Paris (CDG) to Réunion (RUN), Air Austra, Réunion trip report, April 2015
#61
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Grantham, NH
Posts: 530
Now for an odder one....
Réunion has all sorts of shrines all over it, and the majority of them are mainstream Catholic shrines to various Saints, and usually painted in white or blue.
But occasionally you run into these more unusual shrines decorated in red and black, often with multiple icons in them, some of them melted.
These are shrines to St Expédit. He's not a formally-recognized Saint, but is well recognized on the island as the saint of speedy resolution and vengeful curses, and his worship is fairly syncretic, with non-Catholics as well.
Decapitated or melted statues of the saint are often found, the defacement inflicted in anger for a request not carried out, or in order to break an existing curse.
Here's one such shrine we saw on the way down from Col de Bellevue:
Réunion has all sorts of shrines all over it, and the majority of them are mainstream Catholic shrines to various Saints, and usually painted in white or blue.
But occasionally you run into these more unusual shrines decorated in red and black, often with multiple icons in them, some of them melted.
These are shrines to St Expédit. He's not a formally-recognized Saint, but is well recognized on the island as the saint of speedy resolution and vengeful curses, and his worship is fairly syncretic, with non-Catholics as well.
Decapitated or melted statues of the saint are often found, the defacement inflicted in anger for a request not carried out, or in order to break an existing curse.
Here's one such shrine we saw on the way down from Col de Bellevue:
#62
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Grantham, NH
Posts: 530
On our last (partial) day on the island, we took a detour back to Belouve (where we had hiked earlier from Piton des Neiges) via the Col de Bebour.
Arriving at the Col, we were amazed to have the clearest skies of the entire trip, and a picture-perfect view of Piton des Neiges (If you look carefully, you can see the Gîte we stayed at):
Zooming in on the Gite:
Here's a nice panoramic view:
And a nice view showing pretty much the entire hike we had done between Piton des Neiges (left) over to Belouve (the notch at the far right):
And another rare picture of the two of us:
Arriving at the Col, we were amazed to have the clearest skies of the entire trip, and a picture-perfect view of Piton des Neiges (If you look carefully, you can see the Gîte we stayed at):
Zooming in on the Gite:
Here's a nice panoramic view:
And a nice view showing pretty much the entire hike we had done between Piton des Neiges (left) over to Belouve (the notch at the far right):
And another rare picture of the two of us:
#63
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Grantham, NH
Posts: 530
And our detour brought us back to a familiar place, the Gîte de Bélouve, where we had stayed a week before.
Felt really weird driving here, since our previous visit was the midpoint of a very long walk:
The view from Belouve was much, much better this time:
And I even got another view of the scary cable car:
Felt really weird driving here, since our previous visit was the midpoint of a very long walk:
The view from Belouve was much, much better this time:
And I even got another view of the scary cable car:
#64
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Location: Grantham, NH
Posts: 530
#65
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Grantham, NH
Posts: 530
Stopping on the way out of town, I snapped this odd little photo of a dilapidated pyramid in a park in Plaine des Palmistes:
And that was my last photo on Île de la Réunion. Two hours later we were back on a 777, Paris-bound.
Things I wouldn't do again:
Things I'd love to do on a return trip:
Things to be careful of:
And that was my last photo on Île de la Réunion. Two hours later we were back on a 777, Paris-bound.
- Réunion was every single thing I hoped it to be. It was exotic. The hiking was splendid. The people were friendly. The food was some of the most amazing food I've tasted. None of my photography or description really do justice to the place. This was easily the best vacation I've ever had, and that's saying a lot (sorry, Iceland....)
- At least for the non-French speaking world, Réunion is one of the last great frontiers of American tourism. We were still a novelty, and most people were incredibly pleased to meet us.
- Despite many warnings, the language barrier was not a major obstacle. Between patience, a smattering of French, and much use of Google Translate, we did just fine.
