Mauritian memories - Expat 2005

THE EXPAT
MAURITIAN MEMORIES

May 2005

Expat Liz Price describes her visit to this tropical paradise

Sandy beaches, blue seas, sunshine, coral reefs, beautiful scenery and good food. Friendly people with Indian and Chinese features, celebrating Deepavali, Thaipusam, Christmas, Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. You would be excused for thinking I am talking about Malaysia, but in fact this describes the island of Mauritius. Like Malaysia it is a multi-racial country with a population made up of Indo-Mauritians (of Indian origin), and Franco-Mauritians and Creoles of European and African descendants.

This multiracial respect is reflected in the food, which plays an important role of any holidaymaker's day. There is plenty of rice, but bread also forms a large part of the diet. Roti stalls can be found all over the island, especially at breakfast time. A favourite lunch comes from the street stalls which sell chapattis stuffed with various vegetables and spices. Mmm, delicious.

The small island of Mauritius lies in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar and south of the Seychelles. The historical background is similar to Malaysia's in that the island was known to the Arabs in the 10th century, and was discovered by Europeans - Portuguese - in the early 16th century. It was later colonised by the Dutch, French and then the British. The name Mauritius was given by the first Dutch settlers, after Prince Maurice de Nassau. Mauritius gained independence from the British in 1968 and although English is still the official language, I found most people speak French or Creole as a matter of course. However they are perfectly willing to switch to English.

Mauritius is beautiful and this is one of the reasons the tourist authorities say visitors should never go alone - because it is too romantic not to be shared with family or friends. Sadly I had to break that rule as I had no one to accompany me, as I visited Mauritius as a stop over from Madagascar. But I found the people were very friendly so it wasn’t too much of a problem.

The island is well known for its water sports, fishing, golf and honeymoon packages, but of course there are many more attractions. There are strangely shaped mountains, extinct volcanoes, waterfalls, national parks and the botanical garden.

The capital of Port Louis lies in the northwest of the island, and the airport with the imposing name of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International is at the opposite corner in the southeast. However the actual distance is only about 40 km which gives some idea of how small the island is. An excellent bus service covers the whole island, so I spent some of my time doing bus tours around the island, especially to get to the interesting sights. Car rental is also available, and they drive on the left side of the road as in Malaysia, a follow on from the British days.

To the north of Port Louis are the main beach resorts with their middle to luxury range hotels. The 3 biggest beach areas are Trou aux Biches with its golf course followed by Grand Baie and Pereybere. Grand Baie is the boating centre, a really scenic bay packed full of yachts and on Sundays it really comes alive as people all take to the water. Pereybere probably has a better beach which again is packed solid at weekends as the locals all come to take the sun and enjoy picnics with family and friends. I spent time just sitting and watching all the surrounding activity as people relaxed and enjoyed themselves.

Apart from sailing and the normal water sports and diving, Mauritius is a paradise for deep sea and game fishing. There are various types of marlin, sharks, tuna and barracuda etc. For those not interested in fishing, you can explore the undersea world without getting wet, from glass-bottomed boats, and even a glassed submarine which gives excellent views of this fishy world.

One ‘must see’ is the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens at Pamplemousses which are internationally known to botanists and have a large collection of indigenous palms, many of which looked familiar, like those found in Malaysia. My favourite in the gardens were the giant Victoria regia water lilies. They are huge. There is a marmalade box tree, a chewing gum tree, the fish poison tree and the sausage tree. And the gates to the park have come from Crystal Palace in London.

The central highlands form the centre of the island. Curepipe is the main town here, and enjoys cooler weather than the lower coastal areas. Just outside the town centre is the Trou aux Cerfs, a deep crater formed from a long extinct volcano, 85m deep and 200m wide. From here are excellent views over to the mountains on the west coast. These mountains are all strangely shaped being old volcanoes. The highest peak on the island is Piton de la Petite Riviere Noires, 828m.

From Curepipe a mountain road heads towards the Black River Gorges National Park passing Mare aux Vacoas, the largest lake on the island, manmade and used as a reservoir. However the water level was incredibly low when I visited, due to a nine month drought. No wonder the hotels asked visitors not to waste water. Nearby is Grand Bassin with one of the island's two natural lakes resting in the crater of a volcano. It is a pilgrimage place for Hindus. There are 16 temples here and in Feb/Mar they hold the Maha Shivaratri celebrations. The Black River Gorges National Park protects much of the remaining native forests of Mauritius and has some spectacular scenery. With the casuarina and coniferous trees you could be forgiven for thinking you were in North America rather than the Indian Ocean.

We entered Plaine Champagne which is actually the rainiest part of the island, but the rain wasn't a problem in the drought conditions being experienced. There are 2 waterfalls not to be missed, one is Alexendra Falls and the other is Riviere Noire, they were both spectacular despite the low water levels. As we descended from the highlands I noticed forests of traveler's palm (fan palm). This is often used as an ornamental purposes in Malaysia but this was the first time I had seen whole forests of these plants, hardly surprising I suppose as the Ravenala madagascariensis originates from nearby Madagascar.

The coloured earths of Chamarel and the Chamarel Cascade lie on a private estate of the same name which grows Arabica coffee. The 7 colours of earth are the result of uneven cooling of molten volcanic rock. The falls were stunning, 3 cascades falling 100m into a semicircular basin. The west coast is very flat, but can get quite wild with rough seas in the winter conditions. The Casela bird park is another tourist attraction, located near the beach area of Flic en Flac. Casela I soon discovered is home to animals from all over the world, not just those indigenous to Mauritius. So I was quite surprised to see emus and wallabies, tigers and panthers. The local inhabitants included one Mauritian monkey amongst the Madagascaran lemurs, and of course the famous and very rare Mauritian Pink Pigeon, one of the rarest birds in the world. There were many giant tortoises from the nearby Aldabra islands. It is said that if Charles Darwin came to this area and seen all these giant tortoises, he might not have gone to the Galapagos.
















Unlike the commercialism of Casela, La Vanilla Crocodile Park in the south of the island is a breeding centre for the huge Nile crocodiles imported from Madagascar. I didn't realise these crocs are so huge. It is a large park with a nature walk through luxuriant forest studded with freshwater springs and streams containing carp and turtles. There are various local animals to be seen and with relevant information boards. Again I found the giant tortoises fascinating, and I was also able to see the giant land crab, lizards, a fruit bat and the crocodile hatcheries. My only regret was that I didn't get the chance to sample a crocodile steak whilst I was in Mauritius.

- Liz Price -