Shellorama Museum

The Riviere Noire district has many attractions. The southwest coast is the centre for big game fishing and to a lesser extent diving and surfing. It boasts good long beaches and the islands best nature reserve, the Macchabee forest and Riviere Noire Gorges. In the north, most of coastal plain is comprised of cane fields but in the south, where the Port Louis road hits the coast at Tamarin, the plateau drops steeply towards the sea.

This little museum, next door to the main post office, houses a collection of Mauritian stamps and assorted philately. In November, 2001, The Mauritius Commercial Bank has opened a museum known as the Blue Penny Museum. This is the first philatelic museum in the country. Items on display include a range of old stamps, telegraph machines, printing plates and other interesting postal paraphernalia.The museum (tel; 208 2851) is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm and also on Saturday from 9 to 11.30 am.

Eureka House at Moka is an independent museum featuring antiques, furniture old lithographs and other objects from private collection. There is also public museum with collections of natural history, naval, historical and literary items, which came under the aegis of the Mauritius Institute.

Robert Edward hart (1891-1954) was a renowned Mauritius poet, appreciated by the French and English alike. He wrote in French and translations of his poetry are hard to find. He lived out the last 13years of his life at Le Nef, a coral beach cottage about 500m east along the shore from the Souillac Bus Park. It was taken over by public in 1967 the bedroom and kitchens have been maintained. On display are copies and originals of Hart’s letters, plays, speeches and poetry, as well as his spectacles, pith helmet and fiddle.

Eureka la maison Créole in West Moka stands about 4km from Le Reduit, on the other side of the Port Louis Curepipe motorway, just off the road to Moka. This country house, lying under Montagne Ory, was restored and opened to the public in 1986 as a museum. It was built in the 1830s and purchased in 1856 by Eugene Leclezio, the first Mauritian Master of the Supreme Court. Like Le Rediut, and any of the properties around this area, it has terrific views across the river valley.