Friday 1 April – Réunion Is
Our
Scenes of Reunion tour was chosen to give us an overview of this rarely-visited
French island.
First we had to drive from the port, through St Paul and then up
the mountainside in a series of narrow roads with hairpin bends. Fortunately we
were in the lead coach as my friends in the one behind said there was barely an inch
of road between the tyres and the drops!
As we climbed to 7000 feet, at a
certain point I started noticing huge thick spider webs, between trees,
chimneys to roofs, over the tops of hedge and one across a driveway. In the
webs were dozens of small to huge spiders – it was my worst nightmare! No way
was I going to get out of the bus if this was what it was like!
 |
| Web between two large trees with dozens of huge spiders in! |
However, as we
climbed and the vegetation grew more sparse, the sightings stopped. We walked
up the final few yards to view the Circle of Mafate to see – nothing! A thick
fog had descended suddenly and it was like being on the edge of the earth.
I
took photos of a few birds and then it was back into the coach to drive to a geranium
oil distillery in La Petite France. Again, wary of seeing a giant spider in my
path I trailed behind the others, but all was fine. I took photos of the small
oil “refinery” and then headed to the shop.
My plan was to buy while the others
listened to the guide and then nip to the toilet once the queue had dispersed, but the man in the shop took
so long to serve me, another coach arrived and once again there was a long
queue. I bought a small hand-made pottery dodo and soap. Due to the
disappointment of not being able to see the crater our guide thought a suitable
alternative and “added extra” was a stop at the cemetery in St Paul!
Back at
the dockside I browsed the stalls, used the
free wi-fi and then went back on board. Stayed out on deck as we sailed
away with a beautiful sunset.
We can relax again as we have three sea days before South Africa.
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