Around The World On Hokule'a

Reunion Island

Monday, October 20, 2014 – Saint Pierre, Reunion

I should probably let the pictures do the talking, because I am sure that you are all tireof me saying how stunningly beautiful the island of Reunion is. But it is so true and our hiking trip into Cirque de Mafate was no exception. From Saint Pierre, we took a 3 hour drive to the northeast side of the island and then up into the mountains to where the road ends at a place called Col des Boeuf. From there it was about a 3 hour hike down the rim of the cirque, through a tamarind forest, across the meadow lands, through rocky gorges and then across a river to the tiny village of Marla. We stayed in a small gite there with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and enjoyed  a wonderful dinner with a dozen or so of our gite mates. 

The next morning we were up early for the 2 hour hike to the village of La Nouvelle, which is knownas the “capital” of Mafate because it is the most populated village in the cirque at 160 people. Compared to Marla, it was almost a bustling metropolis with a church, a school, a baker and several restaurants. It still is amazing to me that with the exception of water, home grown vegetables, and few livestock, everything single thing here has to be hiked in on someone’s back or flown in by helicopter. La Nouvelle is a very charming Creole village surrounded by gorgeous mountains and I can certainly see why people want to live here despite its remoteness. On second thought, the remoteness is probably another reason why people want to live here.  

We had originally wanted to spend another night in the cirque staying at La Nouvelle and hiking out the following day. But the realization that we still had another 1,400 nautical miles of the Indian Ocean to contend with was starting to sink in and we needed to spend a little time getting Hokule’a ready for the trip. So after a short visit in La Nouvelle, we hit the trail for the 3 hour hike out of Cirque de Mafate.

It’s hard to believe that 4 days have passed since we left La Nouvelle and even harder to believe that we will be leaving Reunion for South Africa tomorrow morning. There are still so many more things to do on this gorgeous island, but fortunately/unfortunately it looks like we have the right combination of a small swell that will allow us to leave the harbor and a decent weather forecast for at least the first 4-5 days underway.   Just means that we will have to come back to Reunion one day, but probably not by boat….   

 

Monday, October 13, 2014 – Saint Pierre, Reunion

Today we took a drive with Amy and Roger from Shango up to a view point called Le Maido that looks down into Cirque de Mafate.  It was a great aerial view of the area that Jackie and I are proposing to hike into. More on this later, but our plan is to hike into Cirque de Mafate from Col de Boueff and spend a night or two in either the village of Marla or the village of Nouvellle.  As it has been with every view point on the island of Reunion, the views from Le Maido are simply stunning.  Unfortunately, photos never do them justice.

When we got back to marina in the afternoon we saw a huge crowd of people out on the marina breakwater. The surf was forecast to be 3-4 meters, so we figured that everyone was just out watching the surfers. We parked the car and we went out to see for ourselves only to have the most gut-wrenching feeling as we watched a boat being pounded against the breakwater by the huge surf. The Saint Pierre marina entrance had claimed yet another victim (actually 2 victims as we would later learn).

Just 2 days before there had been huge celebration in the marina for the christening of Saint Pierre’s new state of the art Search and Rescue vessel.  Other Search and Rescue boats from around the island were there to spray huge arcs of water over the new boat as it entered the marina. It was a grand celebration with music, rescue demonstrations, and a host of speeches by politicians and other dignitaries.  Unfortunately, the boat that is now being pounded against the breakwater is that same Saint Pierre Search and Rescue vessel.

The story we heard later from the marina manager was that the Search and Rescue vessel had left the harbor to assist a sailboat that was having engine problems. There was no wind at the time and the sailboat was drifting towards the rocky shore.  They got the people off of the sailboat and onto the Search and Rescue vessel and then decided to try to tow the sailboat back into the harbor.  As they were  entering the channel, a large set of breaking waves came in and capsized both boats. While the Search and Rescue boat is designed to handle a capsize, the sailboat was not and sank very quickly. The Search and Rescue boat would probably have been fine, except that the tow line that it was using to tow the sailboat got wrapped around both propellers, killing their engines and leaving them helplessly being driven by the waves, over the reef and onto the break water.

It was such an incredibly sad thing to watch as one wave would toss the boat against the breakwater and the next wave would pull the boat off only to be tossed up against the break water again by the yet another wave. Thankfully there were no human fatalities and later that night a large crane was brought out to salvage what was left of the boat.

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On a much happier note, tomorrow we head out on the hiking trip into Cirque de Mafate that I mentioned earlier.  Glad my legs have recovered from the trip up to Piton de Neiges…..

 

Saturday, October 11, 2014 – Piton de Neiges, Reunion

After doing a number of hikes rated as “moderate” in Cirque de Cilaos, Jackie was not so thrilled about doing the hike up Piton De Neiges with its 5,500 foot elevation gain and a rating of “very strenuous”.  So she decided to take a bus (which apparently was pretty thrilling in its own right) back to St. Pierre to enjoy the comforts of Hokule’a while Jack and Zdenka (from Kite) and I huffed and puffed up the mountain. Actually the hike up to the Gite wasn’t all that bad. The trail was well maintained and the views were pretty amazing. We arrived at the Gite around 3pm and relaxed on a big wooden deck in the sunshine with cold beers. We were amazed that they had beers because every single thing here has to be flown in by helicopter. As I mentioned before the Gite is basically a hostel that sleeps 48 people in 6 different rooms/small buildings and has one large dining area.  Fortunately we had made reservations to stay here months in advance because it was completely full. We were the only Americans staying here and we had a very fun dinner with lots of Rhum Agricole (a flavored rum made from sugar cane juice that seems to be served with every Reunion meal) and trying to speak French with our dinner mates. Fortunately their English was much better than our French.

