La Reunion

 

Supplies arriving by helicopter above Dos d'Anne

At present all international boats must clear in and out at Le Port. It might be possible to have a short stay in St Pierre with permission from the harbourmaster, but this would have to be arranged in advance. It is hoped that new pontoons will be built in St Pierre. No construction work has started yet.

It's a long way down to Riviere Galets

After stocking up with food at U Express and Carrefour, we went to SFR on the main street and bought SIM cards. We chose cards with calls and 5gb data for 2 weeks at a cost of 22 euros each. There are other options. We went to a pharmacy nearby and bought some recommended waterproof and breatheable dressings for my leg.

Mafat from Roche Verre Bouteille

There are laundry facilities at the old marina near the Capitainerie. A key and tokens are available from the Capitainerie. There are other options in town. We like Eco laverie, which is about 20 minutes walk away. You can use euros or a bank card. Jeremy knew that we were running out of cooking gas, but it proved impossible to fill the Australian bottle or the British blue calor gas bottle commercially.

The view from Roche Verre Bouteille

Now that we had tried to complete the essentials it was time to explore La Reunion. We hired a car for five days at Bourbon in the main street for 150 euros. Jeremy drove (on the right) to the capital St Denis. We were able to exchange our Mauritian rupees and our Australian dollars at Western Union, then on to Decathalon for new walking shoes. Just about anything recreational or sporting can be bought at this store. Provisioning for the next passage to South Africa needed to be done, so we went to the massive Carrefour hypermarket and wore ourselves out walking around it.

Halfway lunch break on Tour de Piton Lelesse

With only fumes left in our gas bottle, we were getting desperate. Only one size (large) gas bottles can be purchased or exchanged. However, there was a man on the marina who could help. He doesn’t speak English, but communicates quite well. The marina staff have his details. We used his equipment to fill a British bottle

Le Port from Dos d'Anne

La Reunion’s three cirques, Salazie, Cilaos and Mafat, have World Heritage status. We have walked in all three in the past. The village of Dos d’Anne is one of the nearest places to Le Port for hikes and it can be reached by bus or car. We drove there and saw magnificent views of Mafat from Roche Verre Bouteille.

Feeling my way down the marked path

The next day we were up early on local advice and in the car by 0630. It took two hours to drive through St Denis to Salazie and on through Hellbourg to Ilet a Vidot. The road becomes increasingly narrow, steep and full of hairpin bends as you drive deeper into the mountains. We did a circular hike called Tour du Piton Lelesse. Do not believe the book. It said 9.5km in 4 hours. We took 7 hours. Jeremy’s phone recorded 20km and my smart watch recorded 14.5km. It was a challenge but I’m glad we did it and I was pleased with my leg that did much better than my knees! I think we took 3 days to recover.

Our hire car at the start and finish of Tour de Piton Lelesse

Do you recall from a previous blog post a random meeting with two people from Reunion? David invited us to his house in St Leu for lunch. We drove to St Pierre first to see the marina for ourselves and talk to the harbourmaster. Friends whom we had met in the past had sold their boat and moved on. The wind was strong, the air full of salt and the waves were breaking heavily on the reef.

Harbour entrance, St Pierre

We had a lovely, relaxed lunch at David’s house sitting on his decking, admiring the view and chatting to his daughter and friends. Davy Stolk is a famous South African surfer and Brett is a gifted South African carpenter who was replacing David’s old decking. Amazingly, David went to the same university as us ie Durham, admittedly 20 years apart. Even more surprising, he went to the same college as us, Hild Bede and lived in Bede for a while. Later this week, David is going to sample lunch on Sal Darago. Will there be more coincidences?

Davy, Brett, David, Kathy, Jeremy

Last night, Jeremy and I were invited to a leaving party for the crew of S/V Endo. About 20 people gathered on the edge of the marina for drinks and snacks. Almost all were speaking French except for our immediate neighbours who kindly spoke English with us.

We might leave La Reunion next week around the same time as Endo. It all depends on the weather.