Blue skies above and a gorgeous blue-green ocean on the horizon; a cool breeze in your hair and warm sunshine on your shoulders; flowing fields of sugarcane on either side and rocky green-topped mountains in the distance.
A day off from the regular group tours in Mauritius, and we’d decided to rent a scooter to take in the sights ourselves. That turned out to be the best decision we could have made, as the anti-cyclone that had been threatening all week held off and the unpredictable Mauritian winter gifted us with one golden, sun-kissed afternoon on the road.
Vikram, a third-generation Mauritian of Indian descent (who, like a large section of the island population, spoke Hindi and a smattering of Bhojpuri) had smilingly charted out a course for us along the Northern coast of the island on a torn-out piece of notepaper. He hadn’t bothered with little things such as street names; just a series of left and right turns on unmarked country roads that had made us city slickers ever so slightly nervous. But he’d promised us it’d be easy, and he was right.
Shiva’s smile
Like everything else on this relaxed, happy island (the story goes that even Lord Shiva doesn’t get angry in Mauritius; the 108-foot statue of him on the island depicts him smiling sweetly), finding our way ends up being a breeze.
We wind our way through the lush, tall sugarcane fields that are both Mauritius’ colonial heritage — Indians were brought to the islands as labourers by the British in the 19th Century to work on these fields — and its economic mainstay (apart from tourism), passing by the characteristically colourful Amman and Shiva temples along the way. And then quite suddenly, we’ve hit the coastal road, endless stretches of pristine beaches on our left, pale sands and crystal clear waters sparkling at us between the trees.
The Northern coastal strip consists of a series of little villages and towns, each with, we discover, elaborate and rather quaint Creole names (Creole is the main language spoken on the island, a legacy of its French colonisation in the 18th Century). The names scroll by on signboards as we ride on, Pointe aux Piments, Trou aux Biches, Mont Choisy, and finally the big one, Grand Baie…
And, each village is a study in laidback island life. It’s the middle of a weekday, but no one’s moving particularly fast. As we hit the public beaches one at a time, we see families picnicking, we see men in floppy hats perched on the rocks fishing, and little speedboats sleepily bobbing in the water, waiting to take tourists parasailing, water-skiing or on glass-bottom boat rides.
We’d already gone the water-sports route, so we hit the village streets, taking in the ‘roti chau’ (hot rotis with curry, a local favourite) and samoussa (samosa) stands, the sugarcane stalls with ‘pure sugarcane juice’ written in both Hindi and in French, the colourful clothing stores which sell both salwar kameezes and sarongs, and the convenience stores that alternatively blast the latest Bollywood hits and the incredibly catchy and high-energy local Sega music (and its reggae-influenced off-shoot Seggae).
At lunch, we have to pass on the local seafood specialities and take up knowing restaurateur Ravi on his kind offer: “You’re from India? It’ll be my honour to make you vegetarian food”, which ends up being a typically spicy Mauritian-Indian curry and rice. For coffee, we have to wake up a couple of waiters at a (literally) sleepy café by the beach at Mont Choisy, and we sit there and marvel at the sheer peacefulness of this island, where even the stray dogs look well-fed and good-natured, and where the ocean is almost always in a state of jade-green calm.
Colours of sunset
As the sun begins to set on our ride back, the coolness of winter seeps into the breeze and through our light jackets (the first rule of thumb during the Mauritian winter — never travel without a jacket and an umbrella). But we barely notice because of the gloriousness of the sunset on our right. The roads and the beaches are almost deserted by now — Mauritius all but shuts down by 5 p.m. and everyone is home cooking dinner — and nothing interrupts our view of the deepening pink-orange-and-gold skies over the shimmering ocean as we ride back along the coastal road.
And we’re back amidst the sugarcane fields when the sun finally sinks, disappearing behind the willowy green stalks that line both sides of the darkening country roads. It figures that on this uncomplicatedly happy island, a simple scooter ride could be quite blissful. No wonder, Lord Shiva always smiles in Mauritius.
MUST-SEE BEACHES
Northern coast: Pointe aux Piments, Trou aux Biches, Mont Choisy and Grand Baie.
(Water sports, shops, bars and restaurants.)
Eastern coast: Belle Mare and Palmar
(White sands, casuarina trees and lagoons.)
Western coast: Flic en Flac, Tamarin and Le Morne.
(Deep-sea fishing and surfing.)
