A Visit to Kanaka Crater – Mauritius

I still remember when I was a kid and during geography classes the teacher taught us about the dormant volcanoes of the island and one name that we used to tease about was certainly ‘Kanaka Crater’…even though we had no idea where it was and how it looked like. Quite recently during my ‘locate and explore’ sessions I found the location and decided to pay a visit to that place: A Visit to Kanaka Crater.

The dormant volcano is located in the village of Bois Cheri and can be easily accessed from the main road through a 2km path leading to the crater. The path is fairly large enough through tea fields and a pick-up would be the ideal medium of transport to visit the area but in my case I went there on my faithful motorcycle.

For those who are acquainted to ‘Trou Aux Cerfs’, the other famous dormant volcano of the island, Kanaka Crater (‘Trou Kanaka’ for some) looks near similar but only smaller in diameter. The crater floor is full of natural vegetation but the only drawback is that one cannot cover the whole circumference of the crater, there is only one viewpoint. At the time of visit vegetation had taken over what looks to be a possible around-path and making way through it was quite difficult.

Below is a map I saved online from I don’t remember where and shows like a volcano-path joining all those probable volcanoes of the island.

Map of Volcanoes & Craters of Mauritius

Map of Volcanoes & Craters of Mauritius

After some 15-30 minutes spent on the spot, it was time to move back home.

A Visit to Kanaka Crater - Back Home

A Visit to Kanaka Crater – Back Home


If you want to download this map, click on ‘View Larger Map’ and select ‘Download KML’ next to the search field.

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