Black River Gorges National Park – Part 1

As Yashvin mentioned in his post Bloggers go hiking in Black River Gorges, the 3rd Mauritian Bloggers event, held on Saturday 17th July , consisted of a trek down Black River Gorges National Park, from Petrin to Black River.

 

The first part of the trek (in green) was along the Macchabée trail to the viewing point. The second part (in red) was the descent to the Visitor’s Centre…

 

So among the bloggers who were there at the starting point was

• Tushal (who claimed to know the trails like the back of his hand),
  
• Girish,
  
• Yashvin,
  
• Dakshinee,
  
• Julien,
  
• Preetesh,
  
• Sundeep (above, who ominously predicted that everyone will fall by the end of the day),
  
• & me (who was attempting this trek for the very first time).

 

A lovely sight greeted us at the entrance…

 

… & a not-so-lovely one. The muddy trail.

 

So we bravely set off, guided by this milestone, which fortunately didn’t mention the distances…

 

By the time we reached out first crossroad, it started raining heavily & the raincoats, umbrellas & Sun’s towel was out.

 

Our first stop where we had our first view of the Black River Gorges.

 

Visibility was low as heavy clouds & mist were blocking the scenery. Our blogger-turned-guide-for-the-day, Tushal took out this opportunity to snap some photos on his E72.

 

The heavy rain caused a small rivulet to form, but that didn’t discourage our bloggers party.

 

First spot of bother as we had to trudge through the middle (tested by Yashvin).

 

Second stop, still the heavy mist clouding our view, but the waterfalls were now visible.

 

Back to the trail, with our two Brinks Security men leading the way…

 

The second crossroad, where we had choose between the Macchabée View Point & the Mare Longue trail.

 

By the time we reached our next vantage point, the rain had stopped & the mist was disappearing…

 

& finally, we saw the waterfall. :)

 

With the sun out, our bloggers took out the opportunity to take off their raincoats & for the Sun to dry his towel…

 

Take some photos.

 

More photos.

 

More…

 

After the photoshoot session, we reached our third crossroad, where the choice was to take the short Macchabée trail (towards the viewpoint) or the longer Black River one (above)…

 

Luckily, this beautiful Hibiscus Azalea was there to guide us…

 

So we were off again, having walked 3 km so far according to this milestone.

 

At the next stop, I shot this panorama of the highest peak of Mauritius – Piton de la Petite Rivière Noire (828m). At this point, Tushal was wondering what if you could build a house here…

 

White flower found on the wayside.

 

While we were reviewing Sun’s iPod Shuffle, this Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito bit Yashvin’s thumb.

 

Pretty soon, we encountered our first rainbow of the day!

 

1 more km to go.

 

The rainbow got better!

 

The final walk before we reached…

 

… the Macchabée View Point!

 

The view was spectacular!

 

Tamarin.

 

& while we were having lunch, we wondered that if there was a KFC at the end of a trail, a certain blogger would have definitely been there…

 

So far we’ve had a superb day. The weather was great. We were in high spirits. Tushal was building houses at every viewpoint instead of whining about his internet connection.

 

But we had accomplished only half of the journey. There was still the 6km descent to Black River. Given that this was my first-time trek here, I had no idea what was lying ahead of us…

Part 2 is here - Black River Gorges National Park - Part 2 :P

Links:

• Wikipedia - Black River Gorges National Park
  
• Trails & Park Guide