Heading South - Last Day in Mauritius

For our last day in Mauritius, we drove to the southern tip of the island which is mostly undeveloped. Mauritius was formed by a volcano long ago and now all that is left is the caldera that is covered in green. It was a bit disappointing, really just a giant hole in the ground, oh well.. we saw it!

The Mauritian flag is just as colorful as the island, but like most, this flag is symbolic. The red represents the bloodshed at the time of slavery and colonization, blue is for the Indian Ocean, yellow is for the light of independence shining over the island and the golden sunshine, and lastly the green represents the island's lush vegetation. After a few days on the island I understood why each of those colors were chosen. 

Across the street from the caldera viewpoint there was a great view of some of Mauritius's pointy peaks.

Next stop was a waterfall which was recommended by the hotel and was conveniently preprogramed in our  car's navigation.

At one point the navigation tells us NOT to follow the road signs to the falls and to continue with their directions.. I guess I can blame it on the navigation. After driving on an unpaved road through a long stretch of sugar cane fields, we finally arrived.

The waterfalls were also a bit of a let down too. A local fruit seller at the falls told us we had to cross the river to get to the best vantage point under the falls. No thanks! I was not planning on slipping on wet rocks today... back on the road I guess.

The last stop I had patience for was some "colored earth" place I read about. Luckily shortly after getting back on the main road we saw a sign for it. It turned out to be a adventure park with zip-lining and ATVs. This was not what we were looking for, but the price was so reasonable we decided why not, lets do some ATV-ing and oh yeah they had some "colored earth" too.

Before getting started we went to the onsite cafe to have some lunch. I had the local shrimp in cream sauce and Melissa had the local shrimp and chicken curry. This was hands down the best meal we had in Mauritius!

After a brief introduction on the vehicle, we were off to our first waterfall. We ended up seeing 3 which made up for our less than positive waterfall experience earlier that day.

They also had some large tortoises. Next thing we know, our guide was asking us if we wanted to get in the pen with them.. He didn't have to ask me twice. These guys were HUGE.

The last site was a bit further so we got to do a bit of high speed offroading and I fully took advantage at every opportunity to floor it and fishtail around corners!

We finally arrived at what brought us to the park in the first place.. the multi colored earth. He said it was not dyed, but rather the natural colors from the decomposition of the volcanic rock and the minerals found in them... Whatever, it looks pretty cool!

When I asked if they did anything to the soil, he said all they did was remove all the vegetation and let the rain water erosion do its work.

The extended tour went to the top of the mountain, so we got some great views from up there. 

There were a few more smaller waterfalls and view point near the top of the mountain. When we got to the view point there was a few dozen deer, but they were really shy and didn't wait around for a photo... 

One more waterfall to end the day, I don't mind if I do. 

We just happened to stumble across that adventure park and we were glad we did, what a great afternoon! After the long drive back to the hotel I tried a local beer and we enjoyed our last Mauritian sunset. Beautiful island with so much to offer, we definitely could have spent more time here.