The island of Mauritius is a tiny country, which every year becomes more popular as a place to relax. They go here to soak up the white sand on the shores of the Indian Ocean, but for so many tourists - this is the place to get the maximum of emotions from diving and underwater fishing. In addition, on the island of Mauritius, many natural, historical and other attractions, which in any case diversify your beach leisure.
The lands of Sharamel - seven-colored sands
One of the most striking and unusual sights of Mauritius are the lands of Sharamel . This is a very strange and unusual geological phenomenon, manifested in the dunes of the south-west of the island in the area of the homonymous village. Enchanting landscapes are created naturally: in the process of erosion, the volcanic rocks cooled at different temperatures and formed bizarre multicolored dunes. There is no such place anywhere else in the world.
Neither the wind nor the rain does not change the color patterns and do not mix the clear boundaries of the colors, but among them there are seven: red, yellow, brown, green, blue, purple and purple. This place is often called the Park of Seven Colors. The most beautiful time of admiration is sunrise or sunset, when all sorts of shadows run across the bright colors of the earth. Attack and walk on the colored earth is strictly forbidden, its territory is all fenced, and along the perimeter several successful observation platforms are built.
Touching the ground and taking out sands with you is also prohibited, but you can buy a small flask with colored sand in souvenir shops. Interestingly, even after shaking, the sand still settles with clear boundaries of colors.
Geologists from many countries still can not solve the phenomenon of these lands, and if the color is determined by the high content of certain elements, then the question of why the sands never mix with each other remains open today.
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The Pamplemus Botanical Garden
It is impossible to rest in Mauritius and not to visit the third oldest botanical garden in the world - Pamplemus . Initially, these were just ordinary vegetable gardens, the vegetables from which were delivered directly to the governor's table.
The history of the garden begins in 1770, when the one-armed Frenchman Pierre Puavro, a botanist by education, being an intendant of Mauritius, decided to collect in one place all the spicy plants of the island. Modern thickets are also fragrant: tea and Chinese camphor, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, magnolia and hibiscus saturate the air with unique flavors.
Followers of the quartermaster continued his work, significantly expanding the flora of the garden with laurel and breadfruit trees and araucaria. The entrance to the garden begins with beautiful forged gates with columns and coats of arms, which in turn attract a crowned lion and unicorn.
The Pamplemus Botanical Garden is spread over an area of 25 hectares, today it grows about 500 plant species, of which 80 species are palm trees. The most interesting of them - fan, cabbage, "elephant leg" and a bottle palm. It is interesting that there is a palm tree that blooms for life only once in 40-60 years, sharply throwing up six meters up a large inflorescence of millions of small flowers. Such flowering is very draining palm trees, and sometimes they die.
The park is also rich in aquatic plants: lilies, water lilies, lotuses. One of the attractions of the garden is the water lily "Amazon Victoria". She has very strong and huge leaves, which grow to 2 meters in diameter and can withstand weight up to 50 kg.
In 1988, the park was named after Sir Sivusagur Ramgoolam.
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La Vanilla Nature Reserve
Perhaps the best place on the southern coast of Mauritius, which we recommend to visit every tourist is the La Vanilla reserve . It was established in 1985 to reproduce the crocodiles of Madagascar, but eventually it turned into a real zoo.
In addition to two thousand toothy crocodiles, the main attraction of the reserve are giant tortoises. They freely walk around the reserve, they can be petted or even sit on a shell for a good photo. But here live caimans, iguanas, monkeys, wild boars, geckos, freshwater and star turtles of Madagascar, eels and cat sharks, besides this order of 20 thousand insects and butterflies from all over the world.
The park is inhabited not only by adults, but also by their young. The territory of the reserve of La Vanilla is decorated with groves of giant bamboo, banana trees and palm trees. For children there is a special playground, which also wander giant turtles. The local restaurant has a separate menu of crocodile meat, which is extremely rare to try somewhere else.
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Lake Gran Basen
The southeastern part of the island is adorned by Lake Gran Bagen (Ganga Talao) , it is located in a forest in the mountains at an altitude of 550 meters above sea level. For the Hindus, this is a sacred lake: according to legend, when the god Shiva and his wife Parvati strolled along the beautiful places of the planet, he walked to these places and accidentally dropped a few drops of the sacred river Ganges into the crater of the volcano. So the sacred lake was formed.
The shore of the lake is decorated with temples and sacrificial places. Near the shore of the lake is the highest statue of Shiva on the island - 33 meters. Near the mountain is the temple of the god Hanuman, with it a picturesque view of Mauritius, when the lake brightens from the fogs.
In February-March, the annual Great Night of Shiva-MahaShivatarti takes place, when more than half of the entire population of the island go on foot to the holy place for prayers and reverence of Shiva. At this time, believers are very festively dressed, bear fruit and flowers, sing songs.
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Volcano Trou-o-Surfs
Lake Gran Basen is not the only crater lake in Mauritius. Mauritius is in the zone of tectonic movement. There were many volcanoes here, most of them have long since died out. Near the town of Kurepipe is the extinct volcano of Trou-o-Surfs - this is a very beautiful place, covered with a solid carpet of wood. The crater of a volcano with a diameter of 200 meters and a depth of 85 meters, it also formed a natural beautiful lake.
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Kasela Park
In Mauritius, near Mount Rampar on the west coast, there is a cozy private park - Kasela Park . It is inhabited by exotic animals, about 140 species, and about 2500 thousand species of birds. The decoration of the famous park is a pink dove, which lives only on the island of Mauritius, it is considered a distant relative of the extinct bird dodo. At the end of the twentieth century, the pink beauty was on the verge of extinction, today the species is considered to be saved: thanks to the efforts of the park's staff, the species has been increased to 250 individuals of these beautiful birds.
In addition to birds, lions, leopards and cheetahs, lemurs and various monkeys, gazelles and zebras, giant tortoises and many other animals live in the park. On the territory of the reserve Kasela spend as walking tours , and on machines such as "Safari". Tourists are given the opportunity to pat under the supervision of employees of the park of hand cheetahs and lions.
In the territory of the Park Kasela there are several water reservoirs, where many kinds of fish are bred. Visitors are allowed to fish on the body. As an extreme, you will be offered riding on quad bikes, hiking in the mountains or walking along a rope bridge.
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