After a night in Jo'burg, we were again headed to the airport. I have lost count of the amount of flights we have done since first leaving Australia.
We arrived in Reunion and headed to the car hire company. Why did we go to Reunion? It has a volcano and Phil wanted to see it. I was more interested in Madagascar, but Phil thought Reunion would be less touristy. He of course was correct on that front. They hardly spoke English, it is a French speaking colony. I was amazed at how my limited french came back to me. I learnt some french in high school, a total of 12 or more years ago! The other important factor was that they drove on the other side of the road and they gave us a manual car! Right from the start I knew it was going to be an interesting holiday. My stress levels were rising again....
After loading the car, we started to make our way to the hotel. Thankfully, I am good at reading maps, even if I do have to turn them around constantly, and we made our way to the hotel with not one fight! I think that was the first and only time driving without fighting for the entire trip. LOL.
The hotel was lovely, but we were back to sleeping on sofa beds and only had a bath in the bathroom, very European. I personally am a shower person, and only see a bath for relaxation purposes. It is very hard to wash ones hair in the bath! Anyway, we freshened up and decided to go and grab some dinner. We headed down to the esplanade of Saint Denis. We found a great little boardwalk with eateries and ate pizza. Of course all the menus were in french, but we managed. We then wound our way along the boardwalk and found a carousel that the kids had a ride on. All in all a pleasant evening.
The next day after a wander through town, we were off. This is where I learnt to be very precise with my directions down to the last "in 2 metres turn left" and so on or this holiday was going to be a nightmare! After we made our way out of the city we found the right highway and were off. This was not too hard as Reunion is actually quite small, but just being on the right side of the road was a challenge when turning. We drove along the coast for a bit and then headed inland and up. The drive up was beautiful. The scenery incredibly green and lush. The only problem was Tom's car sickness. The poor love, we had to stop every so often for him to vomit. Laura even felt sick which says something about how winding the roads were. She never gets car sick. We drove through to a lovely village called Salazie, which had a beautiful church and then headed to Hell Bourg and had something to eat. Unfortunately, there was only one way up and so one way down. When we got down we drove into St Andre and I picked up a couple of plastic bowls (with lids of course) for the kids. Whilst there we passed this amazing shrine. It was so intricately carved and painted. I have never seen anything like it before.
We headed into St Benoit to give the kids a bit of fresh air. We found a beach, if you could call it that as it was covered in rocks rather than sand. I think it may have been a place of worship or something similar as there were many little offerings in between the rocks. Some were statues, others photos in fact a whole range of artifacts. Very intriguing. From there we made our way to Diana Dea. We spent a couple of nights here and again had sofa beds. It seems every room was only designed for 2 people. It was a lovely eco place and had deer on site, so the kids and I wandered off for a walk to see them.
The next day we headed down to Anse des Cascades, which was a lovely little spot with waterfalls. The kids had a wonderful time exploring the area. From here we headed through Les Grand Brule. This was where the lava had weaved it's way to the sea from a previous eruption. The area was amazing. You could actually see where the lava had gone and the areas of the surrounding hill still green and viable. We stopped several times to get out and touch the different types of lava. There was a statue there of the virgin Mary. The farmer that erected her gave her an umbrella to protect her from the lava eruptions. It was a sad shrine as there were so many trinkets and walking aids and I can only gather that belonged to people whom had died. This was the same place that Tom closed his door on my hand. My gosh it hurt like hell, thankfully nothing was broken, but it sure felt like it at the time.
Further along the road we came to a cave in the lava. Phil decided to take a look and even the kids wandered in slightly, as we had no torches they could not go far as they were relying on the flash from the camera. It was then on to Grande Anse for our next stop. This hotel was beautiful and we finally had 2 rooms! No sofa bed! We headed down to the beach and the kids enjoyed a splash in the water and a play on the beach. The sand was made up of crushed shell and gems. I have to admit I did spend some time looking a decent sized piece of rock to no avail.
The next day we headed inland and up to the great volcano. It was quite a drive and I am glad we had our car sick bowls. The roads in Reunion are very narrow as well as curvy. There is a lot of winding up and down. We headed up to the volcano look out, but the weather was not on our side. It was cold, bleak, wet and foggy. Every so often the sun would shine and the clouds would part, but you could not get a good view. Now this was a real shame because as I mentioned previously this was the reason we came to Reunion and now we could not see it! We walked around and explored as much as we could waiting for the weather to lift, but unfortunately it did not. The entire day was quite spectacular though as it is not everyday you get to drive through on old volcanic eruption. We spent the afternoon at the hotel and the kids enjoyed a swim.
We had booked a volcano cave tour for the next day and so we dressed in our most comfortable and casual hiking clothes and set off for le Tremblet. What an amazing experience. The kids did a great job as we did not realise just how much hiking we had to do before we got to the cave entrance. Unfortunately, Phil forgot to pack the water so the kids whinged a bit. Can't blame them as I was desperate for a drink myself. But it was a fantastic experience. We put on our hard hats and headed inside. The different types of lava were incredible, I had no idea there would be so many in such a small area, but it really was spectacular. The kids enjoyed themselves and even got their first experience of real caving by squeezing through a small spot with our guide. Phil could not fit and I tried but got a bit too claustrophobic and worried I would not get back through, so backed out. We then had the huge walk back to our car. I think we took it in turns carrying Laura and Tom to some degree. Definitely a good work out. We went back to the hotel exhausted and filthy!
From there we made our way to Boucan Canot. This is where Phil started to feel quite ill. He thought that he might have Malaria. I laughed at him as I figured how could he have it, if we did not. However, it soon came out that he did not use the mozzie spray like I did on kids and myself. Thankfully, I had all the necessary test kits and medicine on me and so we did a test and yes he had Malaria! Great, just what he or I needed. This was meant to be my little break of the holiday. A beach, a book and Phil entertaining the kids. Instead, Phil spent most of the time sleeping and I entertaining the kids. Thankfully on the beach behind the hotel was a special rock pool swimming area. So the kids and I spent the next 2 days swimming here. Phil booked himself into a helicopter ride over the volcano and unfortunately on that day it was too cloudy to see again. He was having no luck! We all managed to go to the local Aquarium which was a lovely treat. The fish were beautiful. Poor Phil crashed the car as we were leaving. Fortunately, no real damage was done.
After one more nights sleep it was then time to head off and back home to Oz. We returned the rental car and headed to the airport. We were now ready for our final leg home. The kids really are incredibly lucky to have had such wonderful experiences as such a young age. I am hoping that they will remember everything, but in reality I am sure they will remember very little. I have kept little souvenirs for each of them along the way and when I get a chance, will be compiling a book for each of them. Hopefully this will help to keep their memories alive. That is why this blog has been so important to me. It is a written memory for all of us and we have all survived with a different tale to tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment