A week in Mauritius

I did not realise that it would be an eleven hour flight from Paris to Mauritius. It is quite far. Especially since it was an hour to get to Paris from Basel, we had a 4 hour layover, and an additional hour flight delay. It also took a long time for our luggage to come out when we arrived and it took another hour from the airport to get to the hotel. Total time door to door: 21 hours.

We were greeted warmly by the staff at the Sand Resort & Spa. The view that greeted us was jaw-droppingly beautiful. I could not believe this was the place we would call home for the next one week.

We went to the capital, Port Louis the following day. It is the largest city and economic and administrative center of the island. The Le Caudan Waterfront area was also a shopping complex and was clearly a place youngsters go to hang out with friends.

We had some ice cream there and a fresh coconut each.

We drove around for a bit and then went to a friend’s home in Quatre Bornes where we enjoyed some Mauritian hospitality and tea.

The next day we went to Mahebourg in the east of the island. It is a small fishing town with a spacious waterfront area where we enjoyed a walk after lunch with another Mauritian family of a Creole fish dish. The baby touched a rabbit for the first time there!

They then took us to Blue Bay which is supposedly one of the best beaches in Mauritius. Alas as it was a Sunday, it was packed with locals and we did not leave the car and continued on our one hour drive back to Flic en Flac.

One disappointing thing about Mauritius has to be the beach. Unfortunately it’s not as widely known that there are tonnes of dead corals or stone fish meaning it is not fun to venture into the sea barefoot as should there be stone fish, one of the world’s most venomous, you could die.

On Monday we went snorkeling in a glass-bottom boat.

Unfortunately the snorkeling wasn’t great. Despite it being very wavy, we took the baby with us in the open sea for several minutes after waking him up.

We did a huge island tour with Ziaad, a family friend on Tuesday. Among the places we visited were:

• Trou aux Cerfs –  a dormant volcano from which we were able to see great views of the island

• Chamarel Falls

• Black River Gorges National Park

• Chamarel – seven coloured earth

• Tamarin Salt Pans

Thursday morning was one of the highlights as we had a successful dolphing watching trip. We were lucky that the spot everyone goes to for this amazing activity is just a 5 minute boat ride from the beach in front of our hotel and were back within the hour. We had spectacular views of the island.

There were several packs of dolphins and there were certainly more than 40 swimming around the area. It was fun to see them swimming under the boat thanks to the glass-bottom. I squealed every time I saw the baby dolphins twirl in the air. It was such a great morning out.

We did many other activities at the hotel including sea kayaking, pedalo, tennis, table tennis, etc.

What a beautiful week on a tropical island in Africa!