Southern Mauritius South Island Tour

Grand Bassin

Grand Bassin is located next to a tranquil and serene crater lake considered sacred by the Hindu population. We spent some time discovering the Hindu culture by visiting the temples and a very tall statue of Shiva around the lake.

Black River Gorges National Park

Black River Gorges, the largest national park in Mauritius, covering an area of 6754 hectares. The park is home to numerous endemic flora and fauna and provides visitors with beautiful hikes. 

 Chamarel Falls, the most famous waterfall in Mauritius! 

Seven Colored Earths, Chamarel 

Approximately, seven colors (red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow) can be viewed in the sand dunes. It's a very popular place for tourist to visit. 

A $1400 Mistake

The previous day my camera and underwater housing worked fine, except on the second dive the lens clouded over causing me to stop taking pictures. But that happens often, especially if the air and water temperatures are significantly different and there’s a bit of moisture in the housing. No big deal.

The big deal was, apparently, that one of the camera housing’s seals got damaged overnight. The metal area around a seals was a bit rusted. Unknowingly, after playing with one of the rusty buttons, I must have damaged the seal. After jumping in the water at Blue Bay, and swimming 10 minutes, I noticed the camera housing flooded and got the dive master’s attention. We both quickly did a safety stop and waved over the boat. I placed the camera and housing on the boat in the sun to dry out. After completing the dive, I realized it was beyond repair.

The next day I visited an iPhone shop at a local mall and paid $1400 for a new iPhone Xs. I backup frequently both to iCloud and my laptop., so it was fairly easy and straightforward to setup my new phone. I didn’t lose anything.

Going forward, I plan to assess my iPhone and underwater housing every time I enter the water. If I notice it leaking, I will immediately place it back on the boat, which I regret not religiously doing previously.

Point d’Esty and Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius Scuba Diving

On the first day, I dove near Flic en Flac on the west side of the island which was unaffected by the mini-typhoon on the southern part of the island. The most famous of the dive sites was “Cathedral” with lots of caverns and arches, and lots of large schools of squire fish, butterfly, batfish, yellow snappers, etc., but they were limited in variety. The pictures posted here are from this dive. Apparently, a few of the pictures save to my camera roll on iCloud overnight. The second dive was similar to the first dive site. The name of the dive site was “Aquarium” there were large schools of fish, but again the variety was limited. My camera case’s lens fogged up during this 2nd dive. I stop taking pictures. Visibility was good up to 20 meters +/-.

Because of the mini-typhoon hitting land on the south side of the island prohibited us from diving outside the reef in Blue Bay Marine Park, instead we dove in the lagoon. During my first dive at “Anemone Garden”, my iPhone case flooded. My second dive was a very shallow dive site with many snorkelers nearby. Thinking about my flooded phone distracted me from enjoying either dive.

Views from my Cottage, Mauritius

A mini-typhoon hit during my visit. The wind and rain would sporadically pounding on my glass door. The mini-typhoon made for less than idea conditions for scuba diving, but the views from my bedroom overlooking the Indian Ocean were very pleasant when it wasn’t raining and the sun did shine.

View while lying in bed!