Well for those of you who are interested in making short trips and have the stamina to go around, the simple solution is to find yourself an optimal route through which you can cover most of the places and minimum time in traveling to those places.

For these optimal routes it is better to start at 7 am in the morning and come back any time in the evening. The time 7 am to 8 am is the best time to get out of the traffic as 7:30 – 9 is the peak time and as far as possible the motorway should be avoided.

I will not delve into describing these places. The information can be got from internet. My aim is to give you the route with short description of the places of interest. As for traveling, you need to negotiate well with local taxi guys. They can charge you 1800 to 2500 Mauritian Rupees per day. When you pay you must insist that they do the trip from morning 7am to 8pm. Well I can put some numbers of taxi people whom I found to be reliable during my stay there. If anyone has the numbers of the taxi people who are reliable they can put it as a reply to my post. One Number I have is Mr. Prem (002302517065) he is reliable and speaks Hindi.

• Scenic Route

Starting point: Quatre Bornes.

End Point: Quatre Bornes

Hotels:

It is preferable to stay at the hotel in Quatre Bornes for 2 days. This is to avoid spending time in traveling.

• Gold Nest; Gold Crest (Quatre Bornes). As for the price it is definitely better than spending near 8000 rupees per person per day at the star hotels.
• Joensu Lodge: Located in Moka opposite to hotel Salaam Bombay. As far as I know the bed and breakfast for two cost about 1000 Mauritian Rupees. If you are lucky you might get the accommodation, in this case you can book it for 3 days.

As from the starting point, you can proceed to Vacoas.

We proceed to a place called Tamarind Falls.

Here one can see the waterfalls which were used to produce electric current. The hydroelectric power plant is situated almost 500 feet down between 2 mountains. During rainy season one can see the falls. One needs permission from the CEB to visit the hydraulic power station. It is worth going there.

Note for trekkers/ hikers: You can come back for a one day excursion to spend time under the falls. Starting uphill at Henrietta the excursion consists of jumping from one basin to the other or abseiling down the cascades. You find a reservoir called Mare Longue which is surrounded by beautiful scenery. This is the starting point for your trek excursion.

Then we proceed to a place called Mare Aux Vacoas. It is a natural reservoir. Along the way we see nature at its pristine beauty.

Then we proceed to a place called Grand Bassin which is within a short distance of mare aux Vacoas. It is one of the island’s two natural lakes. It rests in the crater of an extinct volcano and is a place of pilgrimage for a large number of Mauritians of the Hindu faith, especially on the occasion of Maha Shivaratree. The latest addition to this place is the giant statue of Lord Shiva. You will find a lot of monkeys on the other side of the road. Avoid feeding them from close distance. The road to Grand Bassin is quite scenic (mind it a popular place for shooting )

Then we come back and proceed to a place called Alexandra Falls. You will get to see a lot of beautiful view points there.

After this we proceed to a place called Black River Gorge.

 

…………… well will continue later got some work to finish