The Wild South Coast

Everything you know about the water here changes at Souillac. For the rest of the island the reef sits offshore and takes the ocean apart before it arrives, which is why the lagoons are flat and warm and the colour they are. On the south coast the reef simply stops. What arrives at the cliffs at Gris Gris has come the whole way from the Southern Ocean without meeting anything, and for the first time all week, the sea is loud.

You stand on a headland of cropped grass above black rock and watch it happen. A little further along is La Roche qui Pleure, the rock that cries, where the swell forces up through the basalt and runs back down the face of it. People see a profile in the stone. Whether you do or not, you will stay longer than you meant to.

Inland from there the south is green and worked and unhurried: cane to the horizon, small towns, roads that were laid out for something other than cars. Rochester Falls drops over squared basalt columns that look quarried and are not, and local boys jump off them for an audience. There are beaches down here too, the sheltered ones at Riambel and around the bay, but the south is not really where you swim.

Up in the highlands the road ends at Grand Bassin, a lake in an old crater, ringed by temples and by statues you can see from a long way off. It is the most important Hindu pilgrimage site on the island, and around Maha Shivaratri the roads fill with people walking to it from every corner of Mauritius. On an ordinary day it is quiet, cool and often in cloud, and it will tell you more about this country than any beach will.

It is a full day with a driver, and it goes naturally with the tea route or a morning at Ile aux Aigrettes at the eastern end.

Good to know

• Do not swim at Gris Gris. The signs are there for a reason and the sea has no reef in front of it.
• Grand Bassin is a working place of worship: cover shoulders and knees, take shoes off where asked, and ask before photographing anyone.
• The highlands are cooler and get more rain than the coast. A layer and something waterproof, even on a bright morning.
• A driver beats self-drive here. The roads are narrow and the stops are strung out, and you will see more from the passenger seat.
• Rates, entry fees where they apply and opening times are set by suppliers and local authorities. We confirm the day’s arrangements in writing before you travel.