- Réunion was cheap. Between the sagging euro and France trying to encourage tourism to Réunion, the airfare was reasonable, our lodging (primarily non-hotel) very affordable, and the food bountiful and delicious while not costing much. Seriously, this was one of my cheapest vacations.
- Some of my best meals were the meals served up in gîtes. I'd go out of my way to try more of these next time, and to have meals at some of gîtes I wasn't able to this time.
Things I wouldn't do again:
- The capital, Saint Denis, was fairly neat, but it was also the most crowded, and least enjoyable part of the island. I'd skip over it if I went back.
- Similarly, while being nice enough, the resorts of the Western shore (Saint-Gille) weren't really my thing. After seeing how much nicer the beach was in Saint-Pierre, I should have just stayed there more nights instead.
- For the love of God, do not plan a day that involves the possibility of driving down the N5 from Cilaos to Saint-Pierre at night. That was easily one of the most nerve-wracking drives I've ever done.
Things I'd love to do on a return trip:
- There's an entire Cirque (the Cirque de Mafate) that we only looked into, and didn't have a chance to explore. It, and the nearby mountain La Roche Ecrite, look like some splendid opportunity for tourism
- Check out Mauritius. It fell victim to scheduling this time. The beaches sound awesome, and the people we met from Mauritius were incredibly nice.
- Make sure I have fewer things like hikes booked on a Sunday. The entire culture of poulet bitume and "le pique-nique" was awesome, and we only got to see a glimpse of it
- Several places in the Southwest, like the turtle hatchery, also sounded awesome, but didn't fit in our schedule
- Paragliding. Long ago (wow, 20 years flies by quickly) I learned to hang-glide, and have paraglided twice. If I were to do more of it, Réunion looks to be an awesome place
- More culinary adventures. We learned of two places that do long, involved Reunionaisse meals, cooked outdoors, with extensive cooking instruction to teach you the techniques, ingredients, and meals of this unique culture. I'd love to do one of these.
Things to be careful of:
- Timing. We went in Mid-April, and we were definitely still on the trailing edge of the rainy season. Most everyone told us things would have been even nicer just a few weeks later....
- ...but also be mindful of French tourist season. Many, many French take very long vacations in the (mainland France) summer, and the place gets much busier than we experienced. This could be good or bad (we saw a lot of places closed for the off-season).
- Driving: Practice your stick-shift skills, especially steep uphill starts. You'll be needing them.
- Research. There's still a paucity of English-language resources of any type that cover Reunion. My Lonely Planet guide was pretty much the only decent English-language resource I had. Otherwise, except that you'll spend a lot of time looking at French-language travel sites (routard.fr is particularly good) and reviews
Last edited by kaszeta; Jul 28, 2015 at 9:56 pm
#66
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Austin, TX -- AA Life Platinum; QF Life Silver; UA Silver
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Great report! We went to Dos d'Ane as well and Piton de Fournaise.. the weather was not as good though! A cyclone hit about 3 days after I left so it was already pretty rainy.
#67
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The cloud layer was our constant enemy (we always seemed to be above or below it), but in general, we managed to avoid most of the rain.
#70
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I'm a pretty experienced hiker, but while the trails are rough, there's good signage, a decent support system, and a lot of hikers. Most people in decent shape should do pretty well.
#73
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Grantham, NH
Posts: 530
They do, but like many destinations I've been, there's a substantial premium.
I'd actually be worried with a low-powered automatic, a lot of those tight corners required a lot of down-shifting, and many automatics I've driven on the economy end of the spectrum would probably get pretty close to stalling on the tight, steep curves (unless you can put them in "Fake manual" mode)
I'd actually be worried with a low-powered automatic, a lot of those tight corners required a lot of down-shifting, and many automatics I've driven on the economy end of the spectrum would probably get pretty close to stalling on the tight, steep curves (unless you can put them in "Fake manual" mode)
#74
Join Date: Jan 2005
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After reading this excellent report yesterday, what a surprise I woke up to this morning.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...es-flight.html
Six degrees and all that.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...es-flight.html
Six degrees and all that.