Tag Archives: Mauritius

Eco-Lite: Casela Nature Park, Mauritius

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Mauritius is a destination that appeals to all kinds of travelers with its beautiful beaches and family friendly atmosphere.  The Casela Nature Park is a great option for families and others who want a quick look at some local and exotic birds.  There are no Echo Parakeets here.

OVERVIEW

Out of sight down Rivière Noire road, lies 14 hectares of lush green which is now home to a big variety of fauna and flora. Some 1,500 birds, a selection of wildcats, zebras, giant tortoises, long-tailed monkeys, among other species, can be watched on site.   There are also plenty of activities  like canyoning or hiking Via Ferrata, double and triple ziplines and the adventurous cable bridges.   It kind of reminded me of Busch Gardens in Florida, same kind of appeal to families in particular.

HOW DO YOU GET THERE?

Casela Nature Park is easily reached from the main road between Curepipe and Flic en Flac.    There is a small shopping centre on the intersection of the A3 and Flic en Flac road and the park is signposted.

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HOW MUCH IS IT?

Basic admission is fine if you just want to see the birds.  There are additional charges for other activities.

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HOW LONG SHOULD YOU SPEND THERE AND WHAT SHOULD YOU SEE?

We arrived pretty late in the afternoon and had just under an hour to scurry around and see the birds.  This turned out to be enough time for what we wanted.  We only saw the birds, didn’t have time to see or do anything else.

VALUE TO CONSERVATION

No affiliation with any conservation projects.

WHERE TO STAY NEARBY ON POINTS

Flic en Flac is the closest town although no where is really far on Mauritius.  The Hilton in Flic en Flac has rooms starting at 40,000 Honors points.

PHOTOS

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The highlights for me was seeing the wild birds such as this Madagascar (not Mauritian)  Fody flying around the grounds.

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Getting Around Mauritius – Rental Car VS Bus

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Regrettably, we didn’t have a lot of time to spend in Mauritius.  We aren’t the beach holiday type (nor would we travel all the way from Australia to Mauritius simply for a beach) so we had to have a well organized plan to decided on what kind of transport we needed.  The main purpose of the trip was to see the Echo Parakeets in Black River Gorges National Park.  The hotel we stayed at (on points of course) was the nearest points option to BRGNP, the Mauritius Hilton at Flic en Flac.  I also wanted to squeeze in a quick visit to the Casela Bird Park and the 7 Coloured Sands at Chamarel.

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RENTAL CARS

With such a short amount of time, only a rental car would do.  The one thing I found frustrating is that the majors – Hertz, Avis, etc only seemed to have manual transmissions at a reasonable cost.  I can only drive an automatic, especially if I will be driving through towns.  The best option was going through a rental car consolidator which had more options with smaller car hire companies that offered automatics at reasonable prices.  I checked 3 options – Expedia, Holiday Autos & DriveAway.  All prices for these examples are in Australian dollars but if you do a quote, it will default to your own currency.

Expedia

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Holiday Autos

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DriveAway

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Holiday Autos had the best price back then just as they do now so I booked with them for First since it was the better deal for a better car.  The rate includes excess up to 15,000 MUR which is around $450 USD or $500 AUD and this amount was covered by my travel insurance policy.  Always check before booking a rental car what the insurance covers and what the excess is!

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Here’s the actual car.  As usual, I did a full inspection and made sure the employee knew I was doing it.  It did take a while for them to fetch the car from their depot in town and we had to sit there and wait.  I had given my flight number and they have a display on flight times in the office which is shared by all car hire companies so they could have been more proactive in getting the car there on time to meet the flight.  I returned it a bit early and once again did the inspection, got the final receipt and had no issues while returning it so First was a good choice for me!

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LOCAL BUSES

Traveling by local buses can be fun, is usually the cheapest option and a good way to meet the locals.  Mauritius does have a large bus network and if you have plenty of time to spare and not so much money, this could be a good option for you.

