4th day, 9th September: Forêt de Bébour-Bélouve

The whole morning of this day was completely wasted by car driving. Having to buy things in Saint-Benoît and Sainte-Rose, several times missing the right road, I could only start doing holiday things at 2 pm.

I drove some 12 km uphill in western direction to Plaine-des-Palmistes. From there, 17 km curvy forest road through the Bébour Forest lead to the “Gite de Bélouve”. Some trails are leading from there to a magnificent viewing spot to the “Trou de Fer” and a view point overlooking the “Cirque de Salazie”. Unfortunately in general on La Réunion weather tends to be foggy in the afternoon, as it was today. Thus, I decided to do only a very short walk through the magnificent tropical forest and doing the 3 hours hike to the above mentioned points on Sunday.

(pictures still coming)

3rd day, 8th September: Anse des Cascades

Suffering from my twisted ankle and having to treat it with care, I decided to not to do extensive hiking for at least a week. Following the advice of the guesthouse lady, I did a 45 minutes drive to “Anse des Cascades”, a beautiful bay on the east coast, south of Piton Sainte-Rose. I spend a nice day with taking pictures of the surrounding waterfalls, birds, the bay and having a nice meal at the restaurant.

 

2nd day, 7th September: Takamaka – Grand Etang

I got a first taste of La Réunion hiking this day. Driving by car a long, narrow road into the mountains up to the Takamaka valley (click for more information). The view was simply stunning.

View into Takamaka Valley

beast of Takamaka

another beast of Takamaka

 

I prepared for a hike along the valley passing through tropical fores, about two hours round trip. After about 40 minutes I reaches a bridge just in front of a beautiful waterfall.

waterfall in Takamaka valley                               simply me ...                     

Bad luck hit me only minutes later, when I slipped with my left foot and I heavily twisted my left knuckle, that was already fragilized by a sports accident only ten weeks before.

Ten more minutes further I arrived at a point where any proceeding was possible. Another small bridge was blown away by the last storm or heavy flood. Anyway, time to return.

The place where the bridge should have been ...

 On the way back to the guesthouse, I took the road to “Grand Etang”, the biggest lake in La Réunion. I did not finish the hike all around the lake, as darkness was approaching. Nevertheless I had some nice views from a view point and along the lake shore.

Grand Etang

1st day, 6th September: Saint-Denis

 The first day started with a difficulty: Due to credit card problems, I only could get my rental car after some negotiations with the agent and a angry call to my bank in germany. I am upset for having to come back to the agency latest Saturday morning for further arrangements.

Having been bothered about this annoying thing, I started to visit down-town Saint-Denis and its sea side. There is not really memorable things to tell about Saint-Denis: Except a few colonial style buildings, it's not far from being ugly.

Church in Saint-Denis

Saint-Denis sea side

After a two hours visit, I headed south along the east coast, passing by Saint-Benoît to Saint-Anne. There is an extravagant church in Saint-Anne. Bad luck, when I was standing in front of it, the whole church was scaffolded. If you want to have a look, click here: Saint-Anne church.

Finally it became time to look for an accommodation place. The place I found to spend the first four nights is a guesthouse called “L'Orangeraie”. Its a small privat guesthouse in the middle of a garden with tropical plants and fruits. The owner, a very friendly Swiss Lady recommended me an excellent local restaurant “Le Beauvalon” in Saint Benoît, where I got in touch the first time with La Réunion cuisine. Google for “carri” and “rougail”, if you want to know more.

0th day, 5th September: Reutlingen – Paris – Saint-Denis

Finally Monday, 5^th September arrived. A friend gave me a lift to Reutlingen Railway Station, where I took the train to Stuttgart Railway Station. The TGV (french “Train à Grande Vitesse”) waited for me bring me to Paris, “Gare de l'Est” where I arrived at about 4.30 pm. The first “real” adventure was waiting for me: Finding a public transport from there to Orly Airport, which is south of Paris, within 3.5 hours.

crowded compartment in Paris' Metro RER B

Arriving at Orly Airport only 75 minutes later, I finally caught my Air France airplane heading to Saint-Denis, La Réunion. Eleven hours after take-off the airplane landed safely at Roland-Garros Airport in Saint-Denis.

Landing at Roland-Garros Airport, Saint-Denis, La Réunion

 

Travel Preparation

Dreaming now for maybe 15 years about visiting “ La Réunion ” – in fact, since I ever heard of this small tropical island – I finally decided this year to make this dream come true.

For those who do not know: “ La Réunion “ is a small (about 70 km in diameter) tropical island in the Indian Ocean, about 800 km west of Madagascar. It is a french overseas department (“DOM”, “Département Outre-Mèr”). Time shift in La Réunion is only 2 hours ahead of German time.

Three main things had to be prepared in advance:

• The travel itself: I booked a flight from Paris (France) – Saint-Denis (La Réunion) on 5^th september and the return flight on 27^th september.
• A rental car for the whole stay
• In order to have some nice souvenirs, I provided myself with photographic equipment:
  - camera body CANON EOS 60D
  - wide-angle lenses CANON EF17-40mm f/4L USM
  - universal lenses CANON EF24-105 f/4 IS USM
  - telephoto zoom lens CANON EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
  - KENKO Converter 1.4x

Once all these things done, I was impatiently waiting for the 5th September, the day of departure, to arrive ... .

On Sunday, 4^th I packed my whole stuff. I was desperate: the total weight was about 36 kg shared between a huge and a “small” back pack. I wondered how I'd ever be able to travel across Paris from Gare de l'Est to Orly Airport, carrying the whole charge.