Mauritius: The other side of the world

(This article was originally published in Quest magazine)

By Guy Shockey

Growing up, I liked to dig holes in the garden. The sizes of my excavation projects were pretty spectacular for a ten-year-old boy and my dad would always ask me if I was trying to “dig a hole to the other side of the world”.  Fast forward to 2017 and with the power of the internet I was able to use a website that would calculate the “antipodes” from an entered address. Now I could quickly and easily find out where “the other side of the world” actually was. It was an amusing coincidence that nearly 40 years after digging those holes, I found myself “on the other side of the world” in Mauritius.

I profess to having a reasonable knowledge of geography but when one of our newest Fundamentals Instructor Candidates was looking for an Instructor Trainer to travel to his location to work with him, I wasn’t 100% sure where Mauritius actually was. I recognized the name but I had to look on a map this time. It took me 22 hours of flying time and I was in the southern Hemisphere and in a time zone that was exactly 12 hours different than my own. The fact that the seasons were opposite, and the daylight hours were long instead of short, coupled with the time difference made for a very difficult case of jetlag!

Mauritius is a beautiful island jewel in the south Indian Ocean, about 500 miles east of Madagascar. It is a relatively common location for travelers from Europe and serviced from the major airports there, but because it is literally on the other side of the world, it is not often on North American’s travel radar. That is a shame actually, because it is absolutely beautiful!  The fields are covered in sugar cane and there are some truly dramatic mountains on the island.

I had never met the instructor candidate I was going to be working with aside from email correspondence, but I did know he was the owner of Dodo Divers, one of the busiest dive operations in Mauritius. I thought the name was a good choice because Mauritius was originally the only home of the Dodo bird! There are few predators on Mauritius and Dodo birds eventually lost their ability to fly and could weigh upwards of 50 pounds. Growing up I had often heard the phrase “as dead as a dodo” but I never expected I would visit the home of the bird that had been extinct for over 300 years.   

The Dutch established a colony on what is now known as Mauritius in the early 1600’s but left the island in 1710. France took control of this island from their base in neighboring Reunion island in 1715 and named it “Isle de France”. During the Napoleonic wars, the English and French struggled for control of Isle de France, and France surrendered control in 1810 upon which time the island became known as Mauritius. English and French are the official languages of Mauritius and while the constitution is written in English, the civil code is in French. This makes for an interesting mixture of English and French spoken by most citizens. This cultural mélange also finds expression in the islands cuisine: one day you will have “roti” from the entrepreneurial bicycle mounted chefs on the go, and the next day you will find some excellent steak or seafood. You will find Indian, French, Chinese, and British cultural influences on the island and some interesting architecture.

If you chose to rent a car, I strongly urge you to see about very good insurance and maybe buy a helmet… The roads there are narrow, and they drive on the left hand side of the road. This was a dangerous combination for someone from the Pacific Northwest of North America and I was truly glad I wasn’t driving… I’m surprised I didn’t see a lot of accidents, but the locals seem to have developed a fine tolerance for survival. I was almost hit by bus when I looked the wrong way before I wanted to cross the narrow road, and I doubt anyone would have even noticed. The population density is quite high and the roads and building constructions appears to have been done with small vehicles in mind. Many of the roads were too narrow for two vehicles to pass each other and motorcyclists on Mauritius are some of the bravest people I have ever seen.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that despite Mauritius being covered in lush vegetation, there were no poisonous spiders or snakes!  I’m not a fan of either so I did sleep easier at night. However, the lack of spiders and snakes couldn’t make up for the heat and humidity!  From someone who lives in a temperate climate, December and January in Mauritius was hot and humid with temperatures in the 30 degrees C (86 F) range. This was truly “flip flop” country with beautiful sandy beaches and warm, clear water!  

Diving on Mauritius is all done by boat because it is surrounded by an atoll and you have to travel out of the shallow lagoon to get deep enough waters for diving. The combination of shallow lagoon waters and steady winds also make Mauritius a kite surfing dream location. Dodo divers has a truly excellent boat that zips around between the best dive sites with no mess and no fuss.

Diving in the Southern Indian Ocean is similar to diving off the Southeast coast of Africa. When you first stick your head underwater you are impressed with the visibility but then it looks like there is not a lot of sea life. Then you look closer and realize that your original impression was wrong and you find something on and behind every rock. This is not the big “coral reef” diving from the Red Sea or the Caribbean or even the Great Barrier Reef. It is something quite different and unique in its own way.

There are several small islands directly off the coast of Mauritius and in plain view of Dodo Divers beachfront location. You can do some excellent drift diving or dive on the leeward side of some of the islands and explore with little to no current. One of the divemasters reported seeing a whale shark and a manta ray but this is the exception and not the rule. The underwater topography is fascinating with some locations having huge boulders and rocks to explore. The water temperatures were in the 27-29 C range (79-81 F so even though it is toasty warm above water, some thermal protection is still suggested. This is an island in the middle of a big ocean so expect some water movement and some big waves!  

You can’t have two hundred years of fighting around an island by two of the world’s major sea powers without having a lot of shipwrecks!  And what is even better, most of them haven’t been positively identified or even dived on. Anthony and Rose from Dodo Divers showed me some of their plans for the future and it looks like shipwreck hunters will be flocking to Mauritius; the author included!  There are hundreds of shipwrecks right outside one of the biggest bays on the island, ranging from recreational to technical diving depths. Dodo divers can provide mixed gas for those wanting to explore deeper, or they can provide nitrox 32 for GUE divers looking to explore the recreational depths. Most of their instructors and dive masters have GUE training so they will understand your needs and their suggested dive plans will fit nicely with your training and expectations.

Mauritius has become more popular as a diving destination over the last few years due to unrest in such locations as the Red Sea. Mauritius is serviced by direct flights from most of the major European hubs and is about 12 hours from Paris and six and a half hours from Dubai. The flight from Dubai is particularly nice on an Emirates Airbus A380 and Air Mauritius flying from Paris has some of the best service I have ever had on an airline.

If you are looking for a unique vacation with some very nice diving with an outstanding diving operation, I suggest you consider Mauritius and Dodo Divers. I feel confident in saying that Mauritius will be popping up on your GUE diving destination radar more often in the near future. Anthony and Rose at Dodo divers told me that their next step is becoming a GUE facility and by the time you are reading this, I would guess they will also have some active Project Baseline locations and I hope they includes some shipwrecks! They are some of the nicest people you will meet and will help make your trip to exotic Mauritius something you will always remember.