore for a rest and then Ricardo and I went back out to do the ‘La Pas Dupras’ drift dive. This was in the channel leading to the lagoon with very fast currents. It was a bit like swirling around a washing machine. Ricardo and I hung onto a rock to wait and see what appeared. We spotted a couple of large eagle rays with long tales flying around us a few times. Five minutes later a school of 10 eagle rays passed overhead. Silhouetted by the sun above it was like being under a squadron of black bombers. There were loads of other fish including giant and small silver Trevally and a massive Grober. This 45 minute dive was fantastic. One of the best I had ever done.

The following Sunday morning I did two more dives with Ben the owner, some Germans and an old British couple. Word had got around about our school of eagle rays the day before. The first dive at the ‘Castle’ had a good selection of soft coral and the usual small fish but was nothing special. At least we were down for 56 minutes. We returned to the ‘La Pas Dupras’ drift dive for the other dive. This time, there were no eagle rays but a large white tipped shark circled us. Visibility was not as good today. The sea was getting choppy. We were down for 55 minutes. On the previous afternoon, I had joined Wendy and Linda for lunch and relaxed on the beach in the afternoon. I went snorkelling off the beach and we had a spell in a kayak around the bay. Today the girls were off on an catamaran excursion to sail around the Ile Aux Cerfs. They thoroughly enjoyed seeing the local island while imbibing rum cocktails on board and lunch. Wendy also had her first paragliding experience, being towed behind a speedboat while she hung in the air with an instructor under a parachute. She loved it.

While they were off doing that, I walked into Trou D’eau Douce to explore it. It had a police station, village hall, school, and the Notre Dame des Bon Secours church built of volcanic rock.. The black rock, combined with the church’s blue windows, gave it an unusual, sombre atmosphere. Most importantly I found an ATM machine for Mauritius Rupees.

We relaxed on the Monday, sunbathing, swimming, drinking, eating, reading, sleeping (repeat ad nuseum) taking advantage of the good weather and beautiful sea.

The girls had decided that they fancied a ‘Discover Scuba’ course and they planned to do it on the Tuesday. But when Tuesday arrived, there were a couple of problems. Linda was incapatated with diarrhoea and stayed in her room all day. The other problem was that an anti-cyclone was approaching the island on the east coast and the sea was just too rough for diving. Ben arrived and apologised.

We had originally reserved a car for the Wednesday and Thursday but now with Tuesday free, we rearranged to have it delivered today. It didn’t arrive until 1pm so we decided to just concentrate on one sight – an old colonial mansion in the north. From our hotel, all roads north seemed to lead to Centre de Flacq. The landscape was just mile after mile of green sugar cane waving in the wind. Once we found the road heading west, we were able to cut across the island in a north western direction up to the Chateau de Labouronnais. It does take time to drive around Mauritius. There is only one ‘motorway’ (dual carriageway) between the capital and the airport and even thse is broken up by roundabouts. Distances are not great but you can never get up a decent speed.

This was a creole mansion built in 1859 at the heart of an agricultural estate. It had been carefully restored and reopened 2010. The two story structure with wide verandas encased by lovely iron railings looked very stately and it had been furnished tastefully with period furniture. Some of the wallpaper in dining room featuring countryside scenes of deer and birds in a forest was original having been painstaking restored. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. Outseide, we had a wander around the 150 year old orchard with endless types of palm tree. This was followed by a tasting of two rums now distilled on the property with jelly sweets to accompany it.

Cap Malheureux (Cape of Misfortune) is the northernmost point of the island around 22km from the capital Port Louis. The British landed here in 1810 and captured the island from the French. It is dominated by Notre Same Auxiliatrice. This is a small rich red roofed Catholic church with a charming spire which sits on the headland. From here looking out to sea, there was a view of Coin de Mire (Gunners Quoin) a wedge shaped island. Quion were wedges used to steady a cannon.

