A rainy day in Mauritius

In Mauritius, rain is part of the journey, especially in summer. It is no disaster: the island has enough to fill a day under cover, from north to south. There are just two pitfalls to know about. Several museums close on Sundays and public holidays, and some outings into the wild become slippery, or are even cancelled, as soon as the rain is heavy.

Port Louis is the best answer to a low sky. At the Caudan Waterfront, the shopping street runs beneath coloured umbrellas, and the waterfront brings together an arts centre, a cinema and the Blue Penny Museum. The museum, open Monday to Saturday from 9.30am to 4pm, tells the story of navigation, of colonial history and of Port Louis in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its “Post Office” stamps, the centrepiece, are lit for only ten minutes an hour, at a quarter past each hour: arrive a few minutes before.

Also on the waterfront, the Postal Museum occupies the former General Post Office, a Victorian building completed in 1870, and follows Mauritian mail from the Dutch onwards; a guided tour is available on request, and on Saturdays the museum closes at 12.15pm. Opposite the Company’s Garden, the Natural History Museum, the oldest on the island, unfolds five centuries of Mauritian nature in four galleries; it opens only at 11am on Wednesdays and closes at noon on Saturdays.

Lunch is taken indoors. Lai Min, at 58 Royal Road, has served Cantonese and Hakka cooking since 1946, from Tuesday to Sunday. The City Orient, on Léoville L’Homme Street, has offered Cantonese cooking since 2004, in the hands of chefs from Guangdong, in a dining room seating just over a hundred.

On Sundays, when the capital’s museums are closed, the Odysseo Oceanarium, at Les Salines, stays open: it opens every day from 9am to 5pm, except 1 January. The route is entirely covered and presents 300 species from the Indian Ocean, from sharks to rays. Feeding time, in front of the public, is the liveliest moment of the day, and a twelve-minute virtual-reality experience takes the visit on below the surface. Last entry is at 4.15pm.

At Phoenix, in the centre of the island, The Mauritius Glass Gallery works one hundred per cent recycled glass in front of visitors, and casts their handprints in glass. At Moka, the Eureka house, built around 1836 in ebony and mahogany, has 109 doors and windows and is visited with a guide, who tells the story of the plantations; it has its own restaurant for lunch. In Curepipe, La Potinière, on Rue Charles Lees, changes its menu every month.

In the north, the old Beau Plan sugar mill at Pamplemousses houses L’Aventure du Sucre; the tour traces the history of sugar and ends with a rum tasting, on a ticket valid all day. At Mapou, the Château de Labourdonnais opens its restored drawing rooms from 9am to 5pm, last admission at 3.45pm, and offers tastings of the house rums.

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In the south

The south has its refuges. At Bel Ombre, the World of Seashells is a visit under cover: 8,000 shells of 1,500 species, and a small lab where children draw their own. At Souillac, the Robert Edward Hart Museum preserves the poet’s coral house, his desk, his violin and his manuscripts; it is closed on Sundays and public holidays. At Chamarel, the Rhumerie can be toured from its copper stills to its ageing cellars, Monday to Saturday, and its restaurant, L’Alchimiste, serves within the grounds.

Some outings are best kept for fine weather. Rochester Falls are to be avoided during and just after heavy rain: the ground becomes slippery and the water level can rise. At Bel Ombre, heavy rain or a flash flood can lead to the cancellation of the reserve’s guided hike, which then offers another date. At Ebony Forest, the Piton Canot trail is slippery in wet weather. At the Seven Coloured Earth, a light jacket or an umbrella is enough in the rainy season; at Vallé, a glance at the forecast before booking spares you a visit in a downpour, and the colours of its earth are brighter on a sunny morning.

A rainy day, then, is not a lost one. It simply moves the journey indoors, into the houses, museums and distilleries, where the island tells its story.