Mauritius out of season, or how to fly to the cottage for 8600 km from Moscow

Once, a rather strange idea came to us: to fly to Mauritius in July. In general, there is only one strangeness here - winter is at the equator at this time, so the sea holiday we were counting on was a big question. But it turned out how to properly explore the island.

We decided to start from the northern part, so back in Moscow I booked a taxi from the airport (in the south) to the town of Grand Baie and Pereybere beach not far from it.

And just another life hack: you do not need a visa to Mauritius, but an open Schengen visa will be very useful on this trip. With it, you can fly to the neighboring French island of Reunion.

So, we are at the first point of our route - the Merville Beach Hotel. Very nice place with a closed cozy beach. Clean, fine white sand, full of free sun loungers. It is drizzling, palm trees rustle in the wind, yellow dry leaves are under my feet - here I am at sea!

The water is really cold, so I decided to walk along the coast to the neighboring villas. They are all empty in anticipation of the season, but because of this they look even prettier. It would be great to return to one of them with a big company!

After seeing the beaches, we went to explore the town of Grand Baie. Number one surprise - there are no sidewalks! Not the most convenient place for hiking. Surprise number two - in general, there is nowhere to go either. Large supermarket, library, police station. They asked the police about the main square, and they sent us to the parking lot in front of the store. It's time to move on!

Flic en Flac is a town on the west coast and the second point of the planned route. This time we decided to stay not in a hotel (they are all the same plus or minus), but in the apartment. The husband said about this place like this: "Oh, we are in the country!" On the very first evening, a hospitable Mauritian host invited us to drink home-made tincture, and in the morning his wife fed everyone breakfast. Hens, roosters, clothesline, small houses, unripe mangoes on branches - a change of scenery!

Flic en Flac itself is even smaller than Grand Baie. From the interesting thing here, there is only a cemetery right on the ocean, past which kids with inflatable circles and beach bags cheerfully walk every morning. The beach is huge, but the whole is dotted with small sharp corals - it is impossible to walk without shoes. In addition, finely. This place reminded me a bit of Jurmala: pine trees on the shore, a wide strip of the beach and the sea ankle-deep. We are going further!

Toward the middle of our trip, we finally decided to see what tourists should watch in Mauritius - colored lands and Chamarel waterfall, Casela nature park with birds and turtles, the sacred lake Grand Bassin in the crater of an extinct volcano and a rum factory. As it turned out, I am not the biggest lover of tourist routes. Firstly, of course, because of crowds of people and queues (and they are not even here in season). Secondly, I always do not have enough life and "real" in such places. Although I can’t say that visiting all these attractions was a waste of time.

Yes, the colored lands were not as bright as in the pictures on the Internet, but it’s interesting anyway. This I have not seen anywhere else. The waterfall is also not the largest, but pretty and picturesque. In the Casela park, we were struck by a huge number of different types of birds (with birds in Mauritius, everything is fine, just one!). Here you can feed giant turtles, giraffes, look at sedate rhinos and funny ostriches. Each species is allocated a fairly spacious territory, in addition, they can visit each other to visit. In the cages only predators sit. Predators were sorry.

Around Grand Bassin are temples and figures of various Hindu deities. Here are barefoot pilgrims with offerings, caretakers in multi-colored robes, arrogant monkeys whom no one drives away, because they are also sacred. Flowers, fruits, incense. And an extinct volcano underfoot. In general, colorful.

If you want to visit all these places, then I would advise you not to overpay for excursions from travel agencies, but simply rent a car with a driver for a day. Entrance tickets are easy to buy upon arrival, only zipline (skiing between the mountains) in Casela is better to book in advance through the site of the park itself.

To tell you the truth, one tourist point still won my heart completely and completely without any reservations - Cape Gris-Gris in the south of the island. They recommended it to us as the place with the most beautiful views of the ocean. She really is: tall waves, rocks, wind. Here, the cat was met.

Having traveled the whole island from south to north and back, I realized that the most important thing in any trip is the ability to rebuild. After skiing in cold water in the rain, we finally said goodbye to the idea of a beach holiday, but didn’t get wet and came up with a new goal: to go and go Mauritius far and wide. And here we were not stopped even by the lack of sidewalks and reed fields covering most of the island. Freshly squeezed cane juice is another enjoyable item on this trip! Now I remember with pleasure how we wandered among the reeds through the mountains, parks, city streets and embankments. By the way, they do not all look like Jurmala. A couple of times we met exact replicas of Nice, but there are generally no other similar places.

Mauritius, we'll be back! And your cold welcome this time, surprisingly, has become one of the fondest memories.