📸 Black & White Photography - Gare du Nord bus seems chaotic at first sight (17 photos)

For several years I have had a plan to take photos here at the Gare du Nord bus station in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius. One day I think it will disappear, or at least be renewed and replaced with a modern. In a way my thought has been to document this old bus station before any changes will take place. I have been coming to Mauritius for many decades and the station still looks the same. You get an impression that it's caotic and hard to find the right bus. But they do have sign boards and a system they make sense to the locals. I have chosen black and white for this selection of photos. Makes the place look as if it's from the 1950's. Except the modern choice of cloth you see on the people.

When on the island I always stay in Grand Baie, which is one of the largest cities in the northern part of the island. There is an express bus between Grand Baie and Port Louis, taking approx 25-30 minutes. When it arrives here at Gare du Nord, it has it's parking at the most northern end. I allways have to walk through all the busses to get. This day I came from the city center and was on my way to the Grand Baie bus, but took time to wander around to take photos first.

There are lots of bus shelters providing shade from the intense sun. All appear to be built of solid stone and have tin roofs. In this shelters some of the bus drivers are taking a break. The bus driver is getting into the bus on the photo above. The island has left-hand driving, so the driver gets into the bus on the left side.

The busses do have the destination written above the front window or on a board in the window. Also there is a rather small sign at the the waiting shed at the stop with the name of the destination. I know when and where my bus to Grand Baie leaves, but when I have to change to one of the others, I have to walk around and sometimes ask the drivers. Usually there can be more than fifty busses here at the same time, so it takes time to find the right bus.

Many busses have different decorations on the side or at the back. In this case it's a white lotus flower. It can be quite interesting to study them or take some close up photos. Maybe that should be my project next year.

At this section of the bus station there were not many busses at the time I was here. You can see all these rows of shelters, which indicates that there busses wil park here. I was here late in the afternoon, so it might mean that the last bus has already left. There are no busses after 18 o'clock. If I miss my last bus to Grand Baie, I have to take a taxi.

On the photos you can see Port Louis city center to the south. There used to be a bus station on the south of the city center for buses going south. If you arrived with a bus at Gare du Nord and were to continue with a bus going south, you had to change station. That meant a walk for approx 20 minutes through the very heavy trafficated city center. In resent years this has changed. The old southern bus station is not here anymore. Instead there is a new shopping center called Victoria St. which also has the bus station for south going buses. The station is modernized with timetables on digital screens. We don't have to walk between the two stations any more. There is a bus that runs between the two now.

Along the bus station Gare du Nord, you can see the main road going through Port Louis. The area where the bus station is localted is also called Immigration Square. This derives from the colonial era when the colonial powers made profit by growing sugar. On the right side of the road on the photo you will find the harbor with Aapravasi Ghat, that once served as a depot for immigrants. During the years 1830 to 1910 close to half a million peoople arrived the island to work as indentured labour on the sugar plantations. At that time the were in quarantine at Aapravasi Ghat before they were put on a train and transporter to their respective plantations. Hence the name Immigration Square.

Even though it is large and chaotic, I hope I will still have to take the bus from here for many more years.

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