Students on holiday do not have any excuse for getting bored… Thanks to the ministry of Youth and sports and the great organisation of the youth centres, excursions have been organised for them in wonderful regions of their island that they have hardly ever seen. Last Thursday, the Bambous youth centre took some 40 young people on an outing in the Black-River Gorges. Judging by their enthusiasm and the pleasure they took in walking 10 kilometres amidst the luxuriant vegetation, they certainly made the most of it.

10 am at Petrin (which is not far from Grand Bassin): the bus is full of youngsters from14 to 20 years old and the shouting coming from the car park must be a sign of their excitement as they start their day out. Half an hour later, after a short speech made by officials of the ministry (see inset), the walk can begin.

“All of them were very excited about coming here today. This ‘special holiday package’ is organised every year by the ministry, and children are more and more interested in participating”, comments Steve Gungadeen, who is in charge of the Bambous youth centre. “Such outings help them discover nature, which they learn to appreciate and respect, but also to make friends with other young people…”

Youth centres generally aim at helping, educating (through talks with professionals and other adults from the centre or through the Internet put at their disposal) and entertaining children when they are not at school and do not have much to do. These excursions fit perfectly into this framework.

Plentiful guavas to pick on the way

The visit is really worth the effort both for these children and for any other person (tourist or Mauritian) wishing to discover the hinterland. The four-hour walk between Pétrin and Black River is not exactly easy but the wonderful landscapes that can be seen on the path overlooking the Gorges definitely make it worthwhile. There are steep slopes at some points but it is a very pleasant walk all the same. The few tourists we passed looked delighted. The plentiful guavas that can be picked from the bushes along the track give another good reason for going there.

Access from Pétrin is open to the public from 6 am to 6 pm but it is, of course, recommended, to go there with a guide or with someone who knows the place. But one of the persons in charge of the site warned that “such visits for the public could be stopped because of a few young people who have perpetrated acts of vandalism.” It is in the public interest that one of the last green areas of the island should be open to walkers and visitors But if people can’t respect the place, they will no longer be able to benefit from it!

<B>Regional cooperation and friendship</B>

Young people from the Youth and Sports Commission of the Indian Ocean were also part of the excursion last Thursday… but for different reasons. They were in the forest to bring one of their seventeen projects to its successful conclusion with the collaboration of the ministries of Youth and Sports and of Agriculture, as well as the National Park. What is special about this particular project is that these young people from four different islands of the Indian Ocean will leave their [positive!] imprint on the forest. They have set up a map of the area on a metal sheet at the entrance to the forest of Pétrin and painted some signs on the track to help walkers find their way and to indicate distances at various points.