Mauritius, tiny island with a lot to give
April 3, 2025
Over 100 years ago, Mark Twain has been quoted saying, "Mauritius was made first, and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius".
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| Port Louis, capital of Mariutius |
I'm not sure I would describe the island as heavenly, but it is a beautiful area with flat lands for growing fruits and vegetables, primarily sugar cane, thanks to the Dutch. The Dutch, as it turns out are also responsible for the extinction of the Dodo bird that had no natural enemies before they came and brought in animals that preyed upon them until they were gone for good. But, I am getting ahead of myself.
Mauritius (pronounced: muh RISH uhs)
We were ready for a port call after spending six days at sea (with four time changes) while crossing the Indian Ocean to the tiny island off the coast of the much bigger island of Madagascar. Mauritius is only 30 miles wide and 40 miles long. It was first settled by the Dutch in 1598 and they tried for over a hundred years to turn it into a sugar cane producing island with the help of slave labor. But eventually it was abandoned, and the French took over in 1715 and they ran things until 1810 when the British seized the island, and it became the British Empire’s main sugar-producing colony and remained a primarily sugar-dominated plantation-based colony until independence in 1968. All this explains why our guide, Elizabeth, is primarily French speaking, they drive on the left, and English is the common language. Most of the signage we see is in both French and English, but sometimes the English is missing.
One of the Island’s claim to fame is it is the only place there was any trace of a flightless bird called the dodo. No one is exactly sure what they looked like, and you have to go to a museum to even see a skeleton of one.
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| dodos and the Mauritius flag |
We have a full day ahead as our scheduled excursion will take
all day touring the highlights of the Southern region of the island. We have an early breakfast and are aboard our
bus just before our departure of 8:45. We are docked at the capital city of Port
Louis, population of around 150,000.
Total island population is close to 2 million and growing. Our guide, Elizabeth, with her heavy French
accent, says the island sees about 20 cruise ships each year.
It doesn’t take our bus long to get out of the city, it seems to be fairly typical but on the rundown side compared to others. It did have its share of architectural oddities, and I captured this building through the bus window.
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| Would you believe this is a commercial bank? |
I noticed that nearly all business places, homes and apartments building were made from cement block and then covered or just painted. A lot of them were brown and black with mold. Elizabeth said that they have a severe water shortage at present and are in a period of drought. They are completely dependent on rain and an inland lake for there fresh water.
I do notice in between the towns of Phoenix, known for it
brewery, and Curepipe, some fields of sugar cane and later on fields of other
vegetables; cabbage, carrots and potatoes.
Curepipe area also has some tobacco farms she said.
Our first stop was at the Bobato Ship Model shop in Curepipe, an unscheduled one I might add, maybe because this is Elizabeth’s hometown. Perhaps a percentage comes her way. Regardless, it is quite famous and is a scheduled stop on other tours.
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| This is one I didn't get, I think mine came from the shelf on upper right |
The models inside are amazing and the artisan’s workshop is on the 2nd floor which we are encouraged to visit.
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| workshop |
The models are quite amazing, and I inquire about one, amongst the hundreds that is on display, as to the price and she calculates it to be about US$1,200. That’s a little out of my budget so she shows me a smaller model of the HMS Bounty, more modestly priced around $100. I do like it but am worried about getting it back in one piece. No worries she says, we pack good! Sue says, “where there is a will, there is a way”. Uncharacteristically, I purchase it.
Our first “scheduled” stop is the Trou aux Cerfs (also known as Murr’s Volcano). This is a cone volcano crater. It is nearly 2,000 feet high with a depth of 250 feet. The crater was formed less than 2 million years ago in the second phase of volcanic activity that created the island of Mauritius. To really appreciate this crater, it needs to be viewed from the above, so I’ll borrow a picture from Wikipedia.
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| Murr's Volcano, Curepipe, Mauritius |
There also was an EarthCache here that demanded answers as to its formation, etc. This volcano last erupted 700,000 years ago, so I think we are in no danger today.
Next came the Grand Bassin Sacred Lake. It is a 50 foot deep crater lake that a Hindu priest in 1897 had a dream about a sacred lake. He searched for it and claimed this was the lake in his dream. This area is 70% Hindu and pilgrims from all over the island started walking here to prey to Hindu deities and offer fruits and vegetables.