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With so much to see in such a short time, there was no way this was going to work!  Here is an example for a route from near the airport to Flic en Flac (not the Hilton, just the town center).

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TAXIS, TRANSFERS & TOUR BUSES

Just like any other country, Mauritius offers all of the above – at a price of course!  We didn’t use any of these options so I can’t really comment on them.  When you arrive at the airport, there are brochures with tour ads so you can call them directly or book through your hotel.  When we were at Chamarel, there were lots of tour buses there so obviously lots of people do use this option.

Scenes from the road between the airport and Casela Bird Park.

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All things considered, I was happy with my choice of rental car as the best means of transport in Mauritius.

Getting To Mauritius With Frequent Flyer Miles

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Although most frequent flyer programs group Mauritius with Africa to determine it’s zone, there are far fewer options because not many airlines fly there.

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STAR ALLIANCE

South African Airways is the only Star Alliance member to serve Mauritius so you will have to get to JNB, then connect to Mauritius.  Availability on this route isn’t the best and sometimes only available in business class so if you can only afford an economy ticket this won’t work for you.

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Assuming you can find availability, one way (double for RT) awards would cost:

NORTH AMERICA – MAURITIUS 40,000 Y    80,000 J

EUROPE – MAURITIUS                30,000 Y    55,000 J

AUSTRALIA – MAURITIUS            50,000 Y     75,000 J

Given the distances involved, it is much better to combine Mauritius with South Africa and have a better chance of finding those elusive seats!

ONEWORLD

The only OneWorld carrier serving Mauritius is British Airways so the best programs to look at are American AAdvantage for long-haul segments and British Airways Avios for short hops from JNB-MRU.

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Beware of transiting LHR enroute to Mauritius as the airport taxes can be extremely high.  Try to route on QR via DOH or EY via AUH to JNB, then pick up the JNB-MRU on BA.  Assuming you can find availability, one way (double for RT) awards would cost:

NORTH AMERICA – MAURITIUS 37,500 Y    62,500 J

EUROPE – MAURITIUS                30,000 Y    37,500 J

AUSTRALIA – MAURITIUS            37,500 Y     50,000 J

American currently offers the best deals on mileage awards to Africa but these rates are unlikely to hold once the merger with US Airways is completed so if Mauritius/Africa is on your bucket list, this is a good time to book your trip!

SKYTEAM

Air France is the only SkyTeam member serving Mauritius but you can use Delta (if anyone is still a member of Delta) to book these awards.  If you are using credit card points or transferring from SPG, then Flying Blue is your best bet.  All SkyTeam members charge YQ fuel surcharge on these tickets so you are better off using United or American for long haul awards.  Here’s a couple examples for a North American award and a European award.  Flying Blue won’t let you route from Australia via Europe to Mauritius.

MRU FB1 MRU FB2AIR MAURITIUS

Air Mauritius dominates the market. Here is a list of their destinations from MRU.

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They are a partner of Air France Flying Blue but they are not a member of SkyTeam.  If you want to use Flying Blue miles to book Air Mauritius you will have to call in.  I tried on the MRU-TNR (Antananarivo) route but the fuel surcharges were so high it would have been a total waste of SPG points which can be better utilized elsewhere.  If you are booking a cash ticket, then Air Mauritius does have a lot of options, keep an eye on their website for specials.

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JNB Airport & Comair Flight To Mauritius

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I have already blogged a bit about the facilities available in the domestic terminal and we were in business class so had access to a lounge.  In this case, we were simply in economy so no lounge access from the ticket.  I had planned to use Priority Pass to get us into the lounge but by the time we got through the security line, there was no time.  I changed what was left of the Rand to Mauritius Rupees, then wandered into a few shops to kill time.

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High fashion in the airport!

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It was Nov 8 but they already had Christmas decorations up.  I gave into temptation and bought that pink cushion cover and another similar one in black because the had birds on them.

