YEMEN SALINE - TAMARIND

Threatened with extinction despite the battle waged by heritage advocates to preserve the island's historic jewels, the Yemen salt flats, also known as the Tamarin salt flats, are as much a part of the village's reputation as the surf spot or the dolphins in the bay. Visible from the coastal road, they are part of a vast complex that is not limited to the village of Tamarin but extends as far as Black River, and of which several sections are inaccessible to the general public. In the heart of the hamlet, the salt pans of this part of the island can be visited. They are among the oldest in Mauritius and date back to the French period, when salt was of vital importance, especially for the preservation of meat on board ships.

When the light is good, the grid of basalt stone basins can lend itself to very beautiful shots. In the aqueous immobility, similar to a succession of mirrors, the mounds of whitish salt are duplicated like so many still lifes. Here and there, the brighter blue of plastic basins, the jute of large rough sacks, and in a play of binary reflections, the women's bodies clothed in their working clothes: puffy skirts of coarse canvas, black rubber boots, protective gaiters and wide-brimmed straw hats. An almost pictorial vision... From generation to generation, the harvest is still done in a traditional and artisanal way in collaboration with the families of the village: the sea water is pumped, then poured into shallow basins. As it circulates in the clay plots or "chauffoirs", it is transformed by the wind and the sun into an aqueous solution called brine. It is then led into crystallizers to form salt crystals. The fleur de sel is harvested there, with a taste that is reputedly finer than table salt thanks to its richness in trace elements and a lower level of sodium chloride. The major harvests take place from September to December, which, depending on the weather, are the best months to see the salt workers at work, preferably early in the morning and late in the afternoon. The route is free, but with educational signs.

On site, a pretty shop sells different varieties of salt (including flavoured salts and bath salts), fleur de sel, rag dolls representing the salt workers, etc.