We had no interest in visited the gridlocked capital city of Port Louis. On the way back, we did skirt around the 60 acre Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic gardens which looked impressive but were closed. We retraced our route back to the hotel. It was dark as we neared Trou D’eau Douce and pitch black driving along a single road through the sugar cane fields.

The following day, Wednesday, the three of us set off for a tour of the southwest of the island which is deemed the most scenic part. We had various things to head for. I found the road heading west right across the island. There were often tree lined roads, the trees having been brought from India to provide shade. At Quartier Militaire, I stopped from petrol, then took the wrong turning down a one way street. A policeman pulled me over. I was expecting a ticket and tourist rip off, but the policeman asked where we were going and then proceeded to give us intricate details on the shortest route in pigeon English and let us go. I was impressed.

We made for Curepipe to see the volcanic crater of Trou Aux Cerfs which is 85m deep and 200m in diameter. The town centre had no signs to its most famous sight and after a couple of circuits we abandoned the search.

The Bois Cheri Tea factory was much better signposted. As we arrived, it was pouring with rain. The female tea pickers were walking down the road covered in plastic bags, jackets or hats. They had been up since dawn since picking takes place early in the mornings. I didn’t fancy their jobs. I had previously visited ‘Lipton’s’ Tea Plantation in Sri Lanka, many years ago but Wendy and Linda had never been to one so we did the tour.

Teas with the best flavour are grown at heights greater than those in Mauritius, but their tea is blended with a variety of locally inspired flavours (caramel, vanilla etc.). The central highlands around Curepipe are the main plantation area. The crew cut tops of the bushes have a uniform appearance due to the nimble fingers of tea picker and an electric shearer. Only the top two or three young leaves are removed from the branches. The green leaf is then bagged and transported to the factory where it is dried, fermented, sorted and prepared for packing.

The working factory we visited turns 40 tonnes of tea leaves into ten tonnes of tea per day. Added on to a large tour group, we were guided by the campest black youth I’d come across in ages. He would wave his hands and exaggerate his gestures trying to overcome the noise of the factory. Tight fitting clothes didn’t help either. Shortly after joining the tour but out of sight, I minced up to Wendy with my arms outstretched singing “He’s so GAAAAYYYYY!!!” The tour concluded with bored looking females packing teabags which were produced by a machine next to them. Afterwards, we popped into the museum. The factory had originally been established in 1896 but it was only in the 1930s when they installed automotive processes that it really took off. Finally we drove up the road past some deer to the tasting area in a viewpoint restaurant overlooking a lake. I liked the caramel flavour but ultimately herbal teas leave me cold and I just like proper black tea.

We moved onto Grand Bassin. This is a crater lake which is a sacred place of pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands of Hindus. Temples, shrines and sanctuaries were built on its banks as well as massive carparks. These were empty today. A handful of Indians were paying their respects but equalled in number by western tourists. Wendy was blessed in a temple and had a red symbol painted on her forehead. It felt a bit like a poor man’s Disneyworld version of an Indian sacred place. Monkeys hung around the verges looking for handouts. There was one decent sized statue and another being built but the howling rain drove us on.

Entering the Black River Gorges National park, we had lovely vistas of thickly forested valleys and tackled twisty narrow roads. The Alexandra Falls were underwhelming at this time of year. While I went to have a look, Wendy spotted the pink pigeons which are special to the area.

La Rhumerie de Chamarei is a rum distillery that was only established in 2008. The road leading to the Rhumerie is lined with vast plantations of sugar cane growing side by side with pineapples and other tropical fruits. Perched 300 meters above the coast of South West Mauritius, the Rhumerie lies in a fertile valley apparently influenced by its own micro-climate and is one of the few distilleries to grow its own sugarcane. Their website said “One of the distillery’s strong points is that it was designed to provide a holistic tourism experience to guests. Mauritian architect Maurice Giraud has created a building that blends harmoniously with the spectacular surroundings. Wood, natural stone and water provide a sense of communion with nature, turning the distillery into one of the most beautiful factories in the world.”

