Gris Gris Beach

Gris Gris is not a beach in the resort sense of the word — there is no sheltered lagoon, no calm water for swimming, and no beach infrastructure beyond a rough car park and a coastal path. What Gris Gris is instead is a revelation: the south coast of Mauritius at its most elemental, where the island drops off into the open Indian Ocean and the architecture of the basalt coast is exposed in its full, raw drama.

The cliff edge at Gris Gris is made of ancient volcanic rock, wave-cut into extraordinary formations over millions of years. Natural arches span sections of the coast where the sea has eaten through the headlands. Blowholes send jets of spray through fissures in the rock face when the swell is up — particularly dramatic from June through September when the Southern Ocean sends proper swells north. The water below the cliffs is a churning turquoise-and-white — technically beautiful in a way that is entirely unlike the glass-still lagoons of the north and east, and that speaks to the ocean's real character rather than the reef-tamed version that tourism has made familiar.

The walk along the coastal cliff path from Gris Gris to La Roche Qui Pleure ("the crying rock" — another natural rock formation two kilometres to the east) takes about 45 minutes each way and is one of the finest coastal walks in Mauritius. The path runs along the cliff edge with the ocean below and the scrub of the southern coastal plain behind, and on a clear day the horizon is empty ocean all the way to Antarctica. Bring water, wear shoes with grip, and check the weather before setting out — the exposed cliff path is no place to be in a squall.

The nearby village of Souillac has a small beach access point where swimming is possible in the calmer conditions of the western bay, which is partly sheltered from the prevailing swell. The Robert Edward Hart Literary Museum in Souillac, dedicated to Mauritius's most celebrated English-language poet, is worth 30 minutes of anyone's time.