our music video from the trip to Mauritius. We asked some people to be part of the music video and were overwhelmed about their reactions.

They got happy and even happier by interacting with us. We proudly present: Dana & Wild – Bambambe (Schweinsgalopp On Mauritius)

But see for yourself…

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Duration: 2 hours

Cost: around 60 Euro (march 2014)

Options: for a small additional fee you can also make a longer trip to “Ile aux aigrettes” – we just passed the island by and didn’t go on the island.

Voilà, this is “Captain Nemo” and his speed boat:

So what does he do? He and his mate “Christophe Columbus” try their best to give you a special experience by offering some tours and special arrangements. And as far as we can say, they’re doing a good job!

Christophe is responsible for tickets & sales. So if you’d like to book a tour, he’s the man you should get in contact with. See below for his contact details.

Christophe is located in the Preskil Beach Resort, but if you contact him directly, he arranges to take you from nearly anywhere in the south-east of Mauritius.

We booked a tour from the hotel Preskil Beach Resort to Ile aux aigrettes, Ilot des deux cocos and a snorkeling experience in Blue Bay.

Ilot des deux cocos

This island was owned by a doctor. After his death the hotel company “Lux” rented the island and began to restore and maintain the buldings and the island in general (which is pretty small).
There are some guest houses on the island you can rent and if you’re a guest of a Lux hotel, you can go to the island. If you’re not, you’re only allowed to walk on the beach. We were no guests of Lux, but we were allowed to enter the island for taking some pictures for you:

(Click here to view “Ilot des deux cocos” on Google maps)

Blue bay

Blue Bay is directly located near “Ilot des deux cocos”. Captain Nemo told us that we are going to snorkel here. “Christophe Columbus” told us it will be beautiful there and he gave us his underwater camera (for free!). I asked him if he would lend his camera to every client and he said yes.
So if you don’t have an underwater camera, he will borrow you his. Very good service!
IMPORTANT: take an SD card with you to save pictures and films and you’re done.

Then we put on our fins and diving masks, went into the water and took the following pictures (we call the left one “Dana with fishes”):

WOW! Crystal clear water and an amazing sea life.

It’s an awesome feeling to be surrounded by so many fishes. This is definitely a place where you have to got to. Btw: on the 2nd picture you see an info table that’s located under water. It tells you something about the corals there. Also a very funny experience if you go down and there’s a table on the ground. I think water depth there is around 3 meters.

(Click here to view “Blue Bay” on Google maps)

Ile aux aigrettes

This little island is a natural reserve and we have not been on the island, we just passed it by. So we can’t tell you how beautiful it is on the island. We just heard that you have to pay an entry fee to get on the island which is around 1000 MUR (24 EUR) per person. Just ask “Christophe Columbus” if you’d like to enter the island, he will make a special package for you (including some pirate outfit if you like so ).

And much more…

Christophe Columbus knows a lot of people in the south-east region of Mauritius. So if you’d like to book a house on the beach there, he’s also the right man for you.

CONTACT AND BOOKING

Here are the contact details of Christophe Columbus, if you’d like to book your personal package with him or if you need an accomodation in the southern part of the island.
Feel free to get in contact with him:

Dream Time Ltd. – Le Blason

Christophe Columbus

Ave. Les Aigrettes

Blue Bay – Mauritius

Tel.: +230 771 7917 / 631 1699

e-mail: cjdreamtime@gmail.com

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We decided to go by taxi and to stop at “Ile Aux Cerfs”. The vegetation on the eastern part is beautiful, there are more foreign people on this side of the island. So if you’d like to experience the “real life” of Mauritius beside the tourism, go east!

We just composed a slideshow for you – you can find the corresponding text within the pictures:

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Price range: $$$ (143€ per person, per night)

Room and board: Prestige Cottage Room, half board

For the last days we are staying at Preskil Beach Resort, Mahebourg.  To be serious: we expected more compared to Merville Beach, because Preskil has 5 stars, while Merville only has 4.
In comparison to Merville Beach, the  staff at Preskil isn’t that welcoming, the room is smaller, the beach isn’t that nice,  wheather isn’t that good and also this hotel charges for many services extra.
Although it has some disadvantages we liked Preskil at the end of the day. We liked the hotel complex, the clear water of the sea and the water sport activities.

