Mauritius East Coast hotels collection

Île aux Aigrettes, off Mahébourg, is coral limestone where the rest of Mauritius is basalt, and keeps a remnant of the dry forest that once lined the coast. Ebony, once felled by the shipload, is being replanted on it; the pink pigeon, all but extinct, was saved there. Further up the shore, the guns of Pointe du Diable still watch over the pass. The coast then runs on to Belle Mare, where the reef holds a pale, still lagoon offshore, fringed with casuarinas.