Port Louis
I could infer from the travel guide that there was not
so much much to see in the capital Port Louis. We had driven
some time over the motorway and had already gotten an impression of
downtown. Our attendance had mainly the goal of visiting the
well-known market and of buying spices.
The travel took some 30 minutes and we found with
trouble a parking lot with an old port building (to high fees). At foot we had to look for an overtravel over
the motorway, which led past directly. We fastly found the market. Already on the road in front it was busy.
The market was located in different resounding, a very
close primarily for clothing and souvenirs, the adjacent very generous over several stories
for vegetables and fruits and - air-conditioned - for
perishable products. That was not a comparison to the stinking
markets in Asia! Nicely, but not importunately one was addressed
in the most diverse languages for purchase - depending on which
nationality of the dealers assumed with us. We got a good
impression on the various fruits of the country (litchis, mangos,
bananas, pineapple...) in addition, on import products (potatoes
from South Africa...).
In direct proximity of the central market is the Place S.
Bissoondoyal, to the right and left with a lot of traffic but planted however with beautiful high king palms. At the end,
flanked of red flowering African Tulip Trees were government buildings of he year of 1736. In front of it stood - typically British - a
statue of queen Victoria. At the other end, where the place
borders to the Motorway, total traffic chaos prevailed. The high, post modern bank office at the
corner, which did not fit here architecturally at all, was remarkable.
We crossed the road and looked at the new Caudan
Waterfront complex, obviously built on old harbour installations.
This complex in colonial style could somewhere in the
world be located with its road cafes, fashion shops, cinemas, a
hotel etc.. Typically the tourists clumped here, while within
the range of the market halls primarily locals were to be seen.
On the way back to the car we went past the typically English main post office from the 1860s.
There were other sights to see in Port Louis but the warmth suffocated however our energy and let us drive home fast.
The southwest
The longest tour on the island led us on a round trip to
the southwest and west of the island. On the motorway
it went to Nouvelle France, from there on a side street to Bois
Chérie, where a tea factory is adjusted to visitors. Fast
those few existing visitors were divided into English and Frenchspoken groups and we could visit a small museum on
the history of the cultivation of tea and afterwards the tea
production. Tractors pulled in with the harvest of the morning. The bags were brought over a conveyor belt on
a drying rack. Further machines continued to process the tea
with deafening noise. Proudly one showed us the maschine
"Made in Germany", which packed the tea into small bags.
Besides there was a small machine, which filled up tea in bags.
Hardly humans think over the complicated packing of tea in bags
with paper, volume, metal clip and label! In Bois Chérie one does not only manufacture
"purely" black tea, but also some aromatized with passion fruit,
vanilla etc. . The tea is harvested always in the morning, if the temperatures are
still bearable. Both humans and machines are used and after 14
days the picked tea leaves again regenerate and can be harvested again.
Following the tee plant visit we drove approx.. 2 km through tee plantations on to a pavilion lain on a mountain with fantastic view, where we could try and also buy tea. Me being a tea drinker found the visit most interesting!
Some kilometers behind the Bois Chérie we reached the
Grand Basin, a crater lake with surrounding temples, which is admired of
the Hindus of the island as holy. Once in the year the
largest Hindufeast is celebrated here outside of India. Also while our attendance many faithful Hindus prayed in the shrines.
After Grand Basin one reaches already the high mountains of the Black River Georges National Park, which can be explore only by foot correctly. We were content with a travel over the pittoreske mountain rim road. Left a lookout point was signed. The large parking lot suggested arger visiting groups at other times. We were the only visitors. By means of a trampling path we finally reached a grand lookout over the south coast. "Besides" one could watch also Alexandra Falls, an impressive waterfall. Now, in the high summer in the Southern Hemisphere, he led however not much water.
Thus we continued, at Chamarel turned left on the main road leading to our goal, the well-known Terres de
Couleurs. For 60 Rupees entrance fee (approx. 2 Euros) we were sent on a lousy road, which led us first to the Chamarel waterfall
described in each travel guide. He falls approx..
100 m deeply into a natural basin. Also it led not as much
water as in the winter, nevertheless it was impressive! We continued until we reached a parking lot. On a footpath one reached a fenced wavy area, which soil shined in the colors brown, pink and dark red. It is a natural phenomenon, because the colors
are not washed off by the rain.
Meanwhile it was late in the afternoon and we had to go the whole way to back Chamarel to again. On the quite narrow
"main street" it went then to the left and into completely steep hairpin curves, which made a outstanding view possible again and again
over the ocean, down to sea level - driving technically very fastidious and arduously!
Finally we had reached the coast and continued to go to the north. Unfortunately we missed the turn to the salt
extracting plants at Les Salines, however at Tamarin we were then
compensated, where also saltworks are directly by the road. Sea
water is led in flat basins and salt won by evaporation in this area of
light precipitation. We used the opportunity and drove also
into the city of Tamarin, which is well known as a surfing spot.
Here the Tamarin river does flow into the sea and there is no reef. On the day of our
visit the waves did not however even have 10 cm and were
conceivablly unsuitable to surf. The ones seen at Trou aux Biches had been much higher! Nevertheless many young
people with boogie boards and surfboards were seen in the small anes of the place.
Since it became even later and I did not feel large
desire to drive on Mauritius in the dark we actually skipped out planned
visit to the well-known resort Flic en Flac, and drove
over the A 3 directly on to Port Louis. The sign-posting was simply miserable there and we did not found the ramp on to the Motorway.
Thus we landed in the middle in the city and with its completely clogged roads.
After eight hours of travel and after darkness we reached finally our hotel. One should not underestimate the distances on the island and visits to the south last quitelong. For this reason we did not go again in this vacation, for example visit the the Domaine Ylang Ylang or look at the Domaine you Chasseur or the nature park Le Val.
The return journey was rather chaotic. We had to rise at 5 o'clock in the morning, after the travel to the airport landed in the totally overfilled Businesses Class Lounge. Then our flight had a delay. We were compensated with the fact that the return journey with a B 747 of Air France took place (including Sleeper seats) and not in the bad Air Mauritius. Since it was a day flight, 11 hours can become long, I had the opportunity to see the Kilimandjaro from next proximity. Then it went over the Sudan to Libya. The Sahara from above was unbelievably impressive - it looked like a gigantic baking box, air flickered so strongly that one could not see the soil correct and the blue of the sky was in never before seen intensity. In Libya oil pipelines were finally recognizably... Anyhow we reached Paris with delay, whereby we missed our connection flight to Düsseldorf and in the likewise very full lounge had to spend nearly four hours. After further 1.5 hours we were then in icy Düsseldorf to only state that there was no more information over train connections. We put ourselves at 11 pm in some train leading into our direction, were allowed then still three times to transfer - including dragging the suit-cases, the boogie board and the hand baggage from the trains and platforms up and down (with regional platforms there are no conveyor belts). Altogether we had been 23 hours on the "road".