The hotel

The good
+ generelly the hotel complex is very nice and in the evening it’s romantic
+ the sea is very clear
+ buffet: food is fresh, excellent and a lot of choice; we like the variety of the breakfast buffet
+ A huge variety of watersport activities like water skiing, sailing, snorkeling, diving, etc. Best of all: nearly everything is free
+2 tennis courts (hard pitch) and rackets for free
+ excellent band in the evening
+ there is a bus station infront the hotel. The bus goes to Mahebourg (approx. 15 minutes)
+ On monday there is a market in Mahebourg (cheap cloth)

The not so good
– Preskil charges  extra for many services:
– exra charge for the internet (WLAN is just for free in the bar)
– extra charge for water (75 rupees per bottle)
– extra charge for tennis balls, better bring your own tennis balls! (4 tennis balls cost  510 rupees (12,50 EUR)) in the hotel
– when you want barbecue instead evening buffet it  costs extra 950 rupees (25 EUR)
– when you want to book the steakhouse instead of evening buffet it costs 750 rupees
– Compared to the west, the weather here in the east  isn’t that nice. In the  afternoon it’s always cloudy. Temperatures are approx.5 degrees lower
– room (prestige cottage) : as we entered in the first time , the room was smelling badly and it seemed very small. It  should be 42m2.  But we measured  (with a cord and a page in A4) only 32 m2. When you add the terrace you get 42 m2.
– service isn’t that friendly
– the evening buffet is somehow strange. When they have for example chinese buffet they also serve pizza.
– service is not so welcoming.

And again, here are some of our impressions:

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Price range: $$$$ (135€ per person, per night)

Room and board: 1 deluxe room, sea view, kingsize bed, half board

The hotel

The good:

• Nice welcome package: when we approached the room, we found a t-shirt on the bed, a bottle of champagne and a basket with fresh fruits on the table.
• Great view from our room: the sea in front of us and every day a beautiful sunset (see picture slideshow below)
• Sun in the afternoon / in the evening
• A huge variety of watersport activities like water skiing, sailing, snorkeling, diving, etc. Best of all: nearly everything is free
• Beautiful beach, clear water
• The staff was very friendly and helpful.
• One evening we booked dinner on the beach (additional fee around 700MUR / 17 EUR). When we were sitting on the beach, the manager of the hotel stopped by to ask us if we enjoy our stay.
• Very good service. One day our A/C didn’t work. We reported it before we went to dinner, after we came back into our room a few hours later, it was fixed.
• Daily bottle of water for free
• Wi-fi is free and available everywhere in the hotel
• The hotel has 3 stars, in our opinion that’s underrated, they deserve 4
• Our room was very bright, nice and clean, although there were some small damages (see pictures) on mirrors etc.
• The have a tennis court available for free use with floodlight. It’s a hard court in good condition. Tennis rackets and balls are free

The not so good:

• When we arrived at the beach at 11am, all beach loungers were taken. We just stayed there eitherway. If nobody was coming within 1 hour, we moved their towels and took the beach lounger. That’s conforming the hotel rules which say you have to free the lounger, if you leave it and don’t come back within 1 hour
• Food was ok, but nothing special. We booked half-board so we had a buffet each evening
• Our room was not 100% quiet: sometimes we heard our neighboors with their little children through the wall
• In general you can see that the hotel is not the newest one. Everything is clean and well maintained. For example the edges of mirror in the bathroom were broken (see pictures below)

Tipp

For an additional fee (700 MUR / 17 EUR) you can have dinner with service included directly on the beach. So you don’t eat from the buffet and the meals are served.

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Duration: Although the tour operator presents this sailing tour for 4 days/3 nights, it was just 2 ½ full days! The reason: we started our first day at 1pm and finished it on the fourth day at 8am.

Cost: 700 EUR in total per person (incl. all fees), fullboard. Drinks included only during meals.

Yesterday it was our last day at Lataniers Bleus. It rained the whole day! We’have been afraid, that this weather continues and we will get wet on our katamaran trip.

We had luck…

1st day – Port Louis, Pereybere

Today in the morning we went with our taxi driver to Port Louis – Caudal Waterfront, where the catamaran “Chaka” and it’s crew Janik & Christoph were waiting for us.
Another couple from Germany was also on board, so we have been 4 people in total (there is a maximum of 8 people possible on board beside the skippers). The manager of the agency welcomed us and gave us a small briefing for the trip. The journey will lead us to the northern part of Mauritius.

At 2pm we departed to our first goal Pereybere. For me it seems like a sleeping tiny village,  like the dogs kuddling on the beach  you can see on the picture.

After we had enjoyed swimming in the bay of Pereybere we went to the supermarket there.
TIP: this supermarket is big and has good prices.
We bought some cocos liqueur to make some cocktails on our journey. Just mix the “Chamarel cocos liqueur” with some pineapple juice and ice – voilà.
See also our tips for shopping.

In the evening we had a delicious dinner. Homemade and served by our two skippers. EXCELLENT!
Janik and Christoph are not only good skippers but also excellent cooks. The food is very delicious and one of the best during our stay on Mauritius so far.
We are talking into the night with our new friends from Germany while the sea is calm,  we watch the stars and have some of our self made cocktails.

