We are currently sailing gently off Madagascar with 1,000nm to go to our next landfall, Durban. So far, the sailing in the Indian Ocean, for us, has been fantastic and during our passage from Cocos Keeling to la Reunion Island, we broke our 24 hour sailing record and achieved 211nm. In fact over a three day period, days 6,7 and 8, we recorded over 600nm. During the passage, Debbie’s son, Jon, celebrated his 21st. birthday - a day of reflection but Jon and Jaz are visiting us in South Africa, so the celebrations will continue.
We arrived in La Reunion Island knowing little about the island. 95% of the visitors are French and we think as a holiday destination it is overlooked by the rest of the world. In particular the island has now dropped it’s visa requirement for South Africans to try to divert those who fly direct to Mauritius. La Reunion Island is an adventurer’s playground.
La Reunion Island was formed 3,000,000 years ago by an undersea volcanic eruption. The island is an oceanic island and part of the Mascarenes group (La Reunion, Mauritius and Rodriguez). The group were named after a Portuguese Admiral, Pedro Mascarenhas, whose fleet anchored off 500 years ago.
Uninhabited until the early seventeenth century, the islands were visited by the Dutch, French and English. The French named the island, Bourbon and after an unsettled period a French governor was appointed to oversee the island. Prisoners, slaves and pirates arrived together with exiled French revolutionary aristocrats fleeing from their motherland. Island life was harsh but the highest toll was on the ecological system - thirty species of birds, including the Dodo and the Solitaire together with large reptiles became extinct within a few decades.
The royal name of Bourbon (it remains a feature in the culture and products to this day) was changed to Reunion after the French Revolution, later changed to Bonaparte Island when Napoleon Bonaparte was in control of France. In 1810, the English captured the island and changed it’s name back to La Reunion only to pass it back to the French in 1814 at the Treaty of Paris. Reunion has been a district of France since 1946 and the Reunionnais refer to France as the mainland.
We were looking forward to some French cafe culture and we were not disappointed. That is only a small part of what La Reunion has to offer with the fantastic interior created by the three Cirques (collapsed volcanoes).
Apart from the token industry of sugar production the main income for the island is earned by tourism. France has invested heavily in the road and tunnel system. The 800,000 inhabitants populate the roads with 400,000 cars, which during rush hour creates spectacular traffic jams.
Tourism has been affected over the past few years by shark attacks and swimming is not permitted unless supervised within the reef. This is a great shame because the diving, surfing and swimming is fantastic. Kinley from one of the OWR boats braved the waters and had “the wave of his life”.
We arrived on Friday and just to add to the traffic chaos immediately hired a car. The marina is part of the commercial port and apart from two on site cafes, we were a number of miles from anywhere. Saturday, we ventured off to the capital, St. Denis and enjoyed a typical three hour French lunch in a restaurant which could have been easily mistaken for a Parisian establishment - except for the climate.
The Reunion tourist board organised a day’s excursion on the Tuesday into the island’s interior. We travelled through ten microclimates ranging through lush rainforest, sugar plantations, forests and the moonscape that makes up the area around Piton de la Fournaise. We enjoyed a Creole lunch with Alex, our senior tour guide who later arranged for our laundry to be serviced from the marina. We finished off the evening dancing to a fantastic live band and there was rapturous applause for Roger who took to the stage with his harmonica.
Wednesday evening, the OWR fleet were invited to a cocktail party with traditional dancing - Maloya and savouring traditional fare. Each boat was kindly presented with a present of local produce - chocolate, vanilla pods, honey and a woven plate.
The next day we were due to take a one hour helicopter flight to view the interior of the island, of which many parts are inaccessible or others requiring you to get up at 2am to climb to summits by sunrise. The trip was delayed due to low cloud cover and we retreated to St. Gilles Les Bains for a typical French breakfast.
Cigars are always a feature of our everyday life on Amelie. In Tahiti we spent two hours in a taxi without buying any. Stephen now has a pipe as a backup. This time, he put out a plea on the SSB radio net for any boat visiting Mauritius to purchase duty free Cuban cigars. They came in all shapes and sizes, gratefully received by Stephen. The cigar stores are plentiful on Amelie - no doubt he will run out by the time we reach Durban.
Saturday morning, bright and early, we arrived at the heliport to be told that our flight was going to happen this time. With only six people in the helicopter, everyone had great views. We saw the Cirques of Salazie, Cilaos and inaccessible Mafate - flying through the caldera valleys and ravines, skimming the fantastic waterfalls and pools of Salazie, low flying over the Piton des Neiges in the centre of the Cirques with it’s numerous, small extinct craters. The views were breathtaking and at times, heart stopping as we climbed vertically up the side of one ravine, over the top to the crowning vista of more of the mountainous scenery. For us, this was the highlight of our time spent on the island.
We found the Reunionnaise people universally friendly and helpful, from our first contact with Pierre and Claire in the marina, to the staff of restaurants and bakeries, tour guides and finally a Biologist from the hospital, who brought his wife and son aboard Amelie to get a sense of life on board a sailing boat.
Sadly, time flies and time to move on again. Excitement as a new adventure unfolds with Christmas around the corner and the added bonus of having some of the family for Christmas.
Twenty four hours out to sea we had a private display from a couple of Humpback whales, finning and fluking, in the setting sun - life can’t get much better.