Île aux Cerfs is named after animals that no longer live on it. Dutch sailors landed Java deer in Mauritius in 1639 as a stock of fresh meat for ships bound for the Indies; this 87-hectare islet off the east coast was stocked with them, and kept their name long after the last deer went. What it kept instead was the water. A barrier reef offshore takes the weight of the Indian Ocean swell, so the lagoon behind it lies shallow and flat over a floor of pale coral sand: the turquoise everyone photographs is that sand, seen through clear, quiet water. Nothing on the island competes with it — no roads, no residents, only casuarina groves, a handful of restaurants, and an 18-hole championship golf course laid out between nine lakes and outcrops of black volcanic rock.
Getting there is half of the day. Boats leave the mainland village of Trou d'Eau Douce, and most run first up the Grand River South East — the longest river in Mauritius, draining the wettest ground on the island — to idle below its waterfall before turning back out into open lagoon. Ashore, the island is privately run: the Sunlife hotel group manages it as a leisure island, open morning to early evening, and it is one of the busiest sights in the country. By late morning the main beach fills with boats from the mainland resorts, so the day sorts itself into snorkelling over reef flats where black basalt breaks through white sand, and walking until the beach bars end and the sand goes quiet. This is also the windward coast: from June to September the southeast trade winds push across the lagoon and roughen it, while in the southern summer the water lies flat and the river runs full.