If you stay in the Creole village of Chamarel, Mauritius will reveal itself not only as the destination for expensive beach hotel patrons, but also as a place to make quite a few excellent mountain hikes with impressive views.

As the first hike we made the usual route from the Gorges Viewpoint to the top of Piton de la Petite Rivière Noire (828m) in the Black River Gorges National Park.

The view from Piton de la Petite Rivière Noire to the south.

A larger area of mountain rainforest north of the village of Chamarel (center) is a designated nature reserve, The Black River Gorges National Park. The Creole village itself is a nice small tourist destination, with (among other) waterfalls, Seven Coloured Earth park and an excellent Rhumerie. To the right on the picture, a characteristic Le Morne Bramant mountain towers above the light-blue lagoons of southwestern shores.

The second hike led as to the famous Le Morne Brabant mountain, where a view point with a cross below the main peak can be climbed in a hike directly from the beach requiring some scrambling, but easy and safe, in the higher part of the route.

The view from Le Morne Brabant Cross to the south

The view from the cross below the main summit of the famous Le Morne Brabant mountain, an UNESCO heritage site commemorating this place as a refugee for runaway slaves. The lagoon below stretching between almost the Maconde Point (not seen) to the left and the rectangular forrested Le Morne peninsula to the right is ideal for surf-kiting. In front of the peninsula a famous break in the reef appears featuring a kind of underwater waterfall, popular among scuba divers.

The village of Chamarel centered on the OpenStreetMap.