Queen Elizabeth Voyage: April 13, 2017, Reunion Island

April 13, 2017, Thursday, Reunion Island

For truth in writing. We got to New York City on May 15, 2017, flew to Oakland the same day and rested a couple of days at our daughter’s house in Berkeley. Finally, we drove home on May 17, 2017 to complete the journey. Now, back to a continuation of the blog.

Reunion Island is another of those volcanic islands in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. This was the most rugged of the islands that we have visited. We are docked at a pier in a deep water port. The container port is on the other side of the harbor. We have a ship’s tour for today that takes us by bus to the 7000-foot level of an old volcanic mountain. The roads are narrow and twisty, and the buses are big and wide. This is not a good match. We make one stop on the way up the mountain, really the last bathrooms stop until we head down.

At the top, we walk a bit further until we come to a wooden rail fence. We look out and see nothing but clouds. We look down and just make out a steep cliff at our feet. The clouds are rising from below. For the next half hour or so, the clouds are heavy and impossible to see through. Then, the clouds begin to clear and we can see the bottom of an old crater that was once the middle of this mountain. There was probably a lake in this crater until the water broke through the wall and rushed to the sea. The bottom is now well watered with may streams. There are also several villages at the bottom, however, there are no roads to these villages. You either take a helicopter or walk to the villages. I guess there are a lot of people who do eco-trekking and do the three hour hikes into the villages.

On the way down the mountain, we stop at a small restaurant and gift shop for refreshments and a restroom. As a bonus, there are a couple of working stills where they distill some of the local flowers and make oil of gardenias. At this point, we cannot remember how it is used. The rest of the trip back to the ship was uneventful except for the local security check around the ship. It was off the bus, through the screening, back on the bus, and a short drive to the ship.

We still had time after lunch to catch a ship’s shuttle into the small city of St. Gillis. A little background is in order. Reunion is a French island, it is also a French Department, sort of like one of our states. Since it is part of France, it is in the European Union and they use the Euro as their currency. They also get a lot of money from the EU for roads and infrastructure. This makes for a beautiful island with a lot of well-maintained roads and bridges. A number of our fellow passengers had taken the bus to St Gillis just for the beach. We walked around a bit, got some Euros at an ATM and did a bit of shopping in the downtown area. We picked up the return shuttle near the harbor before the line got too long and returned to the ship. Security was still in force.