We finally were able to get the rental car we had booked and left around 9am for the trip to the south of the island. There is a major motorway that runs from the north to Port Louis then heads east to the airport. It was hard to get up any speed though, as roundabouts are interspersed. There is the occasional exit with a conventional on/off ramp but generally it kept us off some of the peripheral roads with the madcap island drivers. It was a pleasure to come south as some of the old volcanoes make for some dramatic scenery. Our first stop was at the 7 colored Earth, some piles of dirt that have been uncovered and really do show many hues of blue to oranges, reds, and browns. Nothing grows on these small mounds due to the high mineral content. We stopped at Chamarel waterfalls, which had a drop of 83m. I am sure it would have been more spectacular in the rainy season but it was a great photo regardless. We stopped at some vistas of the valleys, which have big drop offs due to the volcanoes in the area. This was in the national park and there is hiking here but it would be steep in some places. We stop at Rhumerie de Chamarel, the biggest rum factory in Mauritius. Here they use the sugar cane for rum only, no sugar production. We had to stay for the tasting and I was glad I was not driving. Some of the specialty rums were worth a second taste so we had to buy a few bottles. After stopping for lunch in the town of Chamarel, we headed off to the Hindu temple on the lake, the most sacred Hindu site in Mauritius. This is a volcanic crater filled with water with a temple by the lake. What made it spectacular was the 33m statue of the Hindu god on one side of the road and the building of a second statue on the other side of the road. Our last stop was at the Bois Cheri Tea Factory. Unfortunately the factory is only open one day a week in the winter as the tea is not in season. We did walk around the museum and had a welcome stop at the restaurant for tea tasting. Unfortunately there were no scones to go with the tea so we just worked our way through the different tea varieties. As it was close to rush hour traffic, we stopped at the Flying Dodo Brewery for dinner. This is a microbrewery that brews all their own beers and as such had a very nice atmosphere for partaking happy hour. We got back after dark and decided we needed a day off after so much touring around.