Day 4 – The journey to the south

After a couple of relaxed days, we had an early start at 5 am. We packed up and said goodbye to our lovely room. We had a couple of unique places planned for the day. The first one was a 45 minute drive away near the town of Flic en Flac. The road took us back to Port Louis and we drove through and crossed the city – it was early morning on a Sunday and the roads were empty.

We reached Casela Nature Park at 7:15 am, well before our reporting time. The park had not opened to the public yet and we were among the first people to reach. We had booked a special excursion – breakfast with giraffes! This was a package they offered based on advance online bookings with limited slots – we were lucky to get this! 

Breakfast with Giraffes

A bus took us to the giraffe feeding deck. It was a raised wooden platform with two giraffes on one side. The other corner of the deck had a table with food for the humans. Overall, there were around 6 families. Each group took turns to walk up to the giraffes to feed them. As we waited for our turn, other visitors arrived to greet us. A couple of zebras walked by and a peacock flew up to join us on the deck. It walked from table to table hoping that someone would feed it – with bad luck.

We walked up to the feeding area and picked up some of the treats – it looked like Whiskas for giraffes. The ranger instructed us to just hold our hands out and keep it open. The giraffes would pick up the food on their own. Nam held Parth’s hand as we went forward – to our surprise a long tongue came out and wrapped around his palm, taking away the food. The tongue was LOOOONG! Like snake types! One of the giraffes had a pink tongue and the other had a black one. We were told that the younger ones have pinker tongues and it gets bluish-black as they grow older.

I stepped up for my turn and offered some giraffe-whiskas. If you don’t like slimy things, be prepared for a slimy experience. Don’t skip it though – it’s a truly unique experience. The tongue is long and very rough – it almost scrapes your hand as it tries to grip the food. Once it successfully gets the food, the tongue goes back home and your hand is left with sticky giraffe saliva. It was so much fun!

Round two was feeding them small branches of leaves. The ranger warned us to hold Parth tight as the giraffes had a tendency to pull the branches up and if Parth didn’t let go, he would get lifted up with them! Scary and intriguing at the same time! Don’t worry – we didn’t let our curiosity get the better of us!

We got back to our table to have a nice breakfast of fresh fruits, eggs and croissants.

Into the savannah we go

The savannah? Yes! The Casela Nature park has a savannah setting inside its grounds. In a way, it’s not surprising – if you zoom out of the Mauritius map and look to the left, you’ll notice the African mainland savannah grasslands around the same latitude. Our safari was included in the same entry ticket. We made our way to the safari van.

It was beautiful! Antelopes (called impala) roamed in the open grasslands. The mountain in the background added to the grandeur. As we kept going ahead, we had visitors coming to our van – ostriches! Our driver told us to keep our hands inside as the ostriches had a habit of pecking at people – as if on cue, they began pecking at the handrails of the van. They had really strong beaks – it’s best to keep away from those!

Zebras and wildebeests were aplenty. It was the first time I saw a wildebeest outside of TV! It felt so cool being out here. The van took us back to the starting point and we walked to the next section – the big cats. This was more like a zoo with cheetahs, lions and hyenas. 

The day was getting really hot and it was starting to drain us. We decided to head back to the entrance. At the main lobby was a 3D map of Mauritius – it was fun to spot the places we had already seen as well as the ones we had planned for the next few days. There was an entire section dedicated to birds but we didn’t have the energy to walk anymore. So we went back to our car and continued on our journey to the south.

Skipping ahead

We went next to the giant Hindu temples at Grand Bassin, took a huge detour to reach Chamarel and finally our room at La Gaulette. The story of the detour is an interesting one on its own and I’ll cover it in the next blog.

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Day 5 – the Real Marine Park of Mauritius

Our host had kept bread and eggs in the fridge of the house – this became breakfast as we got ready to leave for Blue Bay Marine Park. First, we picked up a bunch of groceries at the GSR La Gaulette supermarket – it was really well stocked and perfectly located for us. We didn’t want a repeat of the previous day – so we made sure we had enough snacks packed just in case.

After dropping off some of the supplies back in our room, we drove through Black River Gorges National Park. We crossed Chamarel and stopped at a viewpoint where we got a panoramic view of the dense forests and a waterfall. It was drizzling slightly and we quickly got back into the car. 

Black River Gorges National Park

As we passed through the forest, we saw many cars parked on one side of the road with people out on the road with picnic baskets and plastic covers. They were picking some fruits and berries off the bushes and trees next to the road. At some parts, there were so many cars that only one side of the road was functional – this explained why the road was shut off one-way the previous day, which was a Sunday. Apparently, a ton of locals had decided to have their Sunday picnic at the National Park plucking fruits and berries!

