We were looking for a fun activity to do in Mauritius and chanced upon the undersea walk while doing our research. This activity is safe for non-swimmers and non-divers, which allows you to immerse yourself in the underwater world and walk freely with the add of helmets that supply oxygen.

The excursion begins with a short motorboat transfer from the famous beach of Belle Mare to a platform anchored inside the splendid lagoon in front of Long Beach Hotel.

On the platform divers will receive a short pre departure briefing on the gear, the local marine life, on safety procedures and on the underwater walking trail. Then, with the help of the guide divers will enter the water up to their shoulders one by one through an opening within the platform. Here the helmet will be placed gently over their head.

Next they will be assisted to descend the ladder up to a depth of 3-4 meters and will begin the 15-20 minute undersea walk in groups of max 6 persons. The 30 kg panoramic diving helmet weighs no more than a conventional motorcycle helmet under water and keeps your head dry, thus enabling you to keep your glasses or contact lenses on during the trip. A pipe connected to the surface tank provides a regular flow of air into the helmet and allows you to breathe normally. Swimming is not at all involved in undersea walking; therefore the activity is open to all non-swimmers.

Experienced divers assist in taking you underwater and accompany you throughout the entire walk to guarantee your maximum safety. Surface swimming monitors also watch over you at all times. The divers will benefit from our innovative air supply system consisting of a bank of diving bottles, which in turn delivers breathing air of an international quality standard.

All diving equipment is systematically inspected and certified by accredited agents on a regular basis. Our air supply system allows us to be free from machineries such as compressors and generators on board and has therefore proved to be the most silent and least “CO2 free emissive” undersea walk operation on the island.

The marine life in the coral reef is varied and we were lucky to see many types of fishes, from trumpet fish to other types of colourful ones. It was surreal getting up close with these marine animals.

However, some of the corals are dead already and since they form part of the ecosystem, they cannot be removed. Due to the impacts of climate change, we are slowly seeing many coral reefs around the world, even in Maldives or the Great Barrier Reef, that are slowly bleached and dying.

Besides admiring the coral life, the crew also passed us some pieces of bread to feed the fishes. Upon smelling the bread, the fishes swarmed around us.

On weekends the Belle Mare beach is also a very popular picnic spot for the locals. After the helmet dive, you can also choose to try out other activities such as kite surfing or lazing at the beach or taking a boat ride to the nearby island Ile aux Cerfs.

We were well taken care of by Bilal and his crew during our trip out to sea. The safety briefing was done in English and we were also taught on the safety measures when we were under the sea.

Aquaventure is the first company to have introduced Undersea Walk on Mauritius’ East Coast – more precisely in Belle Mare in 1995. They also offer customised packages such as underwater wedding photography. They had a special “Just married” sign for us when we were doing the undersea walk.

Aquaventure has been a wonderful company and their staff are really passionate about their work. The attention that they give to customers is incredible and I would recommend joining them on their tour. Even though Bilal is the boss and he could stay in the office to do his work, he chose to go down to sea with us. It has been a memorable honeymoon experience for me and my wife. We hope to come back to Mauritius again!