Darren and Janet

Our final day on Mauritius, and we have a 1 hour drive to the airport and 6 hours to do it... so plenty of time for detours.

First stop was Grand River South East Waterfall, a few minutes out of Trou d'Eau Douce. Finding the path to the waterfall was the biggest challenge as it wasn't signposted from the road, so we took a track through the sugar cane plantation, then followed the noise down to the waterfall.

The east coast doesn't have the wide sandy beaches of the north and west, so it's not as touristy... which means very few resorts, but fabulous sea views from the road most of the way. There's also a large number of Hindu temples - Mauritius is the only African nation with Hinduism as the dominant religion.

Amongst our stops was a monument to the first landing of the Dutch in 1598, who named it after Prince Maurice Van Nassau, head of the Dutch Republic. They introduced sugar cane, rice and tobacco, and also bought the first slaves. They abandoned Mauritius in 1710. In 1715, the French arrived, and ruled until they were defeated by the British in 1815. Independence was gained in 1968.

The largest town in the south is Mahebourg, a few minutes from the airport. The Sunday waterfront market was in full swing when we arrived, as was a noisy celebration of Liverpool's recent Premier League victory by the Liverpool Mauritius Fan Club. Just off the coast is the tiny island of Mouchoir Rouge, named after the "red handkerchief" that was waved as a signal to the boatman for those who wanted to go to or return from the island, not because of the red roofed house.

Our final stop before boarding our flight to Cape Town was the Pyramids of Plaine Magnien. Initially believed to be built by an ancient civilization, recent accounts have confirmed they were built by sugar cane workers who decided to neatly pile the volcanic rocks they cleared when planting the sugar cane. That's not as exciting 😐

* Farewell from Mauritius, in Mauritian Creole - also known as "Morisyen," it's a French-based language spoken in Mauritius. Primarily a spoken language, it's the most commonly used language on the island and is spoken by almost everyone.Читать далее