We again passed through Grand Bassin, and entered Bois Cheri. Tea plantations welcomed us there. This island had so much variety even though it was so limited in size! We had seen coffee plantations in Chamarel the previous day and now we were passing through tea estates!

After a long-ish drive, we saw the airport, crossed it and reached Blue Bay.

The “real” marine park

If you’ve been with us since the beginning of this series, you would remember the “scam” at Ile aux Cerfs. Well, it was time to undo it by visiting the “real” marine park of the country. We had booked a glass-bottom boat the previous day. The marine life here was very very rich. Within minutes of leaving the jetty, we could see ginger coral and schools of fish playing around them.

Parth cried “Trumpet fish!” pointing to a long eel-like fish. He was the first one to notice it – even before our guide who was driving the boat. He had seen it in the Dodoland book the previous night and I was amazed that he actually remembered it and connected it to the real thing when he saw it!

People who wanted to snorkel could do it here – we skipped and decided to enjoy the view from the glass bottom of the boat. Spectacles become a limited factor for such experiences and I prefer to not wear contact lenses. No complaints though – the view was equally good from the boat!

Skipping ahead

We next went to the Chamarel Rum distillery, picked goyaves from the Black River Gorges National Park and had an amazing sunset view at La Gaulette. This is covered in detail in the next blog.

Day 6 – whales and dolphins!

It was one of the most awaited days of the trip. We had booked a whale watching excursion with a company called Whale Dream and had to report at their dock in Grande Riviere Noire at 6 am. The place was 15 mins away from our home. One thing about Mauritius is that you have to always leave on time! There is no concept of hurrying on the way to make up time – every road has strict speed limits and cameras – even though the roads may be empty, you cannot rush and cover up your tardiness!

Our boat was called the Golden Wave III. We climbed on to the upper deck and started going into deeper waters.

Mauritius sits on a submerged plateau in the Indian Ocean. What this means is that most of the beaches are very shallow, don’t have tall waves and are perfect to enjoy the water even with young kids. It also means that at the edge of the plateau, the ocean depth plunges. After 30 mins of our ride, our boat captain told us that we were now at a point where the ocean was more than 2000 metres deep! I must admit – that made a tiny little shiver go down my spine.

The signal comes in

This was our second time whale watching (the first was in the Azores in the Atlantic) and we knew that these boats typically worked in groups. When one of them spotted a whale, they would alert the others. That’s exactly what happened – our captain got a call that a family of sperm whales had been spotted and we made our way there.

We couldn’t believe our eyes! It was a family with a mother, father and baby whale! They swam alongside our boat – they were literally right next to it! We could see the entire length of their bodies as the water was very clear and they stayed near the surface for quite a long time before diving deep into the waters to feed.

Ethical whale watching

Whales, as you can imagine, do not like humans jumping into the water next to them. In fact, swimming with whales is banned in Mauritius. However, we saw a lot of people doing it and their agents were enabling it. The company we chose was very strict about ethics and made sure they kept their distance from the whales. We got to see 3 more whales during the excursion!

The same held true for dolphins as well – we saw a bunch of them near the Tamarin bay. Overall, it was a very fulfilling experience – we got a very close view of the magnificent creatures – much closer than the fin whales in Portugal.

Flic en Flac

Next stop – Flic en Flac beach. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon there. Do check out the food trucks while you are at Flic en Flac – we particularly liked one called Farata Vinoda who served up some simple yet delicious rolls!

Chill evening

We had planned another unique activity for the evening – Lagoon Flight. It was basically a seaplane ride – the plan would take off from the sea, take us for a panoramic view of the southern part of the island and then drop us back at the beach. However, the excursion got cancelled due to bad weather (the tide was too low). So, they offered us a slot for the next morning (which we accepted).

We spent the rest of the evening chilling in the swimming pool at our home. The Aloha restaurants guys had started expecting us by now – and we didn’t disappoint them.

Check out the entire series on Mauritius here:

• The Mauritius Itinerary – Our one week itinerary of Mauritius
• Mauritius Travel Blog: First Day of Island Life – first sights and sounds and getting the trip started
• Ile Aux Cerfs, a Chateau and Finding Paradise in Mauritius – exploring the northern half of the island
• Breakfast with Giraffes and (not) Swimming with Whales – discovering the variety of wildlife in Mauritius
• Seven Colored Earths and Seaplane rides – the Hidden Gems of Mauritius