Reunion Isand

Reunion is a great place to stay awhile. We have already done a few good hikes. We did the "Volcano" where you are walking on cooled lava beds the whole hike, unusual and interesting scenery. It was 4hrs and 20 minutes round trip for us, and a hour and a half drive. The yacht Phreney has rented a car for three weeks and we sublet it occasionally from them. I gave them my drivers license when they rented the car. They got it for 16 Euros a day for 3 weeks. We also did a 4 hour loop hike with them, starting from the town of Cilaos. The drive to Cilaos is remarkable with hundreds of sharp switch backs on the road as it goes up through very steep mountains, it is an incredible piece of engineering with super views. The trail has lots of big up and downs, making us work for our views. We also like walking from the boat up onto the sea wall to watch the surf and surfers and sometimes the kite surfers who are awesome here as they come in and out of the surf and cross the lagoon.

After doing two strenuous hikes we debated whether our legs were in good enough shape to tackle the big one. The highest peak on Reunion, Piton des Neiges at 3071 meters or just over 10,000 feet. There is a 5600ft elevation gain from car to the summit, which is more than we have done since leaving Vancouver. Sept 4 we drove up to Cilaos which is the most direct route to summit. About 2 km beyond here we parked the car at the trail head and hiked up a trail that switch backs up an extremely steep mountainside. After about 2 and 1/4 hours we got to a ridge with a great view and also where the Gite or mountain hut is if you want to stay over night. We wanted to do the peak in one day, so just kept on going to the summit another hour and 40 minutes away. This section of trail is very rough as you are walking over a lot of lava rocks. We were on top a bit before noon after leaving the car at 7:30am. From the summit all we could see was a sea of clouds 1500 feet below us and some radio antennas near our peak. It was a long tiring slog back down. We took a good break at the Gite and then continued on down. The whole trip was about a 8 hour round trip for us, an hour shorter than the trail guide says it should take.

The prices in Reunion are not as bad as we had heard they would be. Overall cheaper than Australia but a bit more than Mauritius. Beer is actually a tad cheaper than Mauritius if you look around, If you buy it at the first store you see you will probably pay a bit more. Wine is cheaper here, but fruit and veggies is quite a bit more expensive, but again if you look around you can often do fairly well. The Sat veggy market is cheaper than the stores. The 'Leader Price" supermarkets are definitely cheaper than the other shops for food. Canned goods are comparable to Mauritius. Yogurt is much more expensive. Electronic goods are about normal price. Eating out is very expensive, so we are not doing much of that. The chandlery in Mauritius is better than the ones here. There is no good chandlry here, just a small fishing store that sells a few boat bits.  The one up by la Porte is much better. You can not get duty free diesel in St Pierre but you can buy it for 1.27 Euros a liter. There is even two small travel lifts by the marina where you can haul out for a bottom paint or repairs.

Reunion offers the worst service for Internet for cruisers I have seen since leaving home. Us and most of the other cruisers have given up trying to get a dongle to work so you can have Internet on the boat.   You can get a sim card and 6hour plan for your dongle for 40Euros. They do have expensive plans but they also want your bank account information so they can charge you by month if necessary, then I heard it has to be a French bank account.  So most of us just go for a coffee somewhere and do Internet at a pub or coffee shop. It is fairly fast after you are connected. Mobile phone service was reasonably cheap for some time and a new sim card. The harbor master is talking about installing wifi for the marina next year.

Generally people here are very friendly and helpful. But they are French and only speak French, with a few exceptions. So we end up just socialising with just the other cruisers that have arrived here. Us and the British yacht Leto got interviewed by the local newspaper Le Journal. She wrote a piece about us also a article about why more yachts are taking the South Africa route.

On Sept 7 a big blow came through the area. The night before the harbor master put up chains, blocking access to the sea wall. The harbor entrance was closed to boats and the next morning we watched the big confused surf come in and the harbor entrance was a big mess of confused seas, not a good place to be in your yacht. Wind guru said 4.2 meter swells for the day.

We have found a huge Home Depot type hardware store nearby and prices not bad. Also near by is a huge sporting goods store, Decathalon, something like MEC in Canada, and again we were surprised at some of the good deals here.

A few days later we drove up to Le Port then to St Denis. Le Port seemed a nice enough place to stay as well, though I hear they dont have a hot shower. We Visited Sal Darago for a bit, who are rafted up to a large classic yacht in the marina area. It is a bit further to walk to the shops than St Pierre and if you are on the wall instead of the marina you have another kilometer or so walk because you have to walk around the harbor. Also if you are on the wall all the dirt from the yard above blows on the boats I hear. There Is a small chandlry there, though not as good as the one in Mauritius. The marina is a bit more expensive than St Pierre, 17 Euros a day.

St Denis was okay though we like St Pierre better. We had to really look for a parking spot and when we found one just left the car there and walked everywhere. In the end we wished we had gone for a hike up in the mountains instead.