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Why the garden deserves a half-day

Most British visitors come to Mauritius for the lagoons, and quite rightly. But the island's northern interior holds something the coastline cannot offer: one of the oldest botanical gardens in the southern hemisphere. The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden at Pamplemousses — known to nearly everyone simply as Pamplemousses — covers roughly 37 hectares of lawns, ponds and cathedral-like avenues of palms, about eleven kilometres north-east of Port Louis.

It is not a manicured theme park. Expect a slightly unruly, deeply shaded place where giant fruit bats hang in the trees and the air smells of damp earth and spice. Two to three hours is the right amount of time, and it makes an easy half-day trip from Grand Baie, Trou aux Biches, Pereybère or the capital.

A very long botanical history

The site began in the 1730s as a modest vegetable plot attached to the French colonial estate of Mon Plaisir. Its real character emerged a few decades later under Pierre Poivre, the island's intendant, who turned it into a spice garden of considerable ambition. At a time when the Dutch controlled the nutmeg and clove trade, Poivre arranged for seedlings to be smuggled in from the East Indies — an act of botanical espionage that helped break a lucrative monopoly.

Those spice plants became the foundation of the collection, and the garden has been growing, exchanging and recording plants ever since. It was renamed in 1988 in honour of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the country's first prime minister, and the small colonial house at its heart, the Château de Mon Plaisir, still overlooks the lawns where it all started.

The plants you will remember

Guides will point out dozens of species, but a handful tend to stay with people long after they fly home:

• Giant water lilies — Victoria amazonica, with leaves up to two metres across. The flowers open white on the first evening, then turn pink on the second before sinking. Early morning is when they look their best.
• The talipot palm — it grows for decades, produces one enormous flowering spike, sets seed and dies. If one happens to be in bloom during your visit, you are seeing something genuinely rare.
• The palm collection — well over eighty species from around the Indian Ocean and beyond, arranged along walkways that feel like green tunnels.
• The spice garden — cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla, allspice and turmeric growing together, labelled and explained.
• Endemic trees — including ebony and other species that once covered Mauritius. These quiet corners are the most important part of the garden.
• Wildlife — giant Aldabra tortoises, fruit bats, deer and a good range of birds, particularly in the early morning.

Conservation behind the scenery

Mauritius has lost the overwhelming majority of its native forest, which makes collections like this one far more than a pretty walk. The garden functions as a living seed bank and a propagation nursery, growing on rare and endangered plants so that they are not lost entirely, and supplying material for replanting schemes elsewhere on the island.

It also does quiet educational work, hosting school groups and training horticultural staff. If you are interested in this side of things, ask your guide to show you the endemic section rather than sticking to the headline attractions — the palms and lilies draw the crowds, but the conservation plots are where the real value sits. A tip for a guide who knows the plants properly is money well spent.

Practical planning for your visit

• Getting there — around 20 to 25 minutes by car from Grand Baie, and about the same from central Port Louis. Taxis are plentiful and most drivers will wait for you; a full day's hire with a driver is often better value than two single fares. Public buses run but are slow and crowded.
• Timing — aim to arrive within the first hour or two of opening. It is cooler, the light is better, the birds are active and the paths are quieter.
• Tickets — admission is modest, in the low hundreds of rupees for adults and less for children. Guides at the gate work for tips, so carry small notes.
• What to bring — water, a hat, high-factor sun cream, mosquito repellent and comfortable closed shoes. Paths are mostly flat and easy, but the shade does not stop the humidity.
• Weekends — Saturday and Sunday bring local families and wedding photography parties. Go on a weekday if you want the avenues to yourself.

Pairing it with the rest of the north

Pamplemousses sits neatly in a day out. The village itself is worth a short wander, and the surrounding area has a sugar museum, a rum distillery and several gardens and estates that suit an afternoon. Many visitors combine the botanical garden in the morning with Port Louis — the central market and the waterfront — in the afternoon, or simply head back to the coast for a late swim.

Remember that driving is on the left, as at home, and roads in the north can be busy around Pamplemousses at school-run times. Allow a little slack in your schedule and treat the garden as a slow, shaded wander rather than a checklist. Bring a camera, take your time, and let the place do what it has been doing for two and a half centuries.