That was definitely true. The setting and layout of this distillery was the most impressive thing I saw in Mauritius. It just oozed class. Even the hand basins in the bathrooms were unique and tasteful. I couldn’t stop taking photos. The tour was the usual fare of explanation, a couple of videos and peering into vats. At the end there was a decent tasting of 8 rums (4 were liqueurs). Most people grimaced at drinking straight rum, but as the designated driver I felt it necessary to try all 8. Recommended. From the Distillery we could see the highest point of Mont Piton (828m)

More twisty narrow roads took us out of the National Park to the coast. Our final sighting was the Le Morne Peninsula. The brooding bulk of La Mort Brabant mountain dominates the south west of the island and is visible from afar. It has a sad legend attached to it. Because the peninsula was so inaccessible, it made a perfect hideaway for escaped slaves. When slavery was abolished in 1835, messengers were sent to tell the slaves the good news, but believing them to be captors, the slaves threw themselves off the mountain rather than be captured again. It is now a UNESCO site as part of the World Slavery trail. But the memorial garden was closed. It was an impressive mountain with little else to impress.

Heading north at the coast, we turned right for Quartre Borne and got stuck in the Port Louis rush hour traffic. Eventually we returned to Quartier Militaire and then back to the east coast. About 30 minutes from the hotel, it lashed down with rain. The anti-cyclone had finally hit us. Then darkness fell. Driving in Mauritius at night is problematic. Locals ride bikes and motorbikes without lights. There are no pavements and everyone just walks down the road with no reflective clothing. The island is full of dogs that just walk around untethered. So I had the inevitable task of driving through a car wash in the dark down a narrow unfamiliar road with no road signs, blinded by headlights and narrowly avoiding unmarked cyclists, mopeds, pedestrians and the odd dog oblivious to traffic. I have no idea how we survived intact. I needed a few rum cocktails after that experience.

The Discover Scuba course had been rebooked for Thursday but the anticyclone was still around and the sea remained choppy. All diving was cancelled. Wendy was keen to have a go at Underwater Walking and booked some for Linda and herself. They were picked up and driven to Belle Mare and taken out on a boat to a shallow area. Rebreather apparatus was put on their heads with a connected air hose. They descended some steps and walked along the sea bed. Fish swam around them. They thought this was fantastic.

Meanwhile, I still had the car for a morning so I did some exploring. At dawn, I drove up the road to Palmer Beach. This was a lovely public beach with woodland just off the beach. The wind must have an impact because the trees had all grown up leaning away from the sea. It was the only sunrise I saw all week and we never saw a decent sunset.

After breakfast I drove down the coast to see men cultivating the sugar cane, inspecting an Indian temple (we saw these all over the island, but very few mosques) and taking in the coastal scenery. We linked up at lunchtime and spent the afternoon relaxing in rather windy conditions.

On our last day, Friday, we were due to head to the airport around 4.15pm so we had a leisurely breakfast, packed, started sunbathing, swimming and drinking cocktails around 10.30am. Checking out of the room at midday, we had a late lunch with red wine. Our all-inclusive ended at 2pm, but the staff sneaked us more alcohol. The result of this was that I was rather drunk getting on the minibus for the return trip to the airport. At least I sobered up for the plane.

We were on another cramped 8pm flight. Good job there were some decent movies to watch. We arrived at Paris around 5.30am on the Saturday morning, September 26th and had a transfer to Birmingham. It had been 26’c when we left Mauritius. Touching down in Birmingham it was 6’c.

Mauritius is a lovely island. I think it was the people who were the best thing because they were so friendly and helpful. It does have a mish-mash of culture and food which makes it interesting. The beaches are standard for a tropical island, that is, beautiful and white. The diving is good. The weather could have been better but we still got great suntans. To be honest, there weren’t that many things I wanted to see on Mauritius but I’m sure you could pass a few days enjoyably with a rented car. Like Antigua, a week was enough but I have never met anyone who didn’t like Mauritius. Recommended.