Reunion

Cornish ensign and St. Mawes Sailing Club burgee  

Our sail to Reunion was rough in big seas which broke across the boat from time to time.   Once out of the shelter of the island we found it was blowing 30-40 knots and double reefed the main and genoa.  

Anne and Alice took their daylight watches steering the ship, but by supper time Alice was feeling very green, and sensibly took the night watch in her bunk.   Anne however was up at 3 a.m. to stand watch with me coming into Reunion, and by 09:15 we had entered Le Port and tied up alongside a long concrete wall in the old fishing harbour. 

We found all the World ARC boats moored in a long line ahead of us, and greeted Dietmar on "Cesarina", last seen in Niue.The old fishing harbour is not a convenient spot, as it's a long long walk round to town, but I negotiated a key from Angelique, the Harbour Master, which enabled us to take the dinghy across the port and use the newer marina which is close to facilities. 

To our amusement a workboat skippered by a Camborne man saw our flags and now plays Cornish music specially for us on his loudspeaker system every time he comes back into port.  He works on delivering men and equipment to the largest construction project in "Europe", building a massive offshore motorway along the cliffs of Reunion.

It turned out to be almost impossible to hire a car because of high demand, but luckily we found the last one in the island, and I commandeered it for two days to explore with Anne and Alice.

Predictable Papa Paul Pose on Perilously Precipitous Places

The interior of Reunion soars into clouds on great volcanic slopes, riven with astonishingly deep gorges with vertical basalt walls.  We drove an hour up the flank of the ocean to the rim of the caldera at Maido, where thousands of people had had the same idea. 

Looking over the 2200meter cliff into cloud streaming vertically up the face was dramatic, but we did get a brief glimpse through a break in the mist down into the valley far below, and across to the Piton des Neiges (3070m). 

Cloud streaming out of the caldera

The community down in the Cirque de Mafate initially developed from runaway slaves, who found this inaccessible place as a refuge.  They still have no roads to the outside world, and can only get in or out on footpaths through the gorges or up the cliffs, taking goods on pack animals, which can be a three hour climb.   Essential supplies come in by helicopter, and they now have solar power and mobile telephone links, but nonetheless it is rare to find a community so effectively isolated!  The area is famous for its mountain paths, and large numbers of hikers come here to enjoy walking and climbing these extraordinary vertical worlds, with their hidden plateaus, staying in Creole guesthouses.

We also spent time at the lovely beach in Boucan Canot, but it is very disconcerting to know that swimming and surfing are all banned because Reunion has the highest recorded levels of shark attacks in the world.  There are shark nets along some of the beaches, enabling people to swim, but all seemed to be out of commission.

Plage Boucan Canot, Reunion

Alice excited about the ban on swimming with sharks at Boucan Canot!

Sadly the time for Anne and Alice to leave came all too soon, and I found myself feeling terribly bereft.  It's an unsettling emotional  transition from living apart, to adventuring together and then suddenly being apart again.  

It was so lovely to have Anne and Alice with me in Mauritius and Reunion

However Justin and Mark now had access to the hire car and could go exploring.  Unfortunately Mark had two days feeling feverish with diarrhoea, so he was out of action.

So on Friday Justin and I set off to penetrate into the fascinating village of Hellbourg in the high plateau of the Cirque de Salazies, and then visited a sugar refinery and rum distillery on the way home.   

Here are a couple of pictures of the colourful mountain village of Hellbourg and the beautiful rugged terrain in Reunion.

Hellbourg

View up to the crater rim at Maido

Having worked for Tate and Lyle for more than a decade it may seem surprising that I had never been to a sugar factory. It was fascinating to see the vast quantities of cane being dumped by trucks, and then handled by gigantic grabbers and thrashed by terrifying whirling blades, before being milled and crushed and having the sugar squeezed and washed out of the pulp.  I found it huge, noisy, steamy and very overwhelming!

Next day Mark was feeling a bit better, so we drove to the other end of the island to another great Cirque de Cilaos, with such awe inspiring vertical walls lining the gorges, and then endless hairpin bends as the roads wound up and up before disappearing into narrow, one car-wide, tunnels through the mountain to emerge into the secret plateau the other side.

Finally on Sunday we rose at 6:30 and drove up to Maido again hoping to beat the clouds.   Unfortunately this wasn't to be, but on the way down we found a trail that gave us a hard two hours walk up and down steep tracks through the forests to the King Tamarind tree, which is 400 years old.  It was hard going and I thought my legs wouldn't make it, but in the end was glad I did.

King Tamarind rising into the mist

Tomorrow is Monday 6th November and we will set sail for South Africa.  I have been very concerned that I had been unable to book a marina berth in Durban or Cape Town, giving me a real problem if I was unable to leave the boat safely.  Luckily Joshio, the V&A Waterfront Marina manager, has now told me that he has found a place for us! So now I can relax knowing that there's a safe place to leave Tin Tin over Christmas.