Mauritius is famous for its stunning beaches and five star resorts. BUT there are SO MANY amazing outdoor activities to try here aside from sun bathing- and hiking in Mauritius is one of the most popular. Allow me to cut straight to the chase here guys, and say that hiking up Le Morne Brabant was one of the best experiences I had on this African island paradise. Le Morne mountain is the best viewpoint in Mauritius, offering stunning views of the coastline, including (if you hike up high enough) to an underwater waterfall in the Indian Ocean.
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Hiring a car in Port Louis
Because before you can go hiking in Mauritius, you need to reach the actual mountain.
After zero success with pre-booking a car for when we arrived in Port Louis (the joys of sketchy crew wifi), a trio of us walked through the early morning heat from the port. Destination: ABC Car Rental at Albion Docks. It was our job to obtain the vehicles, and it was the rest of the posse’s job to stock up on bottles of high quality H2O and sandwiches smuggled out of the crew mess. (In classic packed lunch style, I’d finished mine by 10am). To save us carrying all that in the crazy heat, we would drive back to the port and pick them all up, post-hiring. I say ‘we’, but I was really tagging along to the car hire office for moral support.
We managed to get the last two cars in the office (or so they said), and then split up. Justin in one car, and me and Lisa in the other one. ABC Car Rental is the closest car hire office to the port in Mauritius, which meant that we’d have optimum time for exploring.
Over an hour later, Lisa and me finally arrived back at the ship.
AWKWARD.
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You see, driving in Port Louis is actually rather confusing. Miss a turning off the main road through the city, and that’s it- you’re on the highway out of there. No going back. Which is exactly what Lisa and I did. There was barely any petrol in the tank and with no data on our phones in Mauritius we couldn’t even contact our pals to explain.
We got some very baffled looks from the locals as we attempted to squeeze the car through the back roads of a tiny village outside Port Louis. Eventually, a whole hour after Justin made it back, we arrived at the port. Our pals were surely on the brink of reporting us as missing persons.
What an absolute palaver.
Driving from Port Louis to Le Morne
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that road trips are one of the most fun things in life. The open road! The brilliant tunes! THE SNACKS! And a road trip in Mauritius is no exception; although travelling in convoy does add a challenge to a journey.
Did we (that’s me and two of the three Lisas), lose our fellow road-trippers in the other car within five minutes of leaving the port?
Why yes, yes we did.
Thankfully, Mauritius is kind of a small country- about the size of Surrey- so it’s very easily navigable. We headed South from Port Louis, crawling in traffic through tiny villages lined with colourful concrete houses, past temples adorned with bunting and stalls selling SIM cards and samosas. Heavy traffic is frequent in Mauritius, particularly when entering or exiting Port Louis. Not only are there lots of cars on the roads, but there isn’t a massive selection of roads to choose from- hence the completely gridlocked rush hours.
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Eventually the traffic thinned out and we were travelling past fields of long grass, against a backdrop of craggy green mountains in the centre of the island. I could already see from the car why hiking in Mauritius is so popular. I mean for goodness’ sake- this island is beautiful.
As we approached Le Morne we realised we were going to have a bit of a problem. We still had absolutely no idea where our fellow road trippers were. And as I’ve mentioned before, none of the seven of us had any phone service, so there was absolutely no way we could get in touch with each other. A local kite surfing school very kindly let us use their wifi to send our pals a message. But there wasn’t much point in that, anyway, when we knew they wouldn’t actually be able to receive it.
How did we manage before mobile phones!?
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We resorted to driving slowly up and down the length of the beach at Le Morne, in and out of car parks, in the hope that we’d miraculously spot the other car. After about fifteen minutes it began to feel rather hopeless.
But never fear, pals. Miracles really do happen!
Rounding a corner, we met our pals driving the opposite way, all of whom seemed pretty oblivious to our whooping with joy and waving like we were flagging down a plane on a desert island. Regardless of the lack of reaction, it was a magical moment, you guys! A truly magical moment!
Where is the entrance to Le Morne Brabant?
To get to the entrance to the hiking trail, head all the way along the road through Le Morne, past all the luxury hotels behind their ginormous wooden fences, and on to an extremely bumpy track which looks like it’s leading to a dead end.
It is leading to a dead end, but that dead end is also the unofficial car park for Le Morne Brabant.