2nd day – Cap Malheureux, Ilot Gabriel

I got up at 8am this morning. I didn’t sleep so well because of the loud noise of the boat engine. Everybody was waking up at a different time and we were curious how the breakfast will be. Again: it was delicious: fresh fruits, jam, toasted bread, eggs – whatever you need. Mmmmmh…
And here it was…the SUN, yeah! No rain any more. We had really luck to have this weather now after the rainy day before.

Then we moved on to our next destination: Cap Malheureux, famous for its beautiful church. I jumped in the sea and swam to the beach, while Wildcafe was working on our Mauritius song.

Next stop: Ilot Gabriel.
Although the waves were really rough there, our two skippers succeeded to get into the bay of Ilot Gabriel late in the afternoon after we’ve been sailing around 2 hours. They told us they’re going in later, because there are many tourists on the island during the day. So we had the island and the beach for us alone.

I was really curious about this island, because it should be one of the nicest spots here on Mauritius.. It’s awesome here, nice beach with nearly white sand and clear water as you can see on the pictures below.

We also went sknorkeling – but there weren’t so many fishes, it was somehow boring.

This was another beautiful day. It was amazing – outside of the bay the rough sea, and our ship wiggling in front of Ilot Gabriel. And the only people there: our sailing group –  it was calm and very relaxed. After we had a delicious dinner (again) and excellent wine we fell asleep very soon.

3rd day – Coin de Mire, Mont Choisy, Grand Baie

Today we went to Coin the Mire, were we did some snorkeling in the cristal clear water. There was a strong current and we had to be careful not to come very near to the cliffs. We stayed there about 1 ½ hours. You can see nothing special here. Wildcafe was diving on 9m depth and he found a big sea shell.

After that we went to Mont Choisy. The turquoise sea here was spectacular and we had really fun with our paddel boat. We also booked a speed ride.

WOW that was really great ride! We booked a second session, because it was so much fun. The price is 600 MUR (14 Euro) per person for the small round and if you would make it twice as long (what we did), it costs you 800 MUR (19 Euro) per person.

In the evening we went to our final destination Grand Baie.

You can read in travel guides, that Grand Baie is one of the the most lively spots of Mauritius. We expected discos, nightlife and much more…
Hmmm, now here is the truth – well there are some shops, a big entertainment- and shopping-center. The shops close at 6.30 and then it’s really quiet.
We stayed there overnight with a delicious dinner (did I mention that?) on board. On the next day we got up very early at 8am to hence to our next accomodation on Mauritius.

Here some final impressions of Grand Baie and our sailing crew:

The catamaran trip is really worth it. Although we have to mention that the offer is not clear enough, telling you that you get 4 days while it’s in total just 2 ½ full days! The trip starts in the mid of the first day and stops early in the morning of the last day. Although the delicious food and the nice crew compensated that a little bit.

A great service by the way: our next stay was the Merville Beach Resort. Our skippers just dropped us there directly on the hotel’s beach with our lugagge.  Can you imagine. This is really funny. The hotel crew was completely stunned, that we arrived directly on the beach.

Read more about this story in our article about the Mervile Beach Resort…

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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:

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The first night we went on the beach to a nearby restaurant called „The bay“, which is directly at the sea. It’s a special, stylish place, has good food and good cocktails. We really can recommend this place.

On the next day we had breakfast directly at the beach. This is cool, that’s what we were looking for. The breakfast at Lataniers Bleus is moderate. Some bread, butter, jam, tea, coffee. If you want to have more you can buy yourself things from the nearby supermarket or you can order  a delicious omlette, which costs 8 EUR.

The beach was “ok”, the sea was shallow. But we had the most beautiful sunsets every night.

We felt really comfortable and it was really familiar.  Josette, the landlady, is a lifely woman who herself names her as networker between the different cultures, staying at her place. So we were most of the time round a bout ten people living there. People  were from France, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Austria. It was a very familiar way to sit all together at the table, got punch and really delicious food.

We really can recommend “Les Lataniers Bleus” if you want an individual, familiar and authentic place to stay at Mauritius.

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White sand, turquoise-blue sea that’s what we  wanted. The agency told us – go to Maurice.

So we decided spontaneously to to the  “dream island”!
Starting on 16th of march we went on a 3 week journey to several hotels and accomodations on Mauritius and several days in Dubai.

We went by Emirates.  We really can recommend this airline. It has good food, good entertainment program with new movies. Wildcafe also got power to work with his laptop.

See below for some updates!

[UPDATE 2014-03-25]

We didn’t finish the blog entries for our stay here but we’ve just finished the song! It’s called “Dana & Wild – Schweinsgalopp On Mauritius”.

It’s very inspiring here, although it’s not as looking as we expected it to.
Currently our song “Dana & Wild – Schweinsgalopp On Mauritius” is in promotion through www.kingsofspins.com and we will post it here soon.
The video is also in the making and it will be very funny: we ask people here to jump for us. I think the video will be really funny.

Here’s the song, there will be also a club mix and a mix without the mc vocals!

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