Go with Henry: Stunning Blue Bay Marine park

Monday, 14 September 2015

Stunning Blue Bay Marine park

Honeymoon in Mauritius

Exploring Mauritius by car

First trip - Part 3

July 2015

Background

Seven years after we got married, we were able to have the honeymoon we always wanted. We could only afford it after working for 6 months in Saudi Arabia, earning very good money. So I booked a full 7 day -7-night hotel package for us at the four stars Preskil Beach resort in Mahebourg, Mauritius through Flight Centre. It cost R40 000 for the two of us after we calculated all the hidden expenses and the extra things we did. We spent time on the beach at the hotel, but like the explorers we are, we were not content sitting still. So we rented a white little Hyundai i10 car and took day trips all around the island.

This island has such a rich culture and various ethnic, cultural and religious groups make up the population of the island. There are also a huge amount of expats, especially South Africans who have made this compact tropical island their home. Even though it is not a big island, it will probably take a year just to get a taste of everything and visit all the places. Pristine beaches to the exterior and sugar cane fields with beautiful mountain scenery make up most of the island. I took more than a thousand photos, which I will only post the best here. This photo expose will hopefully paint a picture of our experiences on this beautiful island.

Blue Bay Marine Park and beach

First exploration

This was our first drive with our little i10 Hyundai rental car. We rented a GPS along with the car and just started to drive in a direction. After driving around in Mahebourg (Part 1) for some time we found ourselves on the road towards the airport, with beautiful natural scenery and sugar cane fields.

We ended up in Curepipe and Trou aux Cerfs dormant volcano (Part 2), although we never saw the actual crater and volcano. We decided to input directions to Blue Bay Marine Park (Part 3 - covered in this post) on our GPS and we spent a lovely late afternoon at the beach there before driving through Blue Bay towards the Preskil Beach resort we stayed at.

Blue Bay & Blue Bay Marine Park

Blue Bay Marine Park

About Blue Bay Marine Park

Found southeast of Mauritius, the Blue Bay Marine Park is framed on one side by Le Shandrani Hotel, Blue Lagoon Hotel, and the runway of the international airport, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport. Sitting comfortably on top of the marine park is 'Ile des Deux Cocos', an islet within the lagoon, of 4.22 hectares.

An important and very unique network of coral reefs protects this part of the island from the ocean waves. There you will find rare corals and fish species in a depth of 5.5 meters. There are more than 50 different species of corals that have been identified, and more than 80% are alive. The Blue Bay Marine Park is now protected by the government, due to constant degradation of the marine environment left by urbanization and the tourism industry (Wikitravel).