Reunion Island

Deep gorges

                                    

Road along bottom of crater

Crater floor - moonscape!

Viewing scale model of volcanic crater

Eclipse of the sun - Reunion best location for viewing

On crater rim floor - site of latest eruption!

September 9, 2016

Reunion is a dependency of France so its citizens are part of France and the EU. About 100,000 of its 800,000 inhabitants are directly from France. Many of the rest would be descendants of slaves. Although unemployment runs at 60% there is a welfare system in place. With European money they have built great roads and highways. With all the mountainous areas, it must have been expensive. It is very clean and stunningly beautiful. Sugar cane is still a big industry. Tourism is also important.

Tourists come predominantly for the hiking. There are well marked trails, hotels to stay along routes, and organized special events. We have seen many parasailors as well. The beaches are not very protected from the surf. Reunion is a younger volcanic island so doesn't have a well established reef around it and is quite steep to. This is also why there are no good anchorages.

They have been having problems with shark attacks so some resorts have put up nets to keep them from shore. A surfer lost an arm and leg last week. We needed our prop cleaned here, but paid a diver to do it for us. The locals know when and where it is safe. There are also whales in the area. No Regrets saw one, and some of the dive boats, but have not been that lucky ourselves.

On Thurs. there was a full solar eclipse from 11:30 to 2 pm. There were quite a few viewers by the harbour as there was an unobstructed view from there. We were lucky to have a sunny day and a local family gave me a spare pair of the special glasses for viewing. On Tahawas the boys have a telescope that they used to project an image on paper. You could also view through the sextant that is designed for sun sites to get your position.

We used rental and borrowed cars to get up into the mountains on Fri, Sat and Sun. Each visit must be made on a separate road, switching back and forth up from sea level. Fri we visited a "cirque", which is a collapsed crater. There are villages in each of the three major ones. Two have car access on a narrow, winding, 2 hour trip. The third only has access by hiking in about half an hour. Supplies come in by helicopter. Other mountain communities are 4 hours away from any roads. The road we travelled is closed when it rains hard and when there is a potential earthquake. The town, restaurant, and backdrop reminded me of being in the Alps or Banff, but with almost no tourists. (Mind you this is low season).There are also no fees to pay to visit the park areas.

Sat we drove to a central high peak, about 2300 m. From there you could see in every direction around the island. The deep ravines are impressive, even though they make transport difficult. Occasionally, they will have snow on the 3000m peak, Piton des Nieges. For us, the temperature dropped from 25C at sea level to about 10C. Trying to hike, you can feel the change in altitude.

Sun was the most interesting drive up to the volcano. It is one of the most active in the world. Since being discovered 350 years ago, it has erupted 200 times, the most recent being in 2015. The most active crater is on Piton de la Fournaise, at 2631 m. In 1640 the eruption lasted 10 years. Most of the lava flows east to the sea. There are no towns along that side but there is a coastal road. You can't see into the crater and down that side without hiking 4 hours to the top. We drove up the western side and hiked about an hour onto the old lava and a few small cauldrons. There was quite a bit of info posted for touring. We'll post some photos from there when we get to Africa and internet. Photos can't do justice to huge panoramic views, I'm afraid. Helicopter tours seemed quite popular, although expensive. If we had more time we would like to have seen the museum and done some hiking.