The greenery, pure air, blue water beaches and beautiful sky on the South – East coast of the African continent are just a few ways to describe the lovely island of Mauritius.
My Phenomenal experience on the island nation in the Indian Ocean started on the 11th of February 2016 when my partner and I decided to go on a 3 days weekend getaway to explore just before we officially tie the knot.
The scenery was extraordinary as we landed at the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport Mauritius, got through passport control and immigration with ease as Nigerian Citizens are granted free 14days tourist visa on arrival, and got into an airport taxi, to take us directly to Flic- en- flac where our hotel, Anelia Resort and Spa was located.
Shich, the taxi driver took my partner and I on a mini tour as we drove through the capital city of Port Louise till we arrived at our destination. He took time showing us the different mountains, volcanoes, sugar cane plantation farms, Cascavella shopping mall and the different beaches. The beautiful city is very sparsely populated with fewer than 1.3 million people.
I still can’t get over the mind blowing view of nature at its finest from the balcony of my hotel room, walking out straight from my bedroom to the pure white sandy beach shores.
My visit to the Casela nature and leisure park in Henrietta, Vacoas-Phoenix, Mauritius was more than awesome. The park is massive and we spent the whole day, which went by very quickly, getting really close to a lot of the animals. I guess this is the reason why they say ‘time flies when you’re having fun’. The highlight of my adventurous visit to Casela was the interaction with the lions in nicely controlled wild life scenery. Trust me when I say I had an incredible experience with the ‘big cats’.
Other very interesting activities in the park include the zip line adventures, Quad/mud biking experience, farm animal petting, aviary walk through, where you get to see beautiful birds from all around the world in their different colours singing melodious tunes into your ears. Nature is indeed beautiful.
Unfortunately for us, the sea tide was high on the date we booked to go on the glass boat cruise so we could not experience nature’s beauty under water even though we had been told amazing stories about how the bottom of the boat was see-through and so we would be able to see the star fishes, jelly fishes, oysters and other sea creatures.
We were adventurous enough to experiment with the tasty Mauritian food which was mainly sea food. Well, I guess that’s expected of a country surrounded by water. The sardine stew, calamari in tomato sauce, large oysters, prawns and roasted fish all tasted delicious as we sat under the sunset on the beach to have dinner while cultural dancers entertained the hotel guests.
Lest I forget, the people of Mauritius are very courteous and friendly people, always willing to help. Their main language is French; however, most of them also speak fluent English so language was not much of a barrier.
My unforgettable experience was well worth every penny spent, needless to say Mauritius is a must visit tourist destination for those who love to bask in the awesomeness of nature’s beauty.
Jumoke Akiyode
