Year 3 -21 May 2026 –Day Tour - Mauritius

We woke quite early as we were going on a tour of parts of the island. I decided to cook and we had avocado, bacon and egg on toast. It was delicious.

Rashid came at 8.30am to pick us up and we were off for our day tour.

We first went to the largest Tamil Temple called Hindu Maha Jana Sangham and it is a prominent organisation managing various religious sites. It was a large Hindu complex with many coloured gods which they worship. Attached to the temple was a section where there were many peacocks which apparently they rear to eat. We then went into the Muslim quarter of Port Louis to Rashid’s house as he had forgotten his phone. His house was quite secure and said the problem was drugs and people stealing to fund their addition.

We then drove off to the Citadel or what is also known as Fort Adelaide. It was a large structure being 150 m long and 100m wide. It was built between 1834 and 1840. It was built to repress any threat of revolt by French Settlers and potential external invaders. It had 24 cannons mounted on bunkers along the facade overlooking the city and 4 cannons on the other sides. The fort could store 3 months of provisions for 200 soldiers, 40,000 gallons of water and up to 280 barrels of gunpowder. It was never used in anger. The Fort was on a hill and gave great views of the city from its ramparts. We could clearly see the racetrack to the North of the Fort.

We then drove to the extinct Volcano crater called Trou aux Cerfs located in the second largest town on the island called Curepipe. This crater is 605m above sea level and is 350 m in diameter and 100m deep and apparently was formed 2 million years ago. It was covered with bush and trees but quite an impressive crater.     

We then went to a model shop which made wood models of various boats and other crafts. It was interesting to see but clearly touristy. We then continued and Rashid showed us an old plantation house which the owners used to live in. It was an old colonial design and well-kept with great trees and gardens around it.

We then went to the Takamaka Winery which was interesting. This is the only winery in the world which makes wine exclusively from Lycée. I was quite sceptical but actually the three wines were all drinkable, albeit somewhat sweet. I would never have guessed you could make drinkable wine from Lycee.

We then drove to an area known for its Hindi Temples and at the start were two large statues, one a man (but the face looked like a woman) and the other a woman. They were like an entrance to about 3 quarters of a mile of various Indian temples, a lot of which are adjacent to a lake which they use for holy purposes. Apparently In February there is a festival and hundreds of thousand walk to the temples. We saw for the first time a lot of monkeys which were being fed by the Indians coming to look at the temples. There were many strange gods and idols.

We drove on and came to the highest road height of 828m. We then came to a famous viewpoint which was within the Black River Gorges National Park. This viewpoint overlooked a great canyon with a waterfall on one side. It was vast and went way to the sea beyond. By this time the ladies were hungry and so we by passed the Chamarel Rum Distillery. We therefore went for some lunch which was nice and Rashid joined us.

We then went on to see the 7 coloured earths formation and the Chamarel Waterfalls. These are about 100 foot high and fall into what looks like a volcanic crater. midst lush tropical scenery

The Seven Coloured Earths are a geological formation and prominent tourist attraction found in the Chamarel plain of the Rivière Noire District in south-western Mauritius. It is a relatively small area of sand dunes comprising sand of seven distinct colours (approximately red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow). The main feature of the place is that since these differently coloured sands spontaneously settle in different layers, dunes acquire a surrealistic, striped colouring. Since the earth was first exposed, rains have carved beautiful patterns into the hillside, creating an effect of earthen meringue. The sands formed from the decomposition of volcanic rock (basalt) gullies into clay, further transformed into ferralitic soil by total hydrolysis; the two main elements of the resulting soil, iron and aluminium, are responsible for red/anthracite and blue/purplish colours respectively. The different shades of colour are believed to be a consequence of the molten volcanic rock cooling down at different external temperatures (hence rates), but the causes of their consistent spontaneous separation are yet to be fully clarified.  

We walked round and saw the dunes which did show some different colours but they were very subtle. We also saw a section dedicated to large tortoises. We saw one pair mating and the male was making quite a few groaning noises and this brought quite a few smiles to faces.

We then drove on back to Port Louis where we saw on the way a few coffee and sugar cane plantations for which the island is known. We could see on the way back the Piton and hills which we had looked over when approaching from the sea. It looked quite spectacular.

We got back to Port Louis and the trip had given us a good view of the island. The South is underdeveloped and pretty with lots of rainforests. We had seen a lot in a short space of time.

When we returned to the waterfront the office staff wanted us to move to accommodate a large fishing boat which had came in that morning. There was nothing I could do about this so we had to move to the other side as it got dark.  I was not that happy about this.

We settled ourselves and then had a well-earned beer. As we had eaten well at lunchtime we had cheese and biscuits.

It had been a day away from the boat and it was good to see some of the island.   

 The picture of the day is the 4 of us wine tasting.

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

I will be going shortly from India to the Maldives and then on to Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. 

I am currently in need of potentially 2 crew from Mauritius to Cape Town from about 10 June 2026 and we should arrive in Cape Town on about 25-30 July 2026. If at all interested contact me on my email below or WhatsApp +44 7931360372.