Although I worked for 9 years at Bourbon Plastiques, I never hiked this path up alongside the Rivière du Mât river although I'd heard about. It's now been 12 years since I left BP to move to Seoul for three years, so when an outing to Rivière du Mât was suggested by a group of friends I was keen to participate.
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| Bourbon Plastiques roofs are just visible behind the vegetation |
It's not a very difficult hike, and the path is flat most of the time. We only went as far as Bassin des Aigrettes, which should not be confused with its homonym at Saint-Gilles, although they do look similar.
At one point on the path a sign indicates Bassin De La Mer, which is a bit further on and slightly steeper to get to. Again this should not be confused with its near-homonym Bassin La Mer at Saint-Benoit.
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| sign to Bassin De La Mer |
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| Bassin des Aigrettes, Rivière du Mât |
The way back was by the same path, and we stopped off to cool our feet in the river.
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| Rivière du Mât, looking east towards the sea |
The area near the carpark where the hike starts and finishes has been landscaped to a certain extent, and there are some attractive plants as well as some old remnants of the former sugar factory that Bourbon Plastiques stands on the site of.
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| jackfruit growing |
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| Heliconia |
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| ornamental banana |
If you're interested in this hike, information in French can be found at La boucle des Bassins de la Mer et des Aigrettes depuis la Rivière du Mât.
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