Discovering Mauritius by land – South Tour: Day 3

 Trou Aux Cerfs – Floreal Shopping Factories – Sacred Lake of Grand Bassin – Black River Gorges- Chamarel Waterfalls – Chamarel Seven Colored Earth

The beauty of Mauritius is in its beautiful landscapes with spectacular mountain viewpoints, waterfalls, colored earth caused by past volcanic activities, luscious plant life, varied flora, fauna and the dream beaches with an amazing sea life phenomena. 

Our third day on the island was spent exploring the land beauty of Mauritius and our first stop was Trou aux Cerf’s dead volcanic crater, which has become one of the naturally created attractions. Interestingly, it is said that this volcano is also the origin for Mauritius’s existence. For that we had to hike a small hillock, and the weather was perfect. It had just drizzled right before our tour and the kids enjoyed running to the top where we finally saw the crater of a dormant volcano surrounded by thick vegetation of lush green shrubs, bushes and pine trees. The view of the crater was along a dangerous steep embankment, so we made sure that the kids don’t steer too close to that. However, the panoramic scenic view of the island from this vantage point was beautiful and gave us a great opportunity to take amazing landscape pictures.

From there we went to Floréal shopping factories, which has the biggest and most famous workshop for model boats. However, the prices were so exorbitant that even though we wished to buy the handcrafted boat, we didn’t buy any. We also visited the Adamas diamond factory but just like the model boats, we only enjoyed seeing them.

Our next stop was the Sacred Lake of Grand Bassin situated amidst the picturesque view of lake Ganga Talao that is formed in a crater and is surrounded by mountain area and colorful temples and idols of deities around the lake. It is a popular pilgrim place, sacred to Hindus and is the largest of its kind outside India. The entire land is considered scared and pious in the minds of locals and visitors from India. The huge statue of Lord Shiva, a whopping 108ft tall, built in the open is a real marvel. This place is considered auspicious and you will definitely feel at peace and calm while visiting it. After which we took a break for lunch.

Later we boarded our mini tour van to go to Black river gorges national park, which is the largest protected national park of Mauritius. The varied, exotic flora and fauna and the unfathomable beautiful gorges of unspoilt beauty of rainforest will leave you totally enraptured. Our minivan stopped at Chamarel waterfalls, which has a jaw dropping height of 100 meters and is the highest waterfall in Mauritius. It is indeed a popular tourist spot for its picturesque, pristine waterfall surrounded by dense lush green tropical forest and rocky river canyon. From the viewing platform we did what tourists do, clicked 1000 pictures and moved on to our next location.

Have you been to tours where you try and squeeze every sightseeing attraction possible in one tour? Well, that’s kind of what we tried to accomplish that day. Hop off – see the attraction – hop on to the tour and move to the next. So finally, our last destination for the day was just 4 kms away from the waterfall – the Chamarel Seven Colored Earth. I was super excited to see this as it surpasses all the extravagant things in this country. This otherworldly unique geological formation has seven colors – red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow. Although it is hard distinguishing all the 7 colors of this geological wonder, but we will not contest that. These psychedelic dunes are a rare combination of natural phenomenon of volcanic activity over a milleniaWe were busy clicking family pics then group pics, then individual pics, then kids’ pics, then sibling pics, then girls together, we really got very busy collecting lifetime memories. So, you know where most of the time was spent... When we were assured, we had enough pictures to last a lifetime, we retired back to our hotel to enjoy some relaxing time before our next island adventure.

More on Mauritius – North tour: Day 2

 Port Louise - Citadel Fort – Caudan Waterfront - Marie Reine de la Paix – Bagatella Mall

Mauritius is described as “heaven on earth” and it sure did live up to its name. This incredible island is known for its magnificent beaches sandwiched between the sparkling turquoise Indian ocean and the luscious green cliffs at the opposite end. 

On day 2, we were all set to explore the beautiful landscapes, bustling cities and old colonial buildings. It’s a well-known fact that Mauritius is “the” destination for honeymooners. When the minibus arrived to pick us up, it was already filled with honeymooners and that too all were from India. Now I have to say that Vividh has a wicked sense of humor and his jokes about the sufferings of married life just didn’t stop. Oh man, I wonder how we scared those young couples for life! I am sure they were happy to get off the bus when the tour ended and get away from the middle-aged couples with kids.

