Mauritius

The Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 km off the coast of East Africa and 800 km east of Madagascar.  The island is considered part of Africa and is among the most densely populated countries in the world with a population of over 1.2 million.  Mauritius is volcanic and almost entirely surrounded by coral reefs making it a favorite scuba diving and snorkeling destination.  The major export crop of Mauritius is sugarcane, evidenced by the acre upon acre of sugarcane crops we drove past.  Once dependent on sugar exports, the island has built up strong tourism and offshore financial services sectors, Mauritius now has one of Africa’s highest per capita incomes.

How did we end up in Mauritius?  It was one of those nomad, spin the wheel and see where it lands decisions, but in fact it was where can we fly to non-stop from Cape Town, South Africa.  Similar logic 😂  We looked at the list of destinations and chose Mauritius.  We also looked at non-stop flights out of Mauritius to make sure we had options where to go afterwards and so here we are for three weeks.

Prior to arriving in Mauritius we completed the traveler all-in-one form online, I think you can do it on arrival but it takes a long time.  I filled in all the boxes but nowhere did it specify it needed the full address and phone number of all the places we would be staying, not just the first one.  Fortunately we had a very nice immigration officer and he told me about 3 hours of free airport Wi-Fi then patiently waited for me to get the details of our second apartment.  He asked about onward flights and when I told him the date, destination and what airline that was good enough, I had our reservation confirmation on my phone just in case.  The all-in-one form QR code then had to be scanned by the health officers before we were cleared through to the luggage area.  Overall I think it took less than 20 minutes to get through immigration.

Our first apartment was north of Port Louis in Mont Choisy, 10 minutes walk from both Mon Choisy beach and Trou Aux Biches beach.  Both beaches are a pleasant walk but there are no beach bars/restaurants to stop at.  Trou Aux Biches is lined with fancy resorts which cater only to their guests and the far end of Mon Choisy beach has a Club Med, but we still enjoyed our walks.

We booked a 5 hour bicycle tour with Storm e-bikes Tours.  It was a fun ride around the countryside passing through small villages, visiting quiet non-tourist beaches, feeding giant tortoises, visiting an oyster farm and trying some local food.  Our guide Parmeet was informative, stopped at interesting places, has top quality bikes and prioritizes the safety of his guests.  We had a great day out on the bike.  We booked our tour directly with Parmeet via WhatsApp, the tour costs 3,000 rupees (USD $66) each including lunch.

Reading how bad traffic is in the capital city of Port Louis we decided to drive there on a Sunday morning hoping for less traffic.  It was a good decision, the city center was lovely and quiet for our self guided walkabout.  The down side for some people would be that the shops were all closed, but we are not shoppers and appreciated the lack of crowds.  Some of the places we walked to were:

• The Central Market-where locals shop for fresh fruit and vegetables

• Government House-a beautiful French-colonial structure dating from 1738.  Outside stands a typically solemn statue of Queen Victoria.  The building is not open to visitors.

• Mauritius Institute Building-listed as a National Heritage building it was built between 1880 and 1884 and is a partial replica of the Colombo Museum of African Modern Art building in Sri Lanka.

• Saint Louis Cathedral-built between 1752 and 1756 it began as a wooden building. After several rebuilding projects and renovations the current version dates from 1932.

• Jummah Mosque-dating from the 1850’s combines Indian, Creole and Islamic architecture.

• Le Caudan Waterfront-the first major shopping development of it’s kind on Mauritius with shops, restaurants, casinos, a hotel and a marina.

Our second apartment was located in the town of Tamarin, on the southwest coast.  From here we were a short drive to a number of beaches and sights around this part of the island.

We went on a 6 hour catamaran tour out of Le Morne Anglers Club that basically puttered around the shallow waters inside the reef.  The first stop was to observe some dolphins and we did see a few.  It seems unusual for dolphins to hang around a specific location unless the boat companies are feeding them to keep them here.  It reminded me of our African Safari with 8 boats hovering around trying to see a few dolphins!  From there we carried on to our first snorkeling stop and I have to say it was pretty pathetic.  Inside the reef it’s mostly a sandy bottom with a few coral bommies around but the sand was so stirred up visibility was not good.  I enjoyed a little swim around though.  We stopped at another shallow location for a swim and it was also pretty uneventful with not much fish life to be seen.  Despite the poor snorkeling conditions, we really enjoyed being out on the water and getting a different view of the island.  We booked our trip with Blue Safari and our tour was the West cruise.  Tickets cost 3,200 rupees (USD $70) each and included lunch, water, sodas and alcoholic drinks.

A popular tourist destination is the Seven Coloured Earth Geopark.  The coloured earth geological formation is a relatively small area of sand dunes of seven distinct colours.  Because the different coloured sands settle in different layers, the dunes acquire a surreal striped colouring.  Rains have carved beautiful patterns into the hillside.

Also within the park is the Chamarel Waterfall, the tallest single-drop waterfall in Mauritius at about 100m high.  Tickets to the geopark cost 600 rupees (USD $13.15) each.

After the geopark we stopped at Le Chamarel, a popular tourist trap restaurant with fantastic views.  Lunch was mediocre and expensive, but the views, now they were something special.

Mauritius is a beautiful island but not a perfect fit for us.  The beaches are not very flat or long and this makes going for a walk challenging.  Many of the beaches are lined with expensive resorts not open to the general public.  Snorkeling is a popular activity but because we are scuba divers and have dived all over the world snorkeling is not all that appealing to us, although we do enjoy it when we go.  There is not an awful lot to see and do on the island besides spending time at the beach and after living in the Cayman Islands for many years we’ve had lots of beach time in our life.  Overall, it’s a beautiful island with pretty beaches and great scenery but it’s a really long way from anywhere and while we enjoyed our time here I don’t think we will pass this way again.  There are a lot of beautiful islands around the world!

Next destination, a new city and country for us, Budapest, Hungary…..

 

 

 

 

 

TRIP TIPS

The Mauritius all-in-one travel declaration form can be found here.  It was very helpful to have this completed prior to arrival.

My Flexiroam SIM works in 129 countries, but not Mauritius, so we purchased a 30 day tourist SIM at Emtel for 750 rupees (USD $16.44)

In the north we found a gym in Grand Baie.  Ennoia Sports & Fitness Club had a 25m swimming pool for me and a nice gym for Blair.  The cost for a day pass was 650 rupees (USD $14.15) each.

In the south we found a gym just outside of Flic en Flac.  SPARC had a 50m swimming pool for me and a nice gym for Blair.  The cost for a one day pass was 750 rupees (USD $16.15) each.