Ile Aux Cerfs, Mauritius - December 2011

The Grand River South East Waterfall.

Mauritius, for those that don't know, is a small speck in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. Over the centuries it has been ruled by the Dutch, the French and the English, and the small country has taken bits and pieces from all these cultures. It's the French that have had the biggest effect on the culture of Mauritius in my eyes though. A lot of the locals speak French and it looks like a lot of French people holiday in this little bolt hole in the Indian Ocean. Now that's all fascinating I suppose but what's it got to do with this post? Well today Sam and I went on an organised boat tour to Ile Aux Cerfs and it's on these tours that the cultural difference between the Aussie's and the French become obvious, from Eurotrash Pop music to the French peoples uninhibited need to shed their clothes to soak up the suns rays at any opportunity, we have a few differences. 

Our catamaran hasn't left yet and already every bodies got their kit off - all good then!

There are definitely worse ways to spend the day.

To get to the start of this tour we had to cross the country from our base on the west coast in Flic en Flac over to Trou d'Eau Douce on the west coast, now while that sounds like a pretty serious undertaking in actual fact it doesn't take that long. With the whole coast line totalling only 177 kilometres getting around this small country isn't too hard. Just over an hour after leaving our accommodation we were boarding our catamaran and what was the first thing I noticed? Yep you guessed it, it was all the other punters in various stages of undress soaking in the tropical sun, the French ladies no matter what their age or size have never seen a bikini that they won't wear, and the French blokes have never seen a hanky that they won't wear on their heads! So as you've probably already worked out, with my eclectic fashion sense and love of nudity I fitted in pretty well;) 

We were in Mauritius in the rainy season, thankfully we didn't have too much precipitation, although the humidity was up there.

I think Mauritius is probably more famous for it's beaches than it's diving.

Our trip today featured a stop for a bit of snorkelling in the crystal clear water before we continued on to Ile Aux Cerfs. To be brutally honest the snorkelling (at least on this trip) was pretty ordinary. Most of the coral was either bleached or seriously degraded and consequently the amount and variety of the tropical fish was pretty light on. Now I'm not sure if this was just a issue with where we dived on this trip or if it's a symptom of a wider environmental problem, obviously coral bleaching is an issue world wide due to climate change but it looked like the coral was also struggling due to damage - maybe caused by the locals over fishing the area's. Anyway after a pleasant swim we climbed back on board and headed of towards our next stop, Ile Aux Cerfs.

The coral was looking a bit second hand.

I'm looking pretty happy, probably because I've just had a swim.

Ile Aux Cerfs roughly translates to Island of Stags although the stags that the island were named after look like they are long gone now days. In the place of the deer are the tourists, most of them either soaking in the crystal clear water or chilling out in one of the few bars. We decided to head for the water and avoid the bars, the last thing my fat guts needed was more food on this trip. Sitting in the crystal clear tepid water watching the tourist boats come and go and all the excited punters on the beach this was people watching at it's best. 

This nice sand spit made for a nice spot to sit in the water and watch the world go by on the Ile Aux Cerfs.

There was even the odd pirate boat to check out.

After getting our fill of sun we jumped back onto our catamaran and headed of towards our next stop the extravagantly named Grand River South East Waterfall. I'm thinking the name of the falls might lose a bit in translation somehow. Contrary to the fairly uninspiring name the falls were actually pretty good. Our catamaran couldn't navigate it's way up river all the way to the falls so we jumped onto a smaller boat for the last section up the Grand River South East. While this waterfall only drops 4 or 5 metres there is a fair volume of water flowing over it, the spray creating it's own small lush micro climate beside the river. Unfortunately, being stuck on an organised tour there was no opportunity for any Feral type adventure at the falls, with the temperature well and truly in the hot a sticky range it would of been nice to jump in and explore a little. Returning down stream to the catamaran it was time to start heading back across the country to our base in Flic en Flac, arriving back with plenty of time left in the day for another swim, life was good!

We jumped on a smaller vessel to head up the Grand River South East, have I mentioned that it was pretty warm?

Unfortunately for me there was no swimming allowed.

Haeding back to Trou d'Eau Douce it was a bit like the Wacky Racers as all the catamarans raced each other.

The Dirt.

I haven't got a lot of facts to give you in The Dirt on this post. We stayed at a beautiful resort on the beach in Flic en Flac called Sugar Beach Resort, which as you would expect made for a very comfortable base. Our day trip on the catamaran was booked through a local company but I'm buggered if I can remember the name of the company. Ile Aux Cerfs is a fairly touristy spot so don't go there if you want a back to nature type of experience. The diving was a little average, although that maybe because I'm a little spoilt when it comes to great dives and besides the swimming was great anyway, I think Mauritius is probably more famous for it's beautiful beaches than it's coral. The Grande Riviere Sud-Est Waterfall (how goods my French hey!?) is definitely worth a look if you're in the area, for me it was probably the highlight of the day.

Relevant Posts.

Port Louis, Mauritius, 2011. 

Casela Nature Park, Mauritius, 2011.

Hey, hey, I've got a shop named after me in Flic en Flac, I reckon they'd go broke trying to sell my style to the French!