QUATRE BORNES

While you will encounter a number of cultures during your stay in Mauritius, it is safe to say that Quatre Bornes has the energy and the charm of the French. In fact, the city name "Quatre Bornes" is French and translates roughly to "four boundary stones."

The locals have another name for this quaint marketing town - Ville de Fleurs or Town of Flowers. Quatre Bornes is jus ten miles south of Port Louis.

A Little Local History

Settlers from France found their way to what is now Quatre Bornes in the 1720s and slowly began developing the forested area which sits at the base of a mountain. In the early 1800s, the area was turned over to British rule. The development of a railway line resulted in faster growth than many other places.

However, it wasn’t until the 1890s that Quatre Bornes was declared an official village. Villagers often refer to themselves as Quatrobornians. Sugar cane has long been an important cash crop in the area and in fact, played an indirect part in the town’s name. Quatre Bornes was named for four actual boundary stones, each one located at four individual large sugar plantations, mapping out the village limits. Today, the town continues to grow thanks to various attractions, nature activities and therobust market place.

The Market Place … The Place for Shopping and Deals

Quatre Bornes has some excellent shopping opportunities with several malls and centres with quality local goods. You will discover a great flower market as well as an extensive fruit market with plenty of options to suit your tastes. The many shopkeepers with stalls in the general marketplace make for a lively environment where you can find a number of goods such as clothing, fabrics, food, and native handicrafts and jewellery. The clothing marketplac , open on Thursdays and Sundays, is the main shopping draw, not only for tourists but also for the locals. You’ll find some superior quality clothing, textiles and other garments, including designer names, at great prices. Energy and activity bustles throughout Quatre Bornes which is often as busy as nearby Port Louis.

Gambling Fun

The night activities Quatre Bornes has to offer are dining and dancing. However, if you are in the mood for the slot machines, roulette or card games, you can satisfy your gambling fever with a visit to a local casino called Ti Vegas. Ti Vegas is the most famous casino on the island of Mauritius. It was designed and built with the latest technology in gambling, so you can bet that the slot machines are top of the line in quality. Play roulette or chance the dice with the ancient Chinese game called Sic Bo. Of course, there is blackjack and everyone’s favourite, Texas Hold’em.

Festival for Local Colour

If you’re ever here in January or February, you’d have an opportunity to witness the colourful festival called Cavadee. Indian temples at the base of the Corps de Garde Mountain host this Hindu celebration and the local Tamils celebrate for days in honour of the God Muruga. The Tamils are fervent in their worship of Muruga. This is very apparent as during the festival, they fast, parade to the temples carrying a cavadee ( a type of wooden yoke), and even pierce their bodies with skewers and needles.

Nature Lovers Have Options

Surrounded by forested area as well as its location at the base of Corps de Garde,
Quatre Bornes has a number of nature activities to try. Exploring nature trails observing the local flora and fauna is quite fun. Hiking and mountain climbing on the Corps de Garde is quite rewarding too, as the highest point is about 720 metres. The Corps de Garde Mountain resembles a sentry man lying down, thus the mountain’s name translation “body of soldier.” This hulking mountain has a basaltic rock face and the sunrise is quite spectacular from it. If you decide to explore the mountain on your own, be prepared for quite a trek. It is best if you seek out a guided tour as a tour professional will know the best and safest trails to follow.

Get an Energy Buzz

Quatre Bornes may not have the beaches other areas do but it certainly has the lively energy of a market town. You will have a lot of fun meandering through the streets, popping into the shops and discovering great restaurants and nightlife. Shopping, gambling, and nature activities – the area covers something for just about anyone.

© Mauritius in your hands - Islandinfo. All rights reserved

LAMBIC BEER SHOP

It can be sour or sweet, creamy or crisp, hazy, tangy, fruity or even flowery. This high and mighty liquor (in Julius Caesar’s words) has delighted millions if people across centuries and continents. Indeed, the art of brewing is as old as civilization. It is said that, some 6000 years ago, the Sumerians accidentally discovered the fermentation process, when a piece of bread became wet and began to ferment to form an inebriating pulp. This pulp was then used to make beer, the “divine drink” believed to be a gift of the gods.

Today, many types of beer exist and there are hundreds of styles to choose from. Each country produces its own special types of beer, but you don’t have to travel around the world to discover these: a wide variety of this exhilarating drink is available right here in Mauritius, at Lambic gastro- pub and beer shop.