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When we got to the gate, people were already in line so we let the line proceed and jumped in when it slowed down.  We had decent seats and only carry-on backpacks so I wasn’t very worried.

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Comair is a subsidiary of British Airways and has their livery.  Space is easily searchable on either BA.com or AA.com.

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I grabbed a quick shot of the “business class” cabin as we went to our seats.  Identical to economy (Euro-business) with a blocked middle seat.  Not worth wasting Avios on.  The flight wasn’t full and we got an empty middle seat anyway!  The 1908 mile flight falls into the 3rd band and costs 10,000 Avios economy and 20,000 business.

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Did I Achieve My Birding Goals In Africa?

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During the planning stages of “The Mother of all African Adventures“, I was targeting areas in which parrot species could be found along with many other bird and mammal species.  I will copy the targets here and give you the results to show how goal planning can affect your trip.  Of course the trip will be blogged in detail over the next few months.

I have copied below the parrot species I was targeting which represent 17 out of the 24 species that are found in Africa and the neighboring island nations.  Successes will be highlighted in lime green.

PARROT SPECIES FOUND IN AFRICA

1. Rose-ringed Parakeet – Psittacula krameri.  We have seen them in several places in India and feral populations in Europe.  Not a priority but may see them during the trip.

Result:  Not seen on this trip.

2. Mauritius Parakeet  – Psittacula echo.  Habitat in Black River Gorges National Park, easily driven from hotel in Mauritius.

Result:  Seen well in Black River Gorges National Park.

3. Gray Parrot – Psittacus erithacus.  Has large range but many places difficult, expensive or possible unsafe to travel to.  Easiest place to see them near Star Alliance airport is in Ghana at Kakum National Park.

Result: Only a pair seen flying at a distance in Kakum National Park.

4. Greater Vasa Parrot – Coracopsis vasa.  Madagascar endemic, easiest place to find them near Star Alliance airport is Andasibe National Park.

Result:  Seen well at Ankarafantsika National Park.

5. Lesser Vasa Parrot – Coracopsis nigra.  Madagascar endemic, easiest place to find them near Star Alliance airport is Andasibe National Park.

Result:  Seen well at Ankarafantsika National Park.

7. Black-winged Lovebird – Agapornis taranta.  Found in Ethiopia.  Slim chance to see them if there is a long layover at Addis Ababa.

Result:  We had a scant hour of early dawn light to try to find them on a brief layover and failed to find any.  Needed more time!

8.  Red-headed Lovebird – Agapornis pullarius.  Habitat not easily accessible, best chance is in Ghana.

 

Result:  Poorly seen in dense foliage at University of Ghana, Accra.

11. Fischer’s Lovebird – Agapornis fischeri.  Found in Tanzania, targeting them in Arusha, Tarangire and Serengeti.

Result:  Seen well near Ndutu Safari Lodge on Serengeti border.

12. Yellow-collared Lovebird (Masked Lovebird) – Agapornis personatus.  Found in Tanzania, targeting them in Arusha, Tarangire and Serengeti.

Result:  Seen well at Tarangire National Park, Tanzania.

14. Grey-headed Lovebird –  Agapornis canus.  Madagascar endemic, easiest place to find them near Star Alliance airport is Anatanarivo’s Tsimbazaza Park.

Result:  Seen at Ankarafantsika National Park.

15. Red-fronted (Jardine’s) Parrot – Poicephalus gulielmi.  Targeted in Arusha National Park and possible Ghana.

Result:  Seen at a distance at Arusha National Park, Tanzania

16. Cape Parrot – Poicephalus robustus.  Southern coast of South Africa.  Will try to find them as close as possible to Port Elizabeth.

Result:  Seen well in King William’s Town, South Africa.

17. Brown-necked Parrot –  Poicephalus fuscicollis.  Subspecies of Cape Parrot.  Have seen in Magoebaskloof, planning on return visit.

Result:  Seen well at Magoebaskloof, South Africa.

