Today a journey west across the island to the capital of Port Louis. On this second excursion through the interior of Mauritius, notice a proliferation of sugar cane plantations, where very often the plants encroach right up to the border with the road, as if one is driving through a maze. The situation is similar to Fiji's where the British introduced cane and labour from India. Port Louis felt much hotter than the east coast where our resort was located, in fact it felt hot, and this was "winter". The capital city was best viewed from the hill where the Citadelle is poised. There are also many more Chinese in this commercial town. Not far away is Domaine Les Pailles, stretching over 3,000 acres at the foot of the Moka mountain range. Had lunch in the rather posh Chinese restaurant within this private park. There is a range of activities including quad biking or touring the park in a Land-Rover or horse-drawn carriage. We chose to do it in a train. The gardens also feature a replica of an ancient sugarmill, an "alambic" - an apparatus formerly used in distilling rum, a spice garden and a natural spring. The heat felt equally oppressive after the sea breeze we were used to, so the only other activity was consuming ice cream.