The drive out of Chamarel village in southwest Mauritius takes me past jagged mountain ranges, red flamed trees and swathes of sugarcane savannah to the twin waterfalls called ‘Cascades Chamarel’. Here, St. Denis River crashes 295 feet over a cliff into a gorge creating dreamy rainbows over thundering waters.

Greenery carpets almost every inch of this part of the island. Not far from the waterfalls is Mauritius’s most visited attraction—the lunar-like landscapes of the ‘Seven-coloured Earths’, tiny hillocks with seven distinct colours of sand dunes formed when volcanic basalt rock converted into mineral-rich clay.

Seven-coloured Earths’ near Cascades Chamarel, Mauritius
The ‘Seven-coloured Earths’ near Cascades Chamarel.

After oohing and aahing over the earthen meringue, I queue up with my fellow travellers to buy Chamarel’s archetypal souvenir—a test tube filled with the seven-coloured sand.

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