Le Pouce or Le Morne? The big Mauritius hikes compared

Five mountains, five different days

The five mountains most visitors ask about are not really competing for the same morning. Le Pouce is the capital’s mountain, a short walk from a high car park to a famous summit. Le Morne Brabant is a World Heritage landscape at the south-western tip of the island with a managed trail and a closed upper section. Lion Mountain is a quiet, steep ridge over the oldest bay in Mauritius. Pieter Both is a roped climb to a balanced boulder. Black River Peak, properly Piton de la Petite Rivière Noire, is the highest point on the island, reached by a long forest trail across a plateau inside the national park.

Which you choose depends on where you are staying, how much exposure you are happy with, whether you want a guide and what you want to look at from the top. The tables below gather the figures. Where a source does not give a number, the cell says so rather than guessing.

Height, distance and effort

Heights first, because they mislead. Black River Peak is the highest at 828 m but starts from a plateau, so the climb is modest and the effort is in the distance. Lion Mountain is the lowest at about 480 m, with published figures from 440 to 490 m, yet it starts almost at sea level and packs about 400 m of ascent into 1.8 km of path, which makes it the steepest of the five for its height. Le Pouce at 812 m starts at 381 m and climbs about 390 m in 2.05 km. Pieter Both at 820 m climbs 450 m on a route of 3.3 km return, with the upper half technical. Le Morne at 556 m has a long, gentle lower trail of 2.53 km one way and a steep upper section of 760 m that is currently closed.

Le Morne’s figures come from the sibling guide to that mountain, which lists 260 m for the lower trail and 492 m for the full route to the metal cross without saying outright whether those are heights reached or metres climbed. The cross is below the true summit, and the upper section is closed because of rockfall, so the full-route figures describe a route you cannot currently walk.

Exposure, guides, fees and views

Exposure separates these mountains more than height does. Le Pouce has a few metres of hands-on rock in a narrow trench at the very top, with a meadow below where anyone can stop. Lion Mountain’s final steps onto the lion’s head are exposed rock steps that need hands, and there is no easy way round them. Pieter Both’s whole upper ridge is an exposed scramble and the boulder is a roped climb. Le Morne’s lower trail is graded 1 by the Trust Fund, and its upper section, graded 3, involves steep rock, a gulley that carries water in rain, loose rock and rockfall danger, which is why it is closed. Black River Peak’s trail has no exposure that any source used here remarks on.

Only Pieter Both requires a guide and equipment. Le Pouce and Lion Mountain need neither, although both are only informally marked. Le Morne’s guides are an optional paid service from a list published by the Le Morne Heritage Trust Fund, with a visitor window of 07:00 to 16:00 and a latest start of 14:30. None of the five charges for access to the mountain itself. Lion Mountain is free from Vieux Grand Port but costs an entry fee if you start through the Vallée de Ferney, and Pieter Both’s guide is a cost in its own right. No fee was found for Black River Peak in the sources used.

Le Pouce against Le Morne in detail

This is the comparison most people are really making, because Le Morne is the mountain on the postcards and Le Pouce is the one near the capital. They are not alike. Le Morne is a World Heritage cultural landscape, inscribed in 2008 for its association with the maroons who escaped slavery, and its mountain is managed. You enter through an official hiking entrance, within a visitor window, on a graded trail with registered guides available. Le Pouce has none of that. It is a waymarked path from a farm road, open at any hour, with no office, no gate and no list.

On effort, Le Morne’s lower trail is longer and gentler than Le Pouce, about 2.5 km one way to Viewpoint 2 at 260 m, and most people spend two to three hours on it. Le Pouce is shorter at 2.05 km one way but climbs about 390 m, and its last spur is steeper than anything on Le Morne’s lower trail. Le Morne’s upper section would be the harder of the two if it were open, with a Grade 3 gulley of steep and loose rock, but it is closed and a guide cannot take you into it. As things stand, Le Pouce is the more demanding walk and the higher summit, and Le Morne is the longer, easier and more historically loaded one. If you want the view over a capital city, go to Le Pouce. If you want the lagoon and the story, go to Le Morne and treat Viewpoint 2 as the top.

The honest conclusion

There is no best hike in Mauritius, and this site will not pretend to rank them. There is a best hike for where you are staying and for how you feel about exposed rock.

• If you are staying in the north or in Port Louis with one free morning, choose Le Pouce. It is the nearest big summit, the car park is high, and the view over the capital is the one the island is known for from above.
• If you are staying in the south-west or want history with the walk, choose Le Morne Brabant’s lower trail, within the visitor window, with a registered guide if you want the story told.
• If you are staying in the south-east or want a quiet mountain over water, choose Lion Mountain from Vieux Grand Port, knowing that the final steps onto the head are exposed.
• If you want a roped climb with a professional and a summit that means something, choose Pieter Both, booked with a guide who takes you onto the boulder rather than beside it.
• If you want the island’s highest point with no exposure and a long forest walk, choose Black River Peak from Plaine Champagne and allow 3 to 4.5 hours for the 9 km.
• If you are walking with children or unsure of your head for heights, choose Le Pouce as far as the meadow, Le Morne’s lower trail or the Black River Peak trail, and leave Lion Mountain’s head and Pieter Both for another year.

Fitting two or three into a week

The mountains sit in different corners of a small island, and each pairs naturally with a region. Le Pouce belongs with Port Louis and Moka. Le Morne belongs with the south-west coast. Lion Mountain belongs with Mahébourg, Blue Bay and the south-east. Pieter Both and Le Pouce share the Moka Range and can be done on consecutive mornings from the same base, with Le Pouce first so you can look across at the boulder you are about to be roped up. Black River Peak sits inside the national park, which also holds the Macchabée trail, 14 km with 4 to 5.5 hours, for anyone who wants a second long forest day.

Whatever you pick, the rules are the same. Go early, because cloud and heat build through the morning. Check the forecast for the mountain’s own region, since the south-east is wetter than the west and the summits of the Moka Range gather cloud of their own. Carry at least 1.5 litres of water per person, because you should not count on finding water on any of these routes. The emergency numbers are 999 or 112 for the police and 114 for SAMU, and a rescue, when one happens, is carried out by police units and sometimes a helicopter rather than a mountain rescue team waiting at the trailhead.