Trou Moutou is a dive site in the Mahebourg Lagoon, Mauritius. It is popular for its protected shallow 9m depth and open sandy seabed areas ideal for doing Open Water Diver practical tests. It also has a couple of Hawksbill Sea Turtles living there, but mostly it stands out for its Submerged Sculpture Garden that is not only mesmerising, but also makes for fabulous photo opportunities.   

The statues are that of Hindu gods. In an attempt to find out more about the statues’ history at Trou Moutou, I have found out that in the past when temples were renovated, the Hindu god would be replaced by a new one and the old one would be submerged to spend the rest of its days in this peaceful underwater world. It is also a fact that some of these statues may have been submerged during the annual Hindu Festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. The latter has been banned because of possible pollution as a result of paint or plastics and these days the festival statues are made of soluble earth and submerged in rivers.

 The actual number of statues is uncertain as it is known that some of them have been covered by sand through time. The majority of the visible statues are in a state of decay indicating that they have been there for many years. The opinions I got about the suspected timeline varied greatly and my question about this sparked a heated and controversial debate on Facebook. Someone mentioned the Lemuria Era (a civilisation before Atlantis / guessed to have been 300 000 BC) while others could confirm their presence first hand as much as 80 years ago. The decay and growth of marine organisms on them indicate that they have witnessed many years on Trou Moutou.

I am still hoping to do my first night dive on Trou Moutou. Until then I will try to be there when it’s possible, as it remains a site with personal sentimental value to me, having done my SSI Open Water Diver Practical there. I am dreaming of a coral transplantation project to this site and I’m also praying that the mooring buoy, which has been in the planning phase for far too long, will be delivered to this site sooner rather than later. Many of the sites in this lagoon and Marine Reserve need mooring buoys desperately to protect the sensitive reef from anchor damage.

Two years ago a friend and I tried our hands at making a cement statue. We were very adventurous and created a larger than life Star Gazer, now looking at the Southern Cross from my garden. When my friend decided to do his Padi Open Water Diver Course here in Mauritius, while I’m here too, I was keen to share the submerged statue experience with him. We were running out of time and I was elated when the Dive Centre allowed me to accompany them on his last two qualifying dives. Trou Moutou was his final qualifying dive.

The site is in the lagoon and the sediment and limited visibility was still an issue as the day before. This being the aftermath of two cyclones in ten days and three rivers running into the lagoon. With a 6m viz I was not very optimistic about the results of the underwater photographs I hoped for, but the dive did not disappoint.

If you are a novice diver I can’t stress the importance of the mask clearing skill enough. You know: pressing the top ridge of your mask firmly to your forehead using the thumb and index finger of both hands, tilting your head slightly back, looking up and exhaling a full breath of air through your nose, allowing the air bubbles to remove the water through the bottom seal of your mask.   

This skill is not only needed when you have a leaky or foggy mask, or when your mask accidently gets knocked off your face or should you need to remove your mask for another reason – I never imagined that I would need the skill because of laughing too much underwater! The seal of the mask starts leaking because of your facial changes during laughter. Flooding in my case! During the course of this 52min dive, I had to clear my mask five times!

Diving with a friend as your buddy pushes the dive to a different level as a result of your shared history and frame of reference, which can become reference points underwater when seeing something. Our shared interest in cement statues had us lingering at each one. When we got to Shiva with five heads and ten arms, my buddy signed to me that he saw me in this statue. Once I understood that he was referring to how much I talked and that he thought I might as well have five mouths, I cracked up with laughter. On another occasion He indicated that my head looked like an anemone. I knew my short blond hair tended to rise straight up on a dive, but it was not until I saw the photos that I could fully appreciate how funny the situation actually was. We were already back on the boat – laughing still!

This experience made me realise how much I missed out on, by not having a regular dive buddy. So if you are one of the lucky ones, who always dive with the same buddy, appreciate the comfort / frame of reference and developed signing skills that you share. It is priceless!

Happy Diving!

By Lynette Gerber-Lochenkov