A Month in Mauritius
I feel fortunate to say that this was our third time to Mauritius. The company Adam works for has an office in Ebene, Mauritius and he has twelve Mauritians on his team.
The first time we came to Mauritius, was May 2022. I remember looking up Mauritius in Google Maps, and zooming out, and zooming out, only seeing the surrounding blue of the Indian Ocean, until I saw the island of Réunion, then zooming out more until Madagascar appeared, then finally the coast of Africa.
We realized that the size and population of Mauritius is the equivalent of taking the city of Ottawa, turning it into an island (60km long and 40km wide), and dropping it in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Mauritius is of volcanic origin, which means it has some pretty dramatic landscapes, and a variety of flora and fauna, from the rainforest in the Black Gorges National Park in the south, to the seemingly endless fields of sugar cane that cover the island.
Shortly after arriving, we picked up a rental car and did an excursion to one of our favourite areas of the island in the south-west, Le Morne Brabant. It is a beautiful area, steeped with history. On our last visit, because of a landslide, the walking path up to the summit was closed, but on this visit it was open. Jet-lagged, we made it about 2/3 of the way up. The last third was too steep for my liking, but the vistas from where we stopped were still beautiful.
The first weekend we were there was the national election. The voting happened on the Sunday, with the vote counting happening on the Monday. Starting Friday at midnight, no stores or restaurants were allowed to sell any alcohol. In the grocery store, they had rigged together a wall from palettes to let us know that you could not buy any alcohol.
The sign on the wall says “Due to the General Election on 10th November No alcoholic drinks will be sold from Saturday 9th to to Monday 11th November.”
We were told to avoid driving, on the Sunday and Monday, and on Saturday we discovered why, as we passed a parade of honking cars with flags being held out their windows or out the backs of trucks. In walking around on Sunday, I was thankful to be there for their election. In many places around the world, it feels like elections are times of fear and adversity. In Mauritius, it was a time for celebration. The streets were covered in flags and people were in the streets celebrating on voting day. It was a reminder that the right to vote, is a beautiful thing that is worth celebrating.
We try and stay in a different area of the island each time we are in Mauritius, so this time we stayed in the north, in the Pereybere area. It was a nice walk north west to Grand Baie, or north to Pereybere Beach, or north-east to the lovely Bain Boeuf Beach area. Further east of that is Cap Malheureux, which has beautiful views of Coin de Mire island.
Cap Malheureux was given its name by the French, who were defeated by the English in 1810, when they unexpectedly landed there, instead of in the south where the French had amassed their troops.
In our walk east of Cap Malheureux, we went past a cemetery with a beautiful view of Coin de Mire that also had a beautiful, large Banyan tree inside of it.
This was out first time being in Mauritius in summer and all the fruit trees were ripening, so there were roadside stands laden with fresh litchi and mangoes. Everywhere we drove we could see large nets covering the fruit trees protecting them, we assume, from fruit bats (but more about them later).
With the diversity of people and cultures in Mauritius, it is, literally, a colourful island. From the bright blue roadside shrines for the Virgin Mary, to the colourful Hindu waterside shrines.
In our wanders this visit, we came across a sign for a museum, and in following the sign, we discovered the Maison Eureka. It is a house from the 1830’s, built of ebony and mahogany, that has been turned into a bit of a museum. Behind the house is a lovely walking trail that takes you past six small waterfalls.
We also visited L’Aventure Sucre in Pamplemousses. It is an old sugar factory that has been converted into an enormous museum that walks you through the production of sugar from the cane.
It was a vast museum with so much to read. I learned about the historical entangled rivalry between sugar cane and sugar beet. I am always interested in information visualization, so I was quite taken with the hand-coloured bar charts displayed on an exhibit of an old office space.
Another thing we noticed is that they really like their fireworks in Mauritius. From randomly hearing them go off at night near our Airbnb, to seeing them on the beach during an evening wander along Pereybere Beach.
Before Adam’s colleagues left to return to Canada, we splurged one night and went out for dinner at the rooftop bar and restaurant, Bisou, in the Lux Grand Bay Resort. Everything was delicious, the the view was amazing.
On another day we drove back to Pamplemousses, and wandered around the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden. It was beautiful, and has a pond of giant lily pads.
Throughout Mauritius, it’s quite common to see the nests of Village Weaver birds hanging from the tree branches.
As we wandered around the botanical garden, at one point I looked up, and thought I was seeing those familiar nests, until I saw one of them move. That’s when we realized that those were not nests hanging from the branches, but fruit bats.
And for those of you that haven’t seen a fruit bat in person, the ones in Mauritius are the size of North American seagulls, so they are big!
Some places we frequented while we were there included: Island Babe Healthy Food (a delicious place for brunch); Passion Coffee (the best coffee on the island); Bloom (a pretty good place for coffee and food); Fynbos (another pretty good place for coffee and a bite to eat); Paul Bakery (best coffee in the La Croisette mall in Grand Baie where we would go to get our groceries and go to the bank machine) and we went back to a favourite from last time Momo Mauritius for their delicious Himalayan dumplings.
It was a lovely month in Mauritius, and I hope we have the opportunity to go back again next year. To close this post, remember, always be on the lookout for falling coconuts.