Lambic, situated in the heart of Port-Louis, is a beer shop, restaurant, café and lounge combined. The concept developed as a result of Oscar Olsen’s passion for beer. His interest in the brewing process, the ingredients and flavours was aroused during his numerous trips around the world: he visited pubs, breweries, famous beer bars and attended diverse beer festivals to deepen his knowledge and experience of the drink. As an avid beer hunter, he is always on the lookout for new tastes and aromas. His ultimate aim is to share his blind love for beer with Mauritians and foreigners.

The name of the place reflects the owner’s quest for what is exceptional: Lambic is a distinctive type of beer which is produced by exposure to wild yeasts (as opposed to cultivated ones). Lambic is special in many ways. The setting comprises a carefully restored colonial house which promotes local craftsmanshipand allows guests to appreciate the vestiges of a distinct colonial past. . Second hand material from old structures has been used for renovation and the architecture has been preserved. Indeed, the ancient stone walls, the wooden furniture, the antique lightings,the shuttered windows and large porch immerse guests in a unique atmosphere that embodies the charm and cheerfulness of a bygone era. And as they sip the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage, they get the instant feeling of being brought back in time.

Comfortably seated in the lounge and lulled by smooth jazz in the background, one may choose between a vast array of beer from Mauritius, England, Germany, Belgium, America, Australia and France amongst others, each one carefully selected for your drinking pleasure. Not less than 130 different types of imported beer are available and new ones are constantly being introduced.

Around 4400 bottles are present in the shop, and our beer specialist ensures that each beer is stored at the specific temperature required. Lambic is especially proud of the specialty beers it proposes. It represents, in exclusivity, several brands and has been the first one to introduce a beer menu in a Mauritian restaurant. One may enjoy a Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (a smoked beer whose flavor is imparted by using malted barley dried over an open flame) or Malheur 10 (a refermented, gold coloured beer with a rich honey-like texture).

Oscar claims not to have a favourite, but he did reveal a penchant for Kriek - a style of Belgian beer (made by fermenting Lambic with sour cherries) which would definitely awaken your senses. The drinks menu also includes 46 whiskies and some 43 teas from Sri Lanka.

The restaurant is another high point at Lambic. The cooks emphasize creativity and the menu reflects a fusion of Mauritian and European cuisine. In the morning one may appreciate a traditional English breakfast, while at lunch and dinner time a range of appetizing specialties are available:

deer cooked with Belgian St. Bernardus abbey beer, wild boar roasted with red fruits beer (Red Bocq) as well as fish and mussels with wheat beer (Hoegaarden). Moreover, the salads proudly sport 5 varieties of local lettuces and vegetarian dishes have recently been added to the menu. Above all, one cannot leave without tasting Lambic’s chocolate barrel with raspberry beer mou-sse for dessert.

Guests may also savour their meals outside under the centenary trees in the garden. Furthermore, two private rooms and a conference room are available for exhibitions, trainings, business lunches, night functions, meetings or product launches. These rooms are air conditioned and equipped with an Internet connection and a projector.

Lambic is, in Oscar Olsen’s words, designed “to bring to people flavours they never knew existed, revive memories from overseas studies or trips and bring expatriates a little closer to home”. It is a peaceful retreat for those who wish to unwind and enjoy a real beer experience with family or friends after a hard day’s work. Oscar’s dream would be fulfilled if we were to share his joy and passion for this age-old drink.

Lambic - 4, St Georges Street, Port Louis

© Mauritius in your hands - Islandinfo. All rights reserved

SKY DIVE AUSTRAL

Mauritius is famous for many things; dodos (or rather the lack thereof), beautiful beaches, warm blue seas and sunny skies. One thing it is not famous for is sky-diving, not surprising really, as up until now there has been nowhere in the country where it is available.

The Partnership

Skydiving in Mauritius is very new indeed. It all began back around Easter of 2006 when Christopher Wilkinson-Pearce met Gaetan Paquay at a party. Chris had been skydiving in Zimbabwe since 1988 and had been considering starting skydiving in Mauritius for some time. Gaetan had skydived in Burundi in 1993 and was also an aviation fanatic, his wife Alexandrine also just happened to be Mauritian – and so all the pieces fell into place. They agreed to take up the challenge and try a skydiving business together.

From 2008 to 2009 preparations for the commencement of business took place at Mon Loisir. The old dairy farm which had previously been there had to be demolished and scrub and bush removed. The site also contained a forty year old disused runway, which was restored and a new hangar was built. The plane which is used for skydiving is a Cessna 182. It was bought in the USA, shipped to South Africa and assembled and flown in stages to Mauritius where it finally touched down in April.

