A Day on the Ile aux Cerfs

Today we woke up to yet another sunny day and walked down to the little jetty at the Grand River South East to start our private boat tour. We cruised to the G. R. S. E. waterfall and were lucky that the most other tourist boats queued after us. We turned around to get out to the ocean but on the way there we saw some monkeys on the sides of the river, playing and eating. Through the mangroves we went and landed on the beach of Ile aux Cerfs which is an island directly on the shores of the Mauritian East Coast. The trip has been arranged by our host Rajesh and had cost us (incl. one barbecue for Seb as I'm a vegetarian) 2.550 MUR which is around 55€. He had told us that we could go snorkeling there, however, we have not expected that we had to pay yet another 20€ p.p. to get to another boat that would bring us to the reef. So we were pretty disappointed, as we brought our own snorkeling gear with us as we thought Mauritius would be a great destination to snorkel. It turns out: Maybe, but you always have to take a boat, there are no reefs directly available from the beach. There is a huge difference to the Maldives in snorkeling opportunities after all...
So we used the 1,5hrs until our boat would leave for the barbecue on another part of the island, to discover the same kind of beaches as we already have seen on the main island. More disappointed than ever, we talked to yet another German family about possible other snorkeling spots to enter from the beach. They recommended Pointe d'Esny which was a little bit North of the famous Blue Bay Marine Park. We decided to drive there after coming back to our apartment.
The 1,5hrs passed by and we went back to the jetty to be driven to our barbecue. However, the barbecue would still need another hour which got me questioning why we should have come here so early. So we discovered a bit of the other part of the island next to the golf course and took some selfies with the picturesque mountains of Ile aux Maurice in the background. Finally, the barbecue was ready and so we sat behind the boats, looking at the mountains and enjoyed the food. They were nice enough to bring me a plate of rice and salad as well (after Seb was asking quite frankly about it), so we could eat together. It was alright, however not worth 15€ at all. We got some fried coconut banana for dessert and were offered some coffee. Seb and I declined, but we still got a little espresso. First, we just thought that there was a misunderstanding (again) and so Seb drank it a bit. However, then they told us we had to pay 200MUR for the coffee (4€) and we were furious. The day was shit enough already, with false promises about snorkeling, the island being nothing special at all and the boat driver nit explaining us anything about e.g. the flora and fauna around. We have found ourselves in a tourist scam, or at least we felt like it. We paid the damn coffee and jumped on the boat. Arriving back at the apartment we were pissed, but we still had the hope to snorkel at Pointe d'Esny. So we jumped in the car and drove there, put our snorkeling gear on and off we went into the ocean. We didn't see anything but algae. Looking at the phone, it seemed as if we had to swim more than 30m out into the ocean. The currents however were extremely strong and without fins it seemed impossible to get there. Especially when you don't know if there are any other currents that could get dangerous. As it started to rain, we decided to call it a day and just drive home again. It was still rather early, but we were done for today. Instead, we just chilled on our terrace, cooked some noodles and afterwards Seb went to Carambole Snack to drink some Rum with Satish. I stayed home and wrote some more for the block. What a wasted day.Read more