Tamarin Bay is well known for its surfing conditions and was one of the most famous "sweet spots" of the hippy surfers in the late 60's and 70's.

The beach in Tamarin is not white due to the Tamarin river outlet in the lagoon but the bay has a very peculiar vibe. This place is magic, if not mystic, especially on “Big Days” when the whole village is on a buzz, when all have one thing in mind… surfing. On those days, Tamarin is like back to the “Flower Power” times that left several prints in Tamarin. (See our info on surfing in Mauritius).

Places to visit and Activities

The western region offers the widest possibilities of excursions, sports and activities; several are in open places and may not require guidance nor pre-organisation.


All the paths start (or end) from the parking area but the best way to visit the gorges is to be dropped at "Le Pétrin" (not far from Grand Bassin), walk down the paths and be collected in the parking area down the gorges. This would be a three hours walk as compared to almost five hours if you wish to walk all the way down to the coastal road.

This walk can be made on one's own or guided by excursionists, in groups or with dedicated guides.


Le Morne Brabant

Le Morne Brabant is an isolated rocky mountain and peninsula situated at the South-Western extremity of the island. The mountain itself is impressive, as it stands alone, shining in the skyline, or is it due to all the history and fabulous stories around it?

Le Morne Mountain is said to be the place where the runaway slaves went to hide in order to make sure that they won't be found and captured. The story does not tell how they got up there in the first place, but it is said that they had set a wooden bridge across to come up and down and that they were removing it once everyone had reached the hide at the summit.

When the slavery got finally abolished, an expedition was sent to meet them to break the news. Seeing that many people were coming their way, they thought the expedition was for the purpose of capturing them again and many jumped from the top, as they were not ready to be slaves again.

In addition to the mountain, the peninsula around it is like paradise in paradise. The lagoon is magic for its crystal clear waters lying at the foot of the imposing mountains of Le Morne and "Piton De La Riviere Noire" (highest peak of Mauritius).

One of the first holiday hotels of mauritius was built on this peninsula when the first regular passenger flights reached Mauritius in 1947.

Over the past ten years, the wild part of the peninsula saw the settling of several other hotels. The wilderness has gone, but the site remains exclusive and is now being re-discovered by the windsurfers and Kite Surfers as Le Morne is the best Kite surfing spot of Mauritius.

The Martello Towers
The Martello tower(s) are famous Worldwide as they have been built in several places along the English coast, in Canada,
Jamaica, Sri Lanka etc., Mauritius alone counts five of them. They were built by the British between 1810 and 1846 for defence purposes against their empirical enemies, the French navy.

The irony in their history lies in the fact that the British were inspired by a similar tower on the Mortella point of Corsica where only 38 men firing from the tower managed to keep away English invaders for many days. The name of Martello was given to them following some corruption of the name of the Corsican point.

The Martello tower of La Preuneuse has been restored in 1999 and is now accessible for guided visits.

The Casela Park proposes huge aviaries and thousands of colourful birds from different regions of the globe, a petting farm where children can discover the world of wild animals just to mention a few. Casela is annexed to the Yemen natural park, which can be visited in 4 X 4 trips, in a safari bus, on Quad bikes or by taking part in a climb with lifelines.

It is also possible to go hiking in one of the numerous private properties (with professional guides) as well as in the sole nature reserve of Mauritius, the "Black River Gorges".

There is also a Golf Course at the Paradis Hotel, and one coming up soon in the region of Flic-en-Flac.

On the sea-side; Yemaya Adventures proposes trips in sea kayaks along the river and in Tamarin Bay with some chances to watch dolphins that regularly come “for a swim” at hardly 1 Km off the beach. We would like to point-out that we do not support excursions proposing swims with dolphins or observation of dolphins in power boats. We believe sea kayaks and sailing boats are the only acceptable means to carry-out such an excursion.

...Speedboat trips or catamaran trips within the lagoon.

The West coast counts several wonderful scuba diving sites and good conditions for surfing, windsurfing and of course, Kitesurfing.