This morning at roughly 4 am we started hiking and the light of the full moon was so bright that we didn’t even need to use our flashlights. We made it to the summit about 45 minutes before sunrise and struggled to stay warm while we waited. We are fortunate to be able to see a whole lot of sunrises from the boat, but watching the sunrise from over 10,000 feet above sea level was truly amazing. Not to mention all of the incredible views of the island on the way down.  If you ever visit Reunion this hike is a must do…

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Thursday, October 9, 2014 – Cirque de Cilaos, Reunion

In pre-historic times the entire island of Reunion was one giant volcano. Over millions of years, portions of the volcano collapsed and eroded away leaving Piton De Neiges (the highest peak on the island today) surrounded by three massive amphitheater-like craters known as the Cirques. Of the three Cirques only Cirque de Cilaos is accessible by car and the only way to visit the villages in Cirque de Mafate and Cirque de Salazie is by foot.

The road into Cirque de Cilaos is insanely curvy and narrow with sheer vertical mountain faces on either side.  The views along the way are breath taking (although Jackie would say that it was my driving that made it hard for her to breathe), but it is one of those drives that really requires thedriver to pay attention to the road and not to the scenery…something I am not that good at.

Fortunately we have spent two nights here and have been able to see a lot of this incredible Cirque on foot. In addition to some amazing hiking, Cirque de Cilaos is also known for canyoning and as the base camp for accents to Piton de Neiges. Canyoning is where you rappel thousands of feet down lmost vertical canyons that have been eroded into the mountainside by water. It also involves dropping into the occasional cliff side pool beneath a waterfall. Piton de Neiges is the highest point on the island at 10,067 feet above sea level and the shortest way to the top is via Cirque de Cilaos (about 4,500 feet above sea level). While it’s possible to do the hike in one day (taking about 10-12 hours), most people hike about ¾ of the way up, spend the night in a “Gite” (a rural hostel) and then  hike the remainder of the way in the pre-dawn hours in order to watch the sunrise from the summit.  We are starting the hike tomorrow and should be watching the sunrise from the summit on Saturday morning….

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Tuesday, October 7, 2014 – Saint Pierre, Reunion

What can I say about Reunion but … WOW! I didn’t really know much about Reunion until we got here and this place is paradise. With the exception of possibly New Zealand, Reunion has some of the most visually stunning mountainous landscapes of any place we have visited on our entire trip thus far.  In addition, we are in a marina with an amazing surf spot on one side (actually in the marina entrance at times), a beautiful crystal clear lagoon and beach on the other side, and we are only an hour away from world class hiking and trekking.  Add to that we have an amazing assortment of French/Creole restaurants and patisseries right by the boat (so much for losing any weight while we are here).

The only downside to Reunion is that since it’s a relatively young volcanic island there are no suitable anchorages and only 2 marinas where boats like ours can go.  We were very fortunate that we could get a reservation in Saint Pierre marina which is located on the south west side of the island. It has a notorious entrance that claims a number of boats each year because it is exposed to the large southwest swells generated from storms off of Antarctica. We were told that when the swell is over 2.6 meters boats are not permitted to enter or leave the harbor.  Fortunately when we arrived on the morning of October 1st we had very little wind and a 2.1 meter swell. Even still we had waves breaking on either side of the channel and a noticeable swell in the channel as we entered the marina. It’s easy to see that on a big southwesterly swell the entire entrance would be one big breaking wave.

The other challenge here is that hardly anyone speaks English and our French is really bad. It has actually been kinda fun running around with our French/English dictionary trying to communicate and using our Pictionary and Charades skills when all else fails. We have actually only met 3 people thus far that speak some English, the marina manager, and a wonderful couple Niko and Shamine.  We met Niko the morning we arrived when we were tied up to a concrete wharf waiting for immigration (on a falling tide in 7 feet of water, but that’s another story). Niko had been swimming in the lagoon when he saw our boat come into the harbor and out of curiosity he stopped by to see “the American boat”.  He was very excited to meet us and offered to take us to his home to meet his family and have a traditional Reunion meal.  In addition to a wonderful dinner prepared by Shamine, Niko gave us a tour of where he works as a nurse at the hyperbaric chamber in Saint Pierre, and took us to see several scenic lookouts near their home. He or Shamine also call us every few days to see if we need anything such as a ride to the market or if we want to come to the house for lunch. Again what amazing hospitality!

The only thing we had heard about Reunion prior to arriving was about the great hiking/trekking on the island and we plan to do a lot while we are here (got to work off all those pastries somehow). This morning we hiked to the rim of Piton De La Fournaise or better known simply as Le Volcan. It is considered one of the most active volcanos in the world with its last major eruption occurring back in 2010. Since then it has been relatively dormant which make access to the crater rim possible. It’s about a 5 hour round trip hike across a massive lava field and up the side of the volcano to the rim where you can look down in to its steaming crater. The altitude of the rim is about 8,500 feet, but fortunately for people like us that have been living at sea level (literally) for a long time, you start the hike at around 7,000 feet.   The geological formations and old lava flows were fascinating and at times it looked like you were walking on the surface of the moon.  This was a good warm up hike for us as tomorrow we head up to Cirque de Cilaos to see more of this gorgeous island on foot….