We clambered out of the cars, overjoyed at the fact that firstly we’d managed to relocate each other without the help of our phones, and secondly that our current surroundings were downright incredible. And to top it all off, it was DECEMBER! December on a tropical island, what more could you wish for!?
We began walking around the edge of the shallow lagoon to one side of us- basically just in the direction of the mountain sitting grandly ahead. We didn’t spy much in the way of signage for the start of the Le Morne hiking trail, but we did come across several goat skulls nailed to a few trees.
(Which I actually weirdly appreciated.)
Eventually we reached the official entrance to Le Morne Brabant. There’s no charge for hiking Le Morne on your own, although you will be asked to sign your name on a list before you start the trek. I’m pretty sure this is to make sure they can send out a search party if you don’t come back by the end of the day, although really that’s just a wild little guess on my part. We filled our bottles from the water tank at the start of the trail, and then started up the gradual incline.
The incredible history of Le Morne Brabant
Le Morne is one of two UNESCO World Heritage sights in Mauritius, and this is because of the role the mountain has to play in the history of slavery on the island.
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Mauritius was home to slaves from Madagascar, India, South East Asia and the African mainland. Living a life enslaved is surely one of the worst ways to live, and over time more and more slaves in Mauritius managed to run away. These slaves- known as ‘maroons’- escaped to Le Morne Brabant, the slopes of which are often almost completely vertical, and created communities in caves around the summit of the mountain.
In fact Mauritius was home to so many escaped slaves that it became known as the ‘Maroon Republic.’
In 1835 slavery in Mauritius was abolished, and legend has it that when officials made their way to Le Morne to inform the maroons of their freedom, things took a turn for the worse- to put it extremely lightly. Believing that they were about to be recaptured and tortured, the slaves opted to avoid this by ending their own lives, throwing themselves from the cliffs of Le Morne.
Now. Pals. There’s no concrete evidence to confirm whether this story is factual- but still. Le Morne is a hugely important part of Mauritius’ history, and the history of slavery in this bizarre old world. So I reckon that’s Something Worth Remembering as you make your way up this Mauritian landmark extraordinaire.
So. What’s it like to go hiking in Mauritius?
Sweaty. It is really, really sweaty. In fact my time hiking in Mauritius is genuinely the sweatiest time of my entire life.
At Le Morne, there are also monkeys.
The first two thirds of the Le Morne Brabant hike are actually not that steep, and therefore despite the sweat levels this is a relatively easy hike. There are clear pathways through the trees which lead in a zig-zaggy fashion up the side of the mountain, cutting their way through forests dotted with the odd cactus. Every now and again we stopped to take in the view in a gap in the trees, looking out over the turquoise lagoon and a strip of white sand. In the distance far below us, a couple went for a beachfront ride on white horses; the only people we could spy from above.
Thanks to our later-than-planned start (which was fully down to mine and Lisa’s orienteering mishap), the sun was much higher in the sky than we would have liked. Which ensured that we each eeked out at least 12 more gallons of sweat per person than I ever would have thought possible. Luckily, the air cooled slightly as we got higher up the mountain and we could feel a slight breeze.
One of my pals ahead called out ‘A MONKEY! I SAW A MONKEY!’ which I thought was more likely to have been a wild dog until about twenty minutes later. We crouched down at the side of the path to glimpse a family of monkey-parents-and-babies playing in the undergrowth in the distance. Long tailed macaque monkeys were brought to Mauritius by Portuguese sailors about 400 years ago, and now there are an estimated 35,000 macaques living on the island.
On a side note- because it’s interesting and also pretty sad- Mauritius is the world’s second-biggest supplier of long-tailed macaques to the medical industry. Macaques can share infections with humans, so they’re often used in medical experiments, particularly in the areas of disease and neuroscience. In Mauritius, farmers began capturing wild macaques in order to start monkey farms to keep up with the demand.
After about an hour or so, drenched in sweat, we arrived at a plateau, from which point we could see across the forests and mountains of the southwest. It was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. All seven of us piled onto a tiny outcrop to get a good look at the astonishing view, but also for the challenge of attempting to take a selfie in that exact precariously balanced place.
The most awesome thing was the silence.
We must have seen no more than five other humans on our hike up Le Morne mountain, so the feeling of isolation on this rocky peninsula was strong but brilliant.
If you want to get to the top of Le Morne…you’re going to need a guide
Sticking to the plateau, we passed the sign pointing towards the top of the mountain, and warning against going any further.
