The rest of paradise

09/30/2023 - 10/09/2023

Soooo, we're finally writing the long overdue post about a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius has sooo much more to offer than crystal clear, turquoise sea that runs to the horizon.

We did a lot, but doing nothing wasn't neglected either.

We hiked on our own from our accommodation near La Gaulette through dense jungle up a trail to marvel at the Seven Colored Earth on the other side of the mountain. You could have easily gotten there by taxi, like all tourists do, and it wouldn't cost the world, but in "normal life" we wouldn't have done that either. So we conquered the 350 meters of altitude on foot and were very proud when we saw the sea from above over the tops of banana palm trees. The Seven Colored Earth was very impressive and the Chamarel waterfall in the middle of the Chamarel Geopark was simply breathtaking, but somehow unapproachable. At the end of this day and the 17 kilometers we had walked so far, we wanted to reward ourselves with a rum tasting - it was nothing. Private event with live music and we were turned away. All taxis in front of the Rhumerie were pre-booked, but there were other travelers who were also on foot, so two nice girls took us in their rental car in their/our direction when they saw us walking on the street. That evening we were very happy and fell asleep with heavy legs.

Tine went snorkeling for the second time in her life. We had booked a snorkeling tour with diving students and were allowed to take a small boat to the cliffs of Gunner's Quoin. We saw colorful fish, large and small, with black and white stripes. At the bottom of the ocean Flo discovered a huge sea urchin and some big fish down there shimmered in the wildest colors. Some smaller fish swam in schools just in front of our faces, close enough to touch, it was fantastic. But it was also sickening, the rocking back on the boat made Tine feel sick. The breakfast banana wanted to go out again and out to the wide sea and to Flo, who actually didn't want one, but Tine hadn't calculated the wind direction and Flo still got some banana. In a relationship you share everything :-)

We saw many different, wonderful, sometimes more and sometimes less visited beaches. If you just want to relax, this is the right place for you; there are hotels for every budget. But beaches in Mauritius are never private, they are open to everyone, so we too had found the perfect little stretch of beach that we visited for these three days.

In total, we had four different accommodations in different parts of the island during the 12 days in Mauritius. All reached by bus. Mauritius has a well-developed bus network, but it takes three times as long as if you were traveling by car, but it's unbeatably cheap. And we were always the only visible foreigners traveling by bus. It is very adventurous, especially the express bus. We really sent a quick prayer to heaven.

From our last accommodation we did a guided five-hour hike along the 7 Cascades (which were actually 13). It was extremely tiring, the tree roots were our best friends when things got steeper to hold on, but the swimming stops in the waterfall pools made up for it all.

Otherwise, we had unwinded in the countryside in Mauritius over the last few days. We had a great B&B with a hammock on the balcony with a wonderful view between the mountains and out to sea.