Car driving at the South-East

The happy couple at the Chamarel coloured earth
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Mauritius day 4:

Today is a relaxing day. We spent most of the day at the beach with some snorkelling. We also played table tennis. The highlight of the day was the snorkelling outside the coral barrier. The amount and variety of fish was amazing. All the fish we met during our last three days inside the coral barrier, we also met here, outside, within some corals. Trumpet fish, angelfish, eel fish, yellow, red, green, blue, multi-colour, long, thin, big, small..., amazing! It even more amazed us to hear that this is nothing compared to the amount of sea life you meet when diving.

Be calm and enjoy the ride... and have someone who is good with maps next to you.

It wasn't always sunny..., yes this is a picture from Mauritius, not the Alps.
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Mauritius day 5:

We rented a car from Europcar with the help of Cormorano for the day. It cost 2100 Rs for 24 hours with a 200 Euros waiver insurance. It was a Hyundai Atos. The roads here in Mauritius are like the British system. After about 5 years of driving in Britain, we had no problem at all to drive here. We headed towards the South. We had a plan. We were heading to the Chamarel seven colours earth. On the way we saw the salines of Tamarin and the Grand Riviere Noire.  We also saw some small mangroves.

African dances show at the hotel
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First stop was the Chamarel, or seven colours earth. To enter the area, it costs 100Rs per person. Keep the “tickets” as you will need it to enter the seven colours earth. On the way we stopped to admire the Chamarel waterfalls, which were very impressive. We also noticed the Adventure Park was within the same area and kept a note to visit it later. We arrived at the seven colour earth, where there were also four giant turtles, a pleasant surprise. The actual site was nothing spectacular but if you have the geologist inside, I’m sure you’ll appreciate it more than us. The adventure park was asking for 600 Rs just for walking in there and 1200Rs (per person) for the adventure (passing some bridges of every kind you can imagine).

The mighty explorer is here, stronger than ever...!
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Our next stop was the Rhumerie of Chamarel. This is a new establishment, difficult to miss, on the way to Plaine Champagne. It has been there for 11 months now, and for this they were offering only single-distilled, double-distilled or 6-months old in oak barrels rum, all 50% alcohol. The entrance costs 350Rs per person, and they show you around the factory, a very quick sightseeing unless you are interested and have questions. At the end of the tour there is tasting of the rums they produce, and a visit to their shop where you can buy this exclusive rum.

Goodbye world!
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Then we drove into the Plaine Champagne, a very nice road through an exotic forest. At some point we met a large parking and a small market. Soon we discovered we were at the viewpoint for the Black River waterfalls, another very nice view. There is also a footpath that takes you to a nearer viewpoint but you need good shoes (slippery rocks) and it’s nothing special anyway. We went on the Plaine Champagne and on the way we show plenty of designated footpaths. As it was raining (once again), we did not take any of them. We returned and decided to explore a bit of the south coast.

Take a few buckets of paint, throw them on sand and here is the result...
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It is worthy to mention that the traffic was minimal and much less that the traffic we met at the Port Louis and the central plateau.  Also, when they flash their lights at you, this means that they want to go first and you’d better make way. At the south coast, we met plenty of wind and a very nice coastline with many places to go for a swim. We also wanted to visit Casela park but there was no time. Our day ended at the hotel with a very nice African show with a fantastic African drums performance.