Hiking in Mauritius is no mean feat, and you’re not allowed to climb to the top of Le Morne without a guide. From this point the mountain becomes very steep, and actual climbing (as opposed to hiking in a sweaty-but-leisurely fashion) is necessary. If you’re wanting to climb to the top of Le Morne and are staying in a hotel, most of them can arrange a guide for you, or you can check out a few independent guided tours beforehand.
And if you want to see that underwater waterfall– you’d actually have to get all the way to the top of Le Morne, and then have eagle eye vision. In fact the best way to see it is by air, with a helicopter ride.
The underwater waterfall of Mauritius is actually an optical illusion; Mauritius sits on a flat ocean shelf, which suddenly drops off into much much deeper water. The sea water isn’t actually cascading over the shelf (though it does have a bit of a trippy black hole appearance about it), but the silt and sand being pushed further down makes it look as though it is.
Hiking in Mauritius should always end at a beach
As proud as we were of our immense accomplishment, the sight of the vivid blue sea all the way at the bottom of the mountain, was both torture and a massive incentive to make it down even faster. (Although having said that, me and one of my pals were consistently WAY behind the others. I for one am a DAWDLER who gets extremely distracted taking photos and wondering at the world. Even when exhausted and starving hungry. I was grateful to have a fellow dawdler with me at that point.)
Instead of sticking to the very shallow lagoon right at the foot of the mountain, we got in the cars and drove the short distance to Le Morne beach. Outside luxury hotels like the LUX LeMorne and the St Regis, staff were finishing for the day, piling into minibuses waiting outside in their matching crisp uniforms. This little stretch of road through Le Morne was the first glimpse I’d seen of the luxury travel industry that Mauritius is so famous for; Mauritius is the richest nation in Africa, due in part to its growing financial sector, and partly to its booming tourism industry.
If you’re exploring more of the Indian Ocean Islands: Hiking Cap Noir, Réunion Island
And Le Morne is one of the most exclusive areas to stay in Mauritius. There are plenty of five star beachfront resorts to choose from here, on a stunning white sandy beach lined with palm trees. The outline of Le Morne mountain sitting craggily behind the beach is the perfect tropical backdrop, enough to convince anyone that Le Morne beach is paradise.
Splashing into the crystal clear water here, was one of the best feelings EVER. And that is why hiking in Mauritius should always end at the beach. (In fact, everything in Mauritius should end at the beach).
I also realised that I was clearly borderline hangry when we set up a picnic next to the beach- which had been significantly warmed in the boot of the car. I enjoyed every second of it.
Melted peanut butter and sweaty cheese never tasted so good. And I’m being deadly serious about that.
There are plenty of adventures to be had in this tropical island nation, and hiking in Mauritius is just one of them. It seems crazy to me that the most common image of Mauritius is just luxury hotels- AWESOME luxury hotels on paradise beaches- but not a lot else. There is SO MUCH to do here, especially in the way of outdoor activities.
Hiking up Le Morne was one of the most challenging but fun days out I had in Mauritius, and without a doubt- if you’re in Mauritius and think you can handle the sweat, you should definitely give it a go.
Want to hear about more intriguing islands and awesome adventures?
Logistical Statisticals
- It should take around an hour to drive from Port Louis to Le Morne, although delays are extremely common.
- In Mauritius, they drive on the left hand side of the road! Me and Lisa may have got lost, but Justin drove the wrong way up a one-way street, sooooo just saying.
- Kite surfing is extremely popular in Le Morne, thanks to the shallow water in the area. So if hiking in Mauritius isn’t your thing, maybe kite surfing will be. There are loads of kite surfing schools in Le Morne to choose from.
- Make sure you bring plenty of water if you’re going to hike Le Morne. Dehydration is not the one. (Also you should probably bring way more snacks than we did. I was a hangry MESS by the end.)
- Free parking is available at Le Morne beach and at the start of the hiking trail.
- We didn’t start climbing till after 11am, which is pretty late in the day to be climbing a mountain. Especially a mountain on a tropical island. Lots of guides start at around 5am to avoid the full glare of the sun, and they’re clearly onto something there.
- If you want to hike all the way to the top of Le Morne and back down, it normally takes around 3-4 hours.
Monkey hikes are the BEST kind of hikes!
Mauritius is so so beautiful! Would love to do this hike 🙂
I haven’t been to Mauritius yet, but got really inspired after reading your post, including your mishaps:)
Amazing! I know nothing about traveling all over the country, what a wonderful looking place to explore.