Ile Aux serfs (deer island), Mauritius

Ile Aux serfs is one of the most visited place in Mauritius. Almost every tourist or traveller would include this place in their itinerary. Needless to say the place is very touristy and also bit hyped. But nevertheless, a good place to visit!!

Ile Aux serfs is an island on the eastern coast of Mauritius. When translated, it sounds as deer island!! Though there are no deer, the island has a golf club, white sandy beaches and crystal clear water with some restaurants. It is also a good place for water sports like para sailing. People come to Mauritius for beaches and Ile Aux cerfs does not disappoint.

It was about 75 minutes drive from Flic En Flac to the Jetty of Trou d’Eau Douce town. While the first part of the drive passed through the busy roads, but once the main highway was crossed the drive was through sugarcane plantations with very little vehicular traffic. As we neared the Jetty, the road turned narrow and I was bit worried about the parking place. But that was not an issue. In general, it is a good idea to come around the opening time of 9:30 AM. Also, try to avoid weekends and Sundays as it tends to get crowded.

Anyone trying to google about this place would get a list of tour operators offering packages to this island. There is hardly any information available for people who plan to go on their own. But it is not an issue at all. After parking our car, we headed to the boat counter. It was 9:45 AM and there were not much tourists. The guy at the ticket counter provided the option of either going through public or private boat. Private boat was expensive and since it was less crowded, we felt that it makes sense to take public boat. It was from the mainland->Ile Aux Cerfs -> GRSE waterfall->Ice Aux Serfs->mainland with good amount of time to spend on the island.

Few minutes of waiting and the boat arrived. Apart from us, there were another group of three people on the boat. 15 minutes of ride brought us to the island. At the island, we found some nice place and jumped into the water!! For the next hour or two, we just played in water. It was a difficult task to bring Tanu out of water. There are public changing rooms, showers and toilets.

It was time to head to GRSE waterfall. A speed boat took us further south to the mouth of the river. Ver soon we were in front of a 30 feet waterfall.

It was an amazing experience to see waterfall from the boat. The boatman took very near to the base where we could experience the water splashing on us!! This place should not be missed at all.

The boat person also allowed us to get down the boat and climb to the top of the waterfall. Not every boat stopped here so I feel it is left to the discretion of the boatman. Looks like he was happy with us for some reason!! By the way, even though we opted for the public boat, in this part of the trip we were the only ones on the boat.

Very satisfied, we came back to the island. Now we decided to explore island bit and relax. It was not hard to find an isolated place. We spent a long time lazing under the trees gazing at the blue waters. It was a peaceful place.