Ah the Crystal Dreams trip. Everyone I know who has been to Mauritius in the past few years - which weirdly has been quite a lot of people - has done an Adrien's Dream excursion, of which Crystal Dreams is one of their offerings. And there's a reason for it.
Even if the day starts pretty early. Firstly, and this is dependent on where you're staying on the island, because you may hit traffic. Our route to Flic-en-Flac took us past the capital, Port Louis, and didn't involve anything bigger than a single-lane road. Hence, traffic. The second reason why is because the first bit of the trip involves dolphins and it's better to catch them earlier on in the day.
Both bottlenose and spinner dolphins frequent the waters around Mauritius and we were lucky enough to see both of them. Not only that, we were lucky enough to swim with them! The one thing they do stress though when you book this trip - and again when you get on the boat - that there is no guarantee you will see dolphins, let alone swim with them. If the skipper doesn't think it's safe to get in the water, you won't go in if you do see them.
Fortunately for us, we were able to both see and swim with them. Though I found it terrifying! Jumping out of the boat into the water, the first thing I see whilst my body is under the water is five or six dolphins swimming straight towards me. Bottlenose dolphins can be up to four metres in size, whilst spinners are no more than two metres. I honestly couldn't tell you which ones they were as they swam past me so fast. And boy, they are super fast! So much so that I could not keep up, which is why all our excellent underwater video and photos were taken by Olly on the GoPro.
After that we headed off to the reef for snorkelling which, to be honest, isn't as exciting immediately after seeing and swimming with dolphins - fish just don't compare! And after all that swimming, lunch was much needed and that happened on Île aux Benitiers, an uninhabited island with views of Mauritius's mountain, Le Morne Brabant. BBQ food was on the menu, and it was both plentiful and yum.
Entertainment followed lunch - the boat crews singing and dancing - before it was time to head back on the boat to go and see Crystal Rock up close. Again, we had the opportunity to do a short swim here in the wonderful turquoise-coloured waters. (Though it's actually shallow in the immediate vicinity of Crystal Rock.) And that was that. With music blasting out, we headed back to dry land after a very sunny and successful day.
We booked through the hotel, though you can book direct, and I have no idea what we paid now - the downside of blogging months after the trip! Their site quotes 4,975 Mauritian rupees for an adult, which includes return transfer, lunch and drinks, so I suspect we paid around that. That's around £85 if you're after the currency conversion. Definitely worth doing if you're ever in Mauritius. x
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