18. Brown-headed Parrot – Poicephalus cryptoxanthus. Easiest to find in northern Kruger National Park.

Result:  Seen well at Pretoriuskop Restcamp, Kruger National Park.

19. Red-bellied Parrot – Poicephalus rufiventris.  Found in Tanzania, targeting them in Tarangire.

Result:  Seen well at Tarangire National Park, Tanzania.

21. Meyer’s Parrot – Poicephalus meyeri.  Several subspecies spread out over southern and central Africa.  Best places to target them are northern South Africa and Tanzania’s Tarangire and Serengeti.

Result:  Seen well at Tarangire National Park, Tanzania.

24. Senegal Parrot  – Poicephalus senegalus.  Wide-spread in West Africa but easiest place to see using Star Alliance airports would be Shai Hills, Ghana near Accra.

Result:  Seen briefly at Shai Hills, Ghana.

By “seen well” I mean that the bird stuck around long enough to have a good look and get photos.  In some cases, all we could see were birds flying rapidly through the trees or scrambling through foliage.

FINAL TALLY

17 out of 24 parrot species targeted.

15 out of these 17 were seen.

11 out of these 15 were “seen well”

That’s actually not bad when you consider how unpredictable wild birds can be, and it only happened because I did TONS of research to give myself the best possible odds!

 

Making The Decision – Air Madagascar VS Air Austral

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Sometimes you can’t use miles because you are flying between two cities whose airlines aren’t in one of the major alliances.  This is the case when flying from Mauritius to Madagascar.

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I would have to pay cash for the flights.  A quick search on Kayak gave these possibilities.  Prices are in USD.

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In case you are wondering why I didn’t use United miles for the South African flight, take note that the JNB-TNR segment is actually operated by Airlink which is not part of Star Alliance.  And it’s ridiculous to take 22 hours for a flight that is less than 2 hours nonstop!  Air Mauritius is a partner of Flying Blue but the cost of 15k miles and around 100 Euros per person tax made it poor value.

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But wait, can that Air Madagascar flight really take less than 2 hours?  When researching this airline on Skytrax, Flyertalk & Trip Advisor, I found all kinds of reviews on how unreliable they are.  Cancellations and excessive delays are normal.  Many people also said that they are poor at communicating the reasons and length of the delays.  I tried tweeting them to ask questions and got no reply.

Once you get in the air, the service is supposed to be good.  If I were a backpacker with several weeks to travel around Madagascar, I would have gone for this cheaper nonstop option.

To help me decide on cost vs reliability, I checked Flightstats.  Over the past 2 months, 7 out of 11 flights were either excessively delayed or cancelled.

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Just before buying the ticket this is what happened on last Monday’s flight.  Bear in mind that this flight is only twice a week and the Saturday’s flight 2 days prior had been cancelled.  I don’t know if they made those passengers wait for this Monday flight or booked them onto the next departure on Air Mauritius or Air Austral.

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This was the only flight to be THAT bad out of all arrivals to TNT that day.  2nd place went to a domestic flight with about 2.5 hour delay.

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Since we would only a have a week in Madagascar to get to two of the best national parks for birds and lemurs, I just couldn’t take the risk.  I checked the stats on Air Austral which is actually an EU based airline.  They are based in Réunion, which is also one of the 27 regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as those situated on the European mainland. Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and, as an overseas department of France, is part of the Eurozone.  EU airlines offer more protection.

Now this is more like it!

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Sometimes it really pays to do your homework when you are considering airlines that aren’t familiar to you and you need to make decisions on cost vs timings & reliability.  Both Air Austral & Air Madagascar have scheduled arrival times before noon.  This is enough time to get to Andasibe and have a late afternoon of birding.  Air Mauritius has an arrival time of 15:30 which means arriving at Andasibe after dark and delaying the birding trip to morning.  I decided it was worth the extra $105 USD per person for the more reliable option and being able to spend more time in Madagascar.