Today we went to an island off the coast of Mauritius called Ile Aux Aigrettes which is a nature preserve. No one lives here, and you can only go to observe the wildlife. The island is a coral island, unlike Mauritius which is a volcanic island. It's much hotter on this island than on the mainland Mauritius because the coral traps in heat. Here, they have different kinds of animals such as giant tortoises (and baby ones too!), fruit bats, different bird species only found on Mauritius, and fruit bats. The giant tortoises just roam around the island, and you can see them while you are simply walking around! The tortoises live for about 150 to 200 years. The fruit bats were showing off for us, spinning around and opening up their wings. Fruit bats are awake in the day and night as we learned today. Our guide was very informative, and we learned a lot about the unique animal species found on Mauritius. The island also is surrounded by crystal clear blue water, and it is truly gorgeous!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Black River Gorges & Ile Aux Aigrettes
On Tuesday, we went to a nature reserve called Black River Gorges. It's a dense forest, and there are many hills in the park which we trekked up. You can apparently see monkeys here, but we were not so lucky! However, we saw the very rare pink pigeon of Mauritius as well as some bats and foxes. There are raspberries and guava fruits growing on the bushes while you hike which we picked right off the branch to eat. Perfect for a snack! We had a very intense hike...the first part was almost straight vertical! We were all exhausted by the time we finally made it to the top. We hiked about 4 miles (7 km) up...We were greeted by a beautiful view of the ocean once we made it to the peak. Such a grueling hike but worth it!
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