Tandem Skydiving

Tandem skydiving refers to a type of skydiving where a student skydiver is connected via a harness to an instructor. The instructor guides the student through the whole jump, from exit, through free-fall, piloting the canopy and landing. The student needs only minimal instruction before making a tandem jump.

Tandem instructors are required to pass an instructor certification course for the system they jump, before skydiving with students. Most countries have varying laws or regulations as to who may sky-dive with a passenger or student. In the United States, the FAA requires every potential instructor to have over five hundred individual sky-dives and three years of skydiving experience. At Sky Dive Austral they have instructors trained to American standards.

Tandem skydiving is a very popular training method for first time skydivers as it exposes them to the activity with the comfort and safety of having a professional in close proximity at all times. The training consists of many of the activities performed by any skydiving student, for example how to exit the aircraft, how to do manoeuvres in free-fall, and how to deploy the main canopy. However, the instructor remains primarily responsible for safe and timely parachute deployment.


The Jump

The Instructors carry two parachutes with them, the main parachute and a reserve for back up. An added safety feature is the Automatic Activation Device (AAD) which monitors the the fall to the ground and automatically deploys the second parachute at a height of two thousand feet if the main parachute has not yet been activated. Free fall usually lasts for a maximum of sixty seconds before the main parachute is released.

Tandem skydiving requires equipment with several differences from normal sport skydiving. All modern tandem skydiving systems use a drogue parachute, which is deployed shortly after leaving the plane in order to decrease the skydivers' terminal velocity. This is necessary for proper parachute deployment, lengthening the duration of the skydive, and allowing the skydivers to fall at the same speed as videographers.

Tandem skydiving system also uses larger main parachutes, of at least three hundred and sixty square feet, to support the additional weight of two passengers. At Skydive Austral they use the SIGMA system which is manufactured by United Parachute Technologies and was invented by Bill Booth, the inventor of tandem jumping and who has been the single biggest contributor to the inventions and development of Skydiving equipment.

At twelve thousand feet the Sesna will slow down and you will jump from the plane. Free fall lasts no longer than sixty seconds and approximately four minutes later you will be safely down on terra firma and will have completed your first skydive!

And that is all there is to it. In the future, Skydive Austral will be opening a skydiving school. It only takes four hours of ground work and seven to ten tandem jumps with an instructor before you can solo jump. So, if you are looking for a unique holiday experience with high speed and adrenaline why not come back to Mauritius and learn skydiving? One thing I can say for sure, you could not pick a better location or more fun people in the entire world to do it with.

© Mauritius in your hands - Islandinfo. All rights reserved

SAFARI ADVENTURES CUBS

The latest additions to Safari Adventures have just stepped paw onto Mauritian soil; two endearing little lion cubs, Kimba and Kiara, that delight and enthral with their inquisitive and playful behaviour. After thirty days of quarantine the cubs are eager to meet new people and mingle with them.

Safari Adventures is one of only three places in the world where you can interact with Lions and Cheetah. The cats are trained from an early age to treat people with respect and they are used to being stroked and patted and being around people generally. Indeed, they are so well trained that the cheetah are used for educational events and promotions. All interactions with the felines are photographed by trained staff with professional equipment and the pictures are of course available to anyone who participates in the event.

For those of you who prefer to see the cats in a more natural setting, it is possible to “walk with the lions”. Each walk lasts approximately an hour to an hour and a half and consists of a small group of people and two lions. It gives you the opportunity to mix with the lions and form a unique lion-human “pride”, providing a once in a lifetime experience. The adventure is video recorded and photographed for posterity and naturally a DVD of the event is available afterwards.

The new cubs are only seven months old and yet the difference in size between the male and female is very apparent. Kimba is noticeably more authoritative and dominant than his sister, due to the male role as protector of the family. Females are more agile and are the pride’s hunters, however, after they have caught their prey, the males and cubs eat first, the females are not permitted to eat until the males have sated their hunger.

Like most mammals, Kimba’s and Kiara’s mood can be interpreted by their body language and they have a very good temperament. Being desert lions they are quite pale in colour as this helps them reflect the heat and also provides them with superb camouflage.

Visiting Safari Adventures should be a priority for anyone and is certain to create life-long memories. So leave all your worries behind and take a walk on the wild side. You’ll love it!

© Mauritius in your hands - Islandinfo. All rights reserved