After the recently publicised waveriding event held in One-Eye in Le Morne and the great feedback about the wind and waves, there was a group of us from Durban who decided that we would head out to Mauritius for a quick one week get-away. We booked on the Wednesday and left the following Monday – this is probably the best way of doing it if you are going there to kite. Leave it to the last minute, check the wind, then go. We kept an eye on Windguru and the predictions were really good for the week. The trade winds blow in Europe through out our South African winter, so if you go from around June through till around the end of October – you should get wind.
The bonus with going to Mauritius is that it is so close to Durban (4hr flight) and the flight is also direct. We booked and paid about R 12 500 each – this was based on sharing a room (Flights / transfers / hotel accommodation with breakfast and dinner included - which worked out really well as they gave us Family rooms) which meant that we had plenty of space to store all the gear.
The main aim of the trip was to get waves, so we all geared around taking surf oriented gear. The winds can go up to around 40 knots in the peak of the trade winds, but we were expecting between 20 - 30 knots. I took 1 Coffin and I managed to get all my gear into this and then a small bag for clothes. My gear included a kitesurfboard(5'5"), plus a leash (really handy when surfing on a reef ), a twintip 125x37, kites 11m FONE Tribal, 12m FONR Rival, 7m Nova 2, waist harness, booties, rashies, kitesurf caps, hats and plenty of sunscreen. Total weight 39kg on the coffin and 9kg on the clothes bag. Everyone always stresses about weight and we had heard of being charged extra but on the day we had no problems – there were also four of us all checking in all with the same sort of weight. Lucky for us, the plane also was not full.
The flight was really easy and quick. We arrived late afternoon, around 5pm, whizzed through immigration and customs, and headed for the baggage section to get our gear. Mauritius is 2hrs ahead of South Africa. It is advisable to change your money at the airport – we got the best deal there, which was better than we would have got at the Hotel. We took a mini bus connection through to the Hotel. The Airport is in the South East corner – pretty much away from everything so to get to Le Morne you are in for at least a 1.5 hour ride to the hotel. Speak to the driver and get him to stop and get beer and water in the shops on the way – stock up properly – they are easy to find and are right there on the side of the road. The local snacks and curry is great if you are hungry. The hotel will charge you big time for water and beer, which is approx R35 for a beer – we found the local prices in the shops to be pretty much what you would pay in South Africa for beer or mineral water.
We stayed at the Indian Resort which is definitely THE spot to stay as it is right there, one tack and you are out on the point in the best location. Some good advice is to get them to empty your bar fridge before you check in (then stick all your water and beers in ) – that way it is really easy to check out as well. If you do stay in the Indian resort the best rooms are to the right of the swimming pool as you look out to sea. It is not a problem if you don't get the rooms, but effectively you can pump up right outside your room and set up for the day right outside your room – ice cold water in the fridge is really handy. There is not much more to say about the hotel accept the food is fantastic. If you stay at Le Morne – there are NO local restaurants /shops within walking distance – a cab ride to the local village will cost you around Rp400 – approx R 100 – the cab driver can drop you there and pick you up later – the local restaurants are definitely the place to go and have lunch – the local food is really good.
There is NO night life in Le Morne – karaoke is about as good as it gets – so you need to look else where (unless you are into karaoke). Le Morne is in the SW Corner of Mauritius the main tourist area that has all the night life is Grand Baie – this is in the NW corner of the island – about 1.5 hour drive away – probably the closest spot is to go Flik en Flac.
However getting back to the Kiting … LeMorne offers something for everyone – as inside the Lagoon the water is flat with plenty of space (you will need to keep an eye out for the coral on the lower tide though) and outside on the reef, arguably the best left hand reef kitesurfing wave around. Launching and landing is really tricky as the beach is very narrow and there are plenty of casarina trees on the edge of the beach. SO you need to work out your routine with your buddies, as there is always someone left behind to launch last – generally the would be the one with the biggest hangover.
Kiting in the lagoon is fairly straight forward. The wind direction is pretty much cross shore in the lagoon. There are a few boats that will come out and get you if you get into trouble, but they will charge a fee for the ride back to the beach. Make sure that you ride together and keep an eye on each other.
The wind was blowing when we landed on the Monday night and it pretty much blew the whole week non stop – accept for the Saturday. The trade winds generally start blowing at around 10.30 in the morning – blowing around 15 – 20 knots in the morning and then in the afternoon 22 – 25 knots. This is what we had for the first 2-3 days. The best location was to set up right in front of the pool and for us to base ourselves from there for the day. After your session just go and bomb it into the pool!
The first morning we spent checking out the Lagoon and jumping over the boats moored in the Lagoon. Eventually we moved out onto the left break as the channel goes out and played on the reef break and then we moved over to middle reef and one-eye - still on our twin tips. Once you move out to the reef the wind is straight off-shore – so there is no going back from here – you need to know what you are doing and your equipment needs to be in good shape. There are plenty of stories about guys being blown out to sea. After the first wave we were all blown away by the location – and could not believe just how good the conditions were – it was also un-crowded. The water is completely translucent so you can clearly see the reef below – on the low tide the reef does come out, so watch out and make sure you know what the tides are doing.
The first session we had about 3ft on the reef with some excellent waves. If you are surfing the waves and running them the full length – just remember you will have a good 20 – 30 minutes worth of hard tacking back to the channel and then a small tack or 2 inside the lagoon to get back to the beach.
We ventured out on kite surfboards the next day – wearing a surfboard leash is really advisable as if you loose your board it will end up on the dry reef and you will lash your feet trying to get it. Again we had un-crowded conditions – the waves were now about 3 – 4 ft and we had the session of our lives out there for over 2 hours and getting the fastest and longest runs of our lives – I think that some of the longest runs - from the time you dropped in and kicked out it was about 500m or so … What a session …
We kited flat out for the first 3 days and by Thursday we really started to get lazy and the sessions started later – on Friday we went out to the reef on a boat for a surf an a bit of a free dive.
Source:
Bruce Chrystal - Ocean2Air Kiteboarding