Duration: 8 hours

Tips: book a taxi for the whole day. If you need a driver who knows what he does, ask us!

Cost (march 2014): around 60 Euro for the taxi, 5 Euro per person entry fee for the national park, 9 Euro per person for the entry fee in the Chamarel distillery

Today we went on a small tour: we started from our accomodation “Les Lataniers Bleus”.
By taxi we went for a day trip to some cool places at Rivière Noire: the Rivère Noire nationalpark, where we had some fascinating views of the cascades, the 7 coloured earths, a rum tasting in a distillery and some nice views from the best beaches there and much more.

Black River nationalpark

in this nationalpark you can see some natural highlights like the cascades, the 7 coloured earth or some turtles making love ;=)

In addition there are some nice viewpoints where you have some nice views of the coast.

The Rhumerie de Chamarel

We also stopped at “The Rhumerie de Chamarel”, a modern rum factory, near the nationalpark. Included in the entry fee (350 MUR / 9 EUR per person) is a tasting of nearly all available rum products (except the really old ones).
We liked the rum, especially the cocos flavoured one, and also our guide, not only because of her friendliness also because of her name, “Melodie” (the german word for melody).

Buying rum

Oh and if you’d like to buy some rum, you can do it also there.The prices are good in the factory.

We compared the prices of rum to the ones in the supermarket (you can get Chamarel rum in nearly any supermarket on the island).
Prices vary a little on the island. We bought the cheapest rum in the “Winner’s supermarket” (address: coastal road, Pereybère). We bought the coconut liqueur (50cl) for 500 MUR / 12 EUR there.
In another supermarket (called “London”) we paid for the same coconut liqueur 620 MUR / 15 EUR.

We also bought the “Gold” rum (50cl) at “London” supermarket for 520 MUR / 12,50 EUR and the 70cl bottle on the airport for 800 MUR / 19 EUR.

Conclusion: if you want to buy rum, go to the “Winner’s” supermarket – the name says it all – he’s the winner ;=). Or buy it directly at “The Rhumerie de Chamarel”. I don’t remember the exact prices there, but I think they’re similar to the ones in “Winner’s” supermarket.

Gris Gris

On our way home we stopped at Gris Gris, a place in the south, with very rough sea.
Here are some pictures:

Souillac

We also went to Souillac, where we had lunch at the restaurant “Le Batelage”. The food was ok, although the portions are relatively small.We paid around 1.322 MUR (32 Euro) for 1 ice tea, 1 cocktail and 2 menus consisting of a plate with fried sea food and a salad we had together.

Le Morne

Afterwards we visited the Le Morne hotel and we got a guided tour from the friendly staff there. It’s a really nice hotel, well maintained with professional service. Here are some impressions:

Finally we went to the Le Morne beach to get into the water, which was clean, clear and warm there. These pictures were taken on Le Morne beach:

And here’s an overview of the whole tour: