unless you pay dearly for a private
boat tour, the reality is very different
from the postcards. After being herded
onto a speed boat, we joined around
20 other boats packed with tourists, all
tracking the same pod. The skipper raced
to manoeuvre our boat in front of the
others, and without warning we were
ordered to “jump, jump, jump!”, as if
we were in training for the US Marines.
Trying to hold up a child and keep up
with a pod of dolphins in open ocean
is no fun. We got a few glimpses of
the massive pod 20 metres below, but
soon accepted that the quest was fairly
pointless and gave up to snorkel together
instead, while grandma watched from the
boat to ensure we weren’t ridden over by
dolphin-chasing speedboats.
On our way to our third and
Cannoniers’ beautiful,
jagged coastline, with all
its nooks, crannies and rock
pools dotted around the
property made for an
intriguing adventure
final Beachcomber resort, Paradis
Beachcomber Golf Resort & Spa in the
south-west of the island, we ticked off
two more attractions on our list. First
stop was Grand Bassin – also called
Ganga Talao – a sacred lake to Mauritius’
670 000-plus Hindus, who make up
around 50% of the island’s population.
This crater lake is dominated by
monolithic bronze statues of the Indian
gods Lord Shiva and Lord Durga. Explore
beyond the tourist buses that stop there,
though – take a walk down to the lake to
the temple and the lake’s edge, which is
dotted with smaller statues. This stop,
unexpectedly, became a highlight for
Noa after a local family adopted her and
showed her how to put offerings on the
shrine and how to light incense and drop
marigolds into the water.
Following “Jemima The GPS”, we wound
our way around the mist-shrouded bends
of the highlands to the Bois Cheri Tea
Factory, where we travelled through the
Above, from top: The youngest of the family trio, testing out one of Cannoniers’ namesakes.
The sublime Beachfront Ocean Room at Paradis, located on the Le Morne Peninsula.
5
Above and left: While not located on
your typical white sand Mauritian beach,
Cannonier Beachcomber Golf Resort & Spa
offers its own distinct beauty.
history of tea in Mauritius at the Tea
Museum (“boring”, Noa declared) before
sampling a tea tasting and pancakes at
the hilltop restaurant (“much better”).
Looking over the 250 hectares of tea
plantation, if I didn’t know better I might
have believed we were in the lush green
hillsides of Sri Lanka, Rwanda or China.
We descended from the highlands,
passed the many mini Hindu shrines that
dot the byways, sweet with the smell
of incense and fresh fruit offerings,
and wound our way to the day’s last
attraction: La Plantation de Saint Aubin,
one of the island’s original vanilla farms
and rum distilleries, built in 1819. A short
tour demonstrated the distillation of rum
in ancient machinery and was followed
by a tasting of the potent product that
left mom and me a bit woozy. Noa,
meanwhile, was loving the lawns, ancient
trees and the animal petting farm on
the property.
MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE // 53