Our first stop was a viewpoint for the Pieter Both Mountain – the uniqueness of its appearance and it being the second highest mountain of Mauritius makes it a famous tourist attraction, especially for nature lovers and hikers. After this stop we were in the colorful capital city of Mauritius – Port Louis, where next on the sightseeing agenda was the Citadel Fort, also known as the Adelaide Fort, which is the national monument of Mauritius. Perched on top of a hill, the heritage monument offers breathtaking views of Caudan waterfront and the colossal Indian Ocean. We got beautiful panoramic shots of Port Louis, which is also the largest city in Mauritius. We took loads of pictures of Citadel Fort –one in particular where Aakaash was on the cannon, only wish if the cannon were working and I could use him as a human bomb. Just kidding. 

We roamed around the city, where the kids enjoyed churning out sugar cane juice for themselves. Clicked pictures next to the sculpture of the famous explorer Nicolas Baudin who met his maker in Mauritius. Next, we found ourselves super excited in the umbrella alley at Caudan waterfront. It’s a narrow lane covered with colorful and vibrant floating umbrellas. Its happy aesthetics gives you many photo opportunities. What I didn’t know was that the umbrellas are replaced every month to keep it bright and vibrant. We did make a quick stop at the Prime minister’s office to say hello before we headed to the craft market.

From the craft market I bought few mother of pearl dinning mat sets. Later we headed to Marie Reine de la Paix, which has been a popular destination for filming a lot of Bollywood songs. It is an open church with a beautiful view of Port Louis. After climbing 82 steps, we reached the top and the view was gorgeous. The kids went crazy running, rolling, and falling on the hill slope.

After all the wonderful sightseeing, Neha and I had reached our personal haven – shoppers’ paradise – Bagatella Mall. I think we were to go to a local craft market and China town after that, but it was impossible for others to get Neha and me out of this place, so I think we skipped the other 2 places and enjoyed some retail therapy at the mall. Aakaash and Vividh were with the kids, enjoying fish spa, reflexology and what nots. Till date Aakaash says that he had one of the best head massages there.

We had the perfect end to a hectic day, unwinding back at our resort. There was a live band playing at night and the kids had a blast dancing and performing on a small stage in the dining area. We called it a night, ready to explore more of this island’s natural beauty the next day!

Memorable Mauritius

The story goes – we had just come back from Brazil in January, which had created a big dent in our pockets. One evening, sitting with friends who had now become very close and were leaving Kenya forever, an idea struck to go for a holiday together for the first time but hopefully not the last. FYI – full disclaimer – idea was not mine. I just jumped right into the bandwagon that came along, that’s all. Aakaash was totally opposed to the idea since we had just returned from a trip. I agree the timing was not ideal, but we couldn’t push beyond mid-February for they had to start wrapping up to leave. Neha, Vividh and I started exploring the options for the ideal place and finalized on Mauritius – a country that is even smaller than the city of Nairobi, where we live.  

I feel if you are going with friends, a beach holiday is the best, so that you can relax and spend quality time since there is not too much of sightseeing involved. Vividh did pretty much all the research, contacting the travel agents and getting competitive quotes, and he would secretly update me about the trip. When we would sit in the evenings, he would gently slide it past Aakaash. I had to be neutral about the plan because I knew if I pushed Aakaash, the whole idea could go south very quickly. Finally, after a lot of pull and push, we were able to convince him.

I was super excited for the trip, since this was also going to be one of the first vacations with friends. It is very important to travel with like-minded people, or else the whole trip can be a total disaster. So, we set on this beautiful journey… oh wait a minute… when you have 4 kids ranging from the ages of 5 to 8, I should rephrase and say it was a journey… starting with the commotion in the play area of the airport till we reached our destination. 

Arrival

Our flight landed in the evening and the driver was there to pick us up. The moment we entered our resort, we were totally pleased as we knew that we had reached our paradise. I remember seeing the excitement on our faces, trying to compose ourselves and heading straight for dinner; after which we couldn’t resist going to the soft, white-sanded beach and dipping our feet into the ocean. Even though we were tired, we didn’t want to call it a night and strolled along the coastline. However, we had our small alarm bells who forced us to get back to our rooms. 

We wanted to balance out and make this a memorable vacation with a mix of sightseeing and spending some “friends bonding time” as well. We had tailored this holiday to be a perfect blend of relaxation and excitement.  On day 1, we decided that we would just chill out and enjoy in the resort and so we complied. It was more like “let the craziness begin”. I feel if you have friends with whom you can be comfortable doing everything and not be thinking of how you will be perceived, then they are your keepers – maybe forever. After breakfast, we started exploring our resort. With cocktails/mocktails, pics, clicks, sun, sand and sea - the madness had begun. Is sand called sand because it’s in between the sea and land? Lol. My sense of humor is indicating it’s time to wrap up this post now. More on Mauritius coming soon.