Ebony Forest Chamarel, its raised walkway and Sublime Point

How Ebony Forest is bringing back a native forest

Ebony Forest has been restoring native forest at Chamarel since 2006, when its team began weeding out invasive plants and planting native species on land off the 7 Coloured Earth Road.

The reserve was founded by Owen and Mary-Ann Griffiths, opened its visitor centre to the public in 2017 and is now a registered non-profit. By its own count it manages 195 ha in three forests, has weeded and replanted more than 50 ha of endemic forest, has planted more than 200,000 endemic and native plants and has propagated 118 species. It also runs two predator-control grids covering 90 ha, 50 ha at Ebony Forest and 40 ha at Vallée de l’Est.

Much of the work is removal. The invasive plants on the reserve’s weeding list are hiptage, Chinese guava, tabebuia, ravenala, jambos and litsea, and the introduced mammals it controls are pigs, deer, rats, cats, mongooses, macaques and tenrecs.

UN Tourism’s 2025 village profile gives a founding date of 2017, 34 ha and more than 154,000 native plantings. The 2017 date is the year the visitor centre opened, and the figures above are the reserve’s own.

The Flycatcher raised walkway

The Flycatcher raised walkway is a 300 m walkway more than 4 m above the ground, walked on a guided tour of about 30 minutes, with 113 steps up and 142 down.

It is a raised or mid-canopy walkway, not a canopy walk among the treetops, so expect a close view into the restored forest rather than a view over the top of it. Guided tours leave every hour from 09:30 to 16:00, and an access trail of 1.3 km, about 15 to 20 minutes on foot, leads to the start from the visitor centre.

All those steps make the walkway hard going for anyone with limited mobility, and the reserve asks visitors with access difficulties and large groups to contact it in advance. The gentler option is the Take A Drive experience, which involves only about 0.5 km of walking on the Flycatcher and Sublime Point walkways.

Sublime Point and the Ridgeline Trail

Sublime Point is Ebony Forest’s west-facing lookout, reached on foot by the 1.1 km Ridgeline Trail from the Flycatcher Forest in about 30 minutes.

The view reaches over Le Morne Brabant and Île aux Bénitiers in the lagoon and along the coast towards Flic en Flac. The reserve does not publish the lookout’s altitude. Its hikes to Sublime Point or Piton Canot total 2.3 to 6.1 km and take 1 to 4 hours, including the 2.4 km walk back to the visitor centre, which takes 30 to 50 minutes.

Sublime Point is also the setting for the Sublime Sundowner, which starts at 15:30, lasts 2 to 3 hours, needs at least two adults and cost Rs 4,550 per non-resident adult when checked on 29 October 2026. The outing includes a jeep ride at dusk, up to six beers, six soft drinks and two cocktails per person, a film and a natural-history museum by Dr Julian Hume, and later departures can be requested from 1 November to 31 March.

Climbing Piton Canot from Ebony Forest

From Ebony Forest a 400 m trail climbs 140 m to the summit of Piton Canot, 542 m above sea level by the reserve’s figure, and the last departure for it is at 16:00.

The reserve grades its hikes as easy overall, but this short section climbs steeply, 140 m in 400 m, and the path is slippery when wet. The summit is also given as 526 m, 534 m or 540 m, the normal spread for a sharp top measured with different instruments and maps.

Piton Canot can also be climbed from the other side, starting near Le Chamarel Restaurant. That route is 2.6 km there and back, takes 1 to 2 hours and has rocky steps that need hands and some frayed ropes. The hiking page covers it in detail.

Ebony Forest Chamarel price, tickets and visiting times

The Ebony Forest Chamarel price for the standard Take A Hike ticket is Rs 600 for a non-resident adult and Rs 370 for ages 5 to 17, or Rs 400 and Rs 250 for Mauritian residents, with under 5s free (checked on 29 October 2026).

Booking is not necessary, buying online saves 10%, and resident groups of more than 10 pay Rs 360 per adult and Rs 225 per child, as published in October 2026. The reserve closes at 17:00, runs hourly walkway tours from 09:30 to 16:00 and recommends arriving before 14:30. It publishes no opening days, so call (+230) 460 3030 before a Sunday or public-holiday visit. Ebony Forest sells its own tickets, separate from the geopark ticket, and you park at the welcome centre.

Guided experiences and what they cost

Beyond the Take A Hike ticket, Ebony Forest sells other experiences, from a short loop walk to a guided sundowner, that cost a non-resident adult between Rs 300 and Rs 4,550 (checked on 29 October 2026).

Bird Watching and the Guided Trek both start at 09:00. Take A Drive and Love Tree run at 09:30, 11:30, 13:30 and 15:30, and the Green Loop is a short 250 m walk. Ask what each one includes before you pay.

Endemic birds and giant tortoises at Ebony Forest

Ebony Forest has reintroduced four endemic bird species and runs two giant tortoise rewilding projects. Pink pigeons, Mauritius kestrels and echo parakeets all live in the reserve, and no sighting is guaranteed.

The reserve’s own species records, checked on 29 October 2026, give the detail. The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation moved 50 young pink pigeons from the Black River Gorges National Park to Ebony Forest in 2018 and 2019. A first attempt to settle echo parakeets in 2018 and 2019 failed because none of the birds stayed, but the reserve now has an introduced population after hand-reared birds were released from the 2021 to 2022 season onwards, and it has put up 11 nest boxes around Chamarel. Six Mauritius olive white-eyes were released at Ebony Forest in January 2023. Kestrel nest boxes went up between 2012 and 2014, the first breeding pair used them in 2019, and one or two pairs now breed there regularly.

The tortoises are Aldabra giant tortoises, brought in as ecological stand-ins for Mauritius’ own giant tortoises, which are extinct, to graze and spread the seeds of native plants. Four juveniles came from La Vanille Nature Park in February 2019 and were released on 25 April 2023, the first release of its kind on mainland Mauritius by the reserve’s account, and ten more followed in July 2023. They roam freely, so a sighting is not guaranteed, unlike the tortoises in the enclosure at the Chamarel Seven Coloured Earth Geopark.