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| Grand Bassin Sacred Lake |
Today it is one of the most important pilgrimage sites outside of India. Indeed, many Hindus can be seen preying and burning incense and offer fruits, often with incense sticks stuck in them, to help keep the birds from stealing their offerings as well as drawing attention to them. It is a somber place, and everyone is respectful of the pilgrims that are here.
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| Opposite shore |
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| Some of the larger statues |
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| Incense stuck in fruit |
To the Hindus, cows are integral to many Hindu rituals and
festivals where they are honored and prayed for. Cow worship promotes values of kindness and
nourishment, contributing to a holistic approach to well-being. So, not surprisingly, there is a cow
sculpture, encased in glass on this site as well.
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| Sacred Cow |
We board the bus and begin our ascent to the Black River Gorges National Park. It was proclaimed in 1994 and covers an area of 26 square miles including humid upland forest, drier lowland forest and marshy heathland. Talk about curvy, narrow roads. We are on some now! Even though our bus is smaller (NMT 40 passengers), there are multiple times that we had to stop, or others had to stop for us in order to navigate around sharp corners and hairpin turns. Our driver even had to shut off the A/C to allow more power to his engine during the climb. Sue and I were looking forward to this stop because it had a geocache hidden on one of the trails which we hoped to find in our short time here.
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| Pictures don't do it justice! |
We snapped a few quick pictures of the awesome scenery far below and headed for the trail. It was quite muddy and filled with tree roots and we quickly found out my sandals were the wrong thing to wear for this.
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| Muddy trail to cache |
Sue’s GPS leads us about 300 feet into the forest and we began looking and using our geosense to locate the cache. It wasn’t long and I found the container hidden under a rock, between two tree trunks. We had earned our Mauritius souvenir! We were one of the last to board.
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| Sue signing log |
It was now lunch time and just a short drive brought us to a mountain hotel restaurant, La Varangue sur Morne. They had a buffet set up and were expecting five tour buses. They seated us in an area with an open outside view, I think we got the prime area as there were already 2-3 bus loads seated inside and eating.
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| Hotel where we had lunch on patio to the right |
We were allowed to choose between beer, wine or soft drink. The buffet consisted of a rice dish, beef stew type meat, fish in a sauce, veggies and lentil soup. We loaded up and enjoyed it and had time to explore the outside area and take a few more pictures of the beautiful island landscape.
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| View just outside the patio |
Our last stop of the day was at a magnificent Chamarel Waterfall. This waterfall is fed by three distinct streams pouring into the Saint Denis River. This provides a powerful rush with a peak flow rate in excess of 40,000 cubic meters/minute. There were two viewing areas, one requiring a significant climb.
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| Through the forest |
I took some photos from each viewing area amongst the other 100+ people that were there. There is a tour where a guide will take you on a three-hour hike down to where the waterfall splashes into a pool, and you can swim around the splash.
Just three kilometers from the waterfall is the Chamarel 7 Colored Earth Geopark. This natural wonder boasts sand dunes that display seven different colors, ranging from red, brown and purple to green, blue, yellow and pink.
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| Colored sand dunes |
The sand dunes were formed from volcanic ash that was exposed to rain and wind, which led to different colors appearing. The colors are believed to have been formed due to the cooling of basaltic lava at varying temperatures, giving rise to the different colors. I could not pick out the seven colors and our guide said because it was cloudy and the recent drought, the colors were not as prominent as could be. Still, it was quite impressive.
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In addition to the sand dunes, there was a fenced-in area that contained giant Aldabra tortoises. They are here because this was the home of their cousins, the native domed and saddle-backed giant tortoises which have gone extinct since the early 18th century. The Aldabra tortoises live to an average of 150 years, but a recent park resident was said to have lived 250 years!
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| A "gaggle?" of tortoises |
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| Tortoise nursery |
This ended our excursion for the day and all that was left
was to travel down the mountain and hope the driver kept the wheels on the road
and the A/C on. I did notice that the
island had a Kudzu problem. This area,
SE Asia, is where it originated and was introduced to the U.S. in the late 19th
century and has become one of the most problematic invasive species in the
southeastern U.S. It smothers other vegetation, including native plants, and was originally promoted to combat
erosion. It is known for its rapid
growth and ability to cover large areas.
I asked Elizabeth about it and she was aware of it and knew it was a
problem but she said no one worries about it here, except in the forest areas,
like the park we just came from and there they are trying to control it.
We arrived back at the ship just before 5PM, ready to call
it a day.
Next stop: Durban, South Africa.
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