Mauritius Part 5 - Sands resort and Tamarind bay

We stayed at the resort on the last part of the trip.  

We stayed at Sands resort at Flic en Flac. 

Overlooking the Tamarind bay from the infinity pool.

I have to say the beach at la morne is nicer though. 

There are more seaweed and the water is less clear.  

They have a watersport centre where its' free to hire pedal board/ kayak/ snorkelling equipment etc. 

You can even do waterski/wakeboard for free.   

We joined the dolphin watch boat trip.  

There were so many dolphins.  I have never seen so many dolphins!  Must be more than a hundred.  

Apparently they come  nearly everyday for food  - depending on the weather.  

I didn't like some of the boat trip company out there though - rather than observing from far, they drive into the dolphins - so that people can jump into the water and "swim with the dolphins" 

We went for the all inclusive option.  

The food at the breakfast and evening buffet is very good.  

Lots of options and things perfectly cooked.  

I didn't have high expectation - was pleasantly surprised. 

With option like smoked guinea fowl breast at the meat section, tataki beef at the salad bar, fish fried to order etc.  

However, lunch at the peppercorn restaurant was disappointing.  

We might just be unlucky - with fish consistently overcooked.  

Mauritius Part 4 - La Route du The (Bois Cheri, Saint Aubin) and Grand bassin

We drove south from the black river area... drove along the coast to get to St aubin
The scenary along the coast was amazing

We wanted to visit both Saint Aubin and Bois Cheri of the la route du the.
(We skipped the sugar cane museum because we have seen it all in Cuba...)
The website stated that they open every day 7 days a week including public holiday.
But when we arrived there on Christmas day (After driving 1h 30 from the guesthouse), we were told by the security that it was closed!!! rahhh...

We had to try again on boxing day..
It ruined our whole plan though :( we didn't have time to go to cavela safari park ..
Oh well...

Anyway, we got there at the end.
There wete quite a lot to see there

A little zoo with  chickens, monkeys, peacocks, deer, goat etc

They played a video of how vanilla is grown.(l
(the video was prob made 20 years ago...)
Then we walked around the plantation..
Its not big industrial scale..
So they only make enough for locals (and tourists)

Its the climbing archid around the pillar...

We bought a few ...  ( and we used it to make creme brulee last week ... omg.. it was SOOO GOOOOD)


They have a little herb garden... doesn't have much though

They have converted the colonial house into a restaurant.

We wanted to try their creme brulee - coz it uses the vanilla grown on site.
BUT they ran out :(
so we just had a lemon sorbet.. which was also very nice.
The food being served to other tables looked good though.
I would recommend having lunch there if you have time. 
We wanted to move onto bois cheri asap..as we were hoping to visit the factory...so we just had a quick snack/drinks there.

Rum distillery
We've seen all these in Havana.. so it wasn't overly exciting for us.
Of course it involved lots of tasting at the end of the tour....
We didnt buy any... It was alright....

 

We then went to the Bois Cheri factory. 

 

We wanted to visit the factory but they were finishing off by the time we got there. 

I would advise going as early as possible if you want to see some action at the factory.. 

We asked about their offical operation hours but they said it varies -- depending on the demand..  

So we opt for the museum + tea tasting instead... 

The museum was interesting - showed how tea is made... some old vintage machines.

Learnt the difference in the production between green tea/ oolong tea / black tea...

 

Farm

The tea tasting is done at the top of the hill - a 10ish 15 minute walk? from the factory
Most people drives up..
But it was a nice pleasant walk.. if the weather is nice, why not?

 

We had lunch at the restaurant there. 
Although the menu was EXACTLY the same as the restaurant at St Aubin, the service wasn't as good  there at Bois Cheri..
Maybe we went at the wrong time, they were super busy.
We had to wait for a good 10 minutes before we were served. 

 

Bread served with butter, chilli sauce and TEA CHUTNEY! 

The tea chutney was interesting.. 

It was nice.. garlicy and it does go well with bread

but I don't feel the tea actually add much to the flavour.. 

 

For thw starter I had seafood gratin and keith had calarmari.

For the main, I had their signature dish - Vanilla chicken

It has a nice fragrant

Keith ordered fish vindaye - which is a Mauritian specialty.
It was very nice.  Apparently they add mustard instead of coconut cream to the curry paste. 

We ordered creme brulee made with saint aubin's vanilla
but it was disappointing..
Where is my crusty sugar top?!
It looks like they have flamed the top early in the morning and just put it in the fridge afterwards..
so it was all soft :(

Tea tasting
The service is slow again ..
But at least we can enjoy the view while waiting ...

It was really strange - it rained on our left hand side while it was clear on our right..
Didnt manage to capture it in the photos..

We love the vanila and Rooboi tea.
The tea wasnt extraordinary in terms of quality..



We then walked around

Grand Bassin was close by... so we stopped by

Mauritius Road Trip Part 3 - Le Morne

We went to quite a few diff beach while we were there ...
At first - our plan was to go to a different beach everyday..
but we just fell in love with the beach at Le Morne and kept on going back
 
The great thing about the beach in Mauritius is that - they are all public!
Even if the beach is right by an exclusive resort, you can just lie out your towel without feeling guilty.. haha
There are some public car parks in between hotels.  People just park there and walk along the coast and find a rest spot.

Found this website and it was really helpful..
http://www.discovermauritiusisland.com/discover/beaches/le-morne/

We started with Le Morne 3 - passed the "one eye" and Riu resort.
Think there is a kite school there.





As suggested, it is super windly and would probably be perfect for wind/kite surfers




We then went to Le Morne 2 by luxe hotel / St regis
This was our favourite - clear water.. not too busy

We did think about doing a bit of hiking...
but.... we decided to just lie around at the end