About Kavish Ramdhony
I spent six seasons on the helicopter apron at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam airport, briefing passengers for scenic flights: weights, seating, passports, weather holds. I live in La Gaulette, the fishing village 3 km north of Le Morne, and I now guide walkers up the Le Morne Brabant slave-route trail. This site is where I write down what I used to say on the apron, and what I say on the mountain.
Why I write this
My grandmother called the thing off the tip of Le Morne la rivière en bas la mer, the river under the sea, and she had never seen it, because from the beach you cannot. I saw it first from the jump seat of a helicopter, and I have flown that loop more times than I can count since. So I know two things most pages about it do not say plainly. First, there is no waterfall and no water falls: it is sand and silt sliding off a shelf about 150 m deep into a drop-off of more than 4,000 m, and from a few hundred metres up the pale sand on the deep blue looks like a river going over a cliff. Second, you can only see it from the air. Not from a boat, not from the beach, not with a mask on. From the summit, on a calm clear day, a rough shape.
Six seasons of standing next to the aircraft taught me the questions people actually ask, and they are not the ones the brochures answer. Is it real. Where in the forty minutes does the waterfall come. Why do you need my weight. Why can’t I fly today when the sky over the hotel is blue. Does the seaplane go there. That last one matters, because the seaplane sold on GetYourGuide flies the north-east coast from Grand Gaube and never gets near Le Morne, and I would rather you read that here than found out in the air. Is it real and how to see it are the two pages I wrote first.
How I work
I read the operator’s own itinerary against the minutes I know each leg takes — the crossing from the airport over Grand Bassin and the gorges, the pass off Le Morne, the turn for Chamarel — and then I read the traveller reviews looking for the same sentence twice. Where a product publishes its times and limits I quote them; where it does not, I say so rather than guess. I do not name the operating companies, because you are booking a route and a set of conditions, and the same company can fly a good season and a bad one. I do not print prices, because they move; the live number is in the booking widget on every page. And I am willing to tell you that the hike is better value than a flight if you cannot afford one, and that if it is cloudy over the gorges you should move your date.
Every fact about the illusion, the mountain and the flying comes from the operators, the parks, or my own hours on the apron and the trail. If something here is wrong I would rather hear it from you than leave it up: tell me and I will fix it.
What this site is not
It is not a helicopter or seaplane operator, not the Mauritius Tourism Authority and not GetYourGuide. I cannot change your booking. When you are ready, the widgets send you to GetYourGuide to pay, and I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The details are on the affiliate disclosure page. It is the same commission on all seven tours, which is the only structural guarantee I can offer that I am not steering you towards the dear one.
If you want the whole thing explained before you choose anything, start with the guide. If you already know what you want, the reviews take the seven tours one at a time.