Introduction

Many visitors to Mauritius are fortunate enough to enjoy the breathtaking landscape, beaches and scenery of Mauritius. All too often, most tourists spend most of their time around the hotel pool or the beach, and they will usually retain the services of a tour guide to be shown around the island including the main viewpoints and places of interest.

Unfortunately, this often means that tourists will be taken to the same places, evidenced by the similarity of photos published on various Photo sharing websites, and those having made the very long journey to the island will be none the wiser about the many hidden gems found through the cane fields and forests of the island.

Having lived on the Island until 1990, I was blissfully unaware of the hiking opportunities available on the island until I returned for a brief 2 week holiday in 2006. I had the opportunity to climb Le Pouce mountain sucessfully, and an abortive attempt at climbing Pieter Both mountain. Sometime later, I was fortunate enough to discover through fellow flickr user Ploughman, that a - now out of print - book entitled Mountains of Mauritius, a climber's guide, by Robert V. R. Marsh, had been published in the late 1970's, detailing various routes to most of the mountains in Mauritius.

I eventually managed to get hold of a copy of the book, and it was instrumental in helping me discover some of the most beautiful views from the various mountain tops of Mauritius.

Although Marsh's -increasingly difficult to locate- book is clearly useful in most places, it is somewhat outdated in others due to the rapid developments in Mauritius since the 70's. And while it is still a valuable reference to any aspiring Mauritian mountain climber, some of the maps can be difficult to interpret in places, leading to a lot of 'retracing of steps' and lost time.

Why the GPS?

Technological developments have meant that relatively inexpensive GPS devices have come onto the market making hiking even easier and safer. There is no longer a need to rely on map reading and compass directions to enjoy a hiking route. This does not mean that a GPS is an essential requirement, but it should completely simplify a hobby which is often impeded by the realities of the Mauritian undergrowth, especially for those with limited time available on the island when on a holiday.

In order to help others find their way up some of the mountains of Mauritius, and given the level of interest in hiking around Mauritius, I have decided to publish my GPS track logs with descriptions of the routes, to hopefully encourage others to attempt these routes which are well worth discovering.

So whatever your level of hiking proficiency, there is bound to be a route suitable for you to enjoy.