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Indian Ocean Cruise 2010 - Mauritius

We docked in the harbour in the early morning. Just across the harbour is the capital, Port Louis.

Background information:

Mauritius is of volcanic origin (none are active now) and generally sheltered by barriers of coral reefs forming natural lagoons It is located approximately 2000 kilometres to the east of Southern Africa. It is 45km in width and 65km in length.

It was known to the Arabs as early as the 10th century, but officially 'discovered' in 1505 by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas. The island was occupied successively by the Dutch (1598-1712) and the French (1715-1810), and was ceded to Great Britain in 1814 through the Treaty of Paris. On 12 March 1968, Mauritius became Independent.

Most people in Mauritius are bilingual and are equally fluent in English and French. Creole and French are the main languages in the everyday environment and several oriental languages are also spoken.

Places that we visited on our tour.

On our first day in Mauritius we took one of the tours on offer which gave us the opportunity to see quite a bit of the island.

1. Trou Aux Cerf

This is one of several extinct volcanoes on the island. The crater has a lake in the bottom and the sides are heavily wooded.

View looking West from Trou Aux Cerf

2. Curepipe

Mauritius produces lots of clothes for famous fashion lines – Polo, Lacoste etc and much of it is made in the Curepipe area where there’s a factory outlet shop. Next door is a shop that makes model wooden ships – we spent all the time in the model shop which had ships in a wide range of sizes – and prices.  We were able to go upstairs to the workshop to watch them being made – fascinating, a pity that we only had a ½ hour stop.

3. Grand Bassin.

Many of the inhabitants of Mauritius are of Indian descent. Grand Bassin is the most important Hindu religious site on the island as they believe that it has an underground link to India.

There are several statues in the lake next to the temple.

Inside the temple.

4. Gorges de la Riviere Noire. (Black RIver Gorges)

We were lucky with the weather and had spectacular views from the viewpoint overlooking the Gorge.

5. Chamarel

We stopped here to look at one of the highest waterfalls on the island and then the 'Coloured Sands'

On the way back to Port Louis I took a couple of photos from the coach.

 

On our second day in Mauritius we took a water taxi across the harbour to Port Louis and had a walk around, spending most of our time wandering around the market stalls.

The food market was very colourful with all sorts of fruit and vegetables on offer. This photo is taken from the gallery above the fresh food market.

There were lots of stalls selling tourist goods, especially clothing, tablecloths etc

As we left Mauritius we passed a group od Chinese fishing vessels - they were taking photos of us as we passed.

 

 

Port Louis as we sailed away in the evening.

At sea, on board the MSC SInfonia.

Mauritius.

Reunion.

Ile St-Marie, Madagascar.

Fort Dauphin, Madagascar.

Maputo, Mozambique.

Diary

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