Mauritius to Réunion

28 April - 8 May 2008

Quels cirques!

2 May. Dos d’Âne. After breakfast we drove up to the parking at Cap Noir, and went for a 2 1/2 hour walk to the Kiosque de Cap Noir viewpoint and Roche Verre Bouteille for beautiful views of the Cirque de Mafate and the Grand Coin village.
We had lunch in St Paul on the coast and then it was a short drive up to the Chambre d’Hôte l’Es-Sens-Ciel, a large blue Creole house in La Petite France. Our charming hostess Cloé told us she saw the newspaper article about us in Wednesday’s newspaper already. Hope we can get hold of a back copy. The dinner and wine at Cloé’s were a treat.

3 May. La Petite France. We got up early to drive up to Le Maïdo lookout over the Cirque de Mafate at sunrise. Although we got a good view, it was a little cloudier than yesterday. We then drove down to the start of the Îlet Alcide hike which was supposed to give us views of the Remparts de Mafate. But this time we were out of luck. The clouds had poured in by the time we got to Îlet Alcide and the viewpoint. Due to slippery, muddy paths, the walk took us 4 1/2 hours instead of 3 1/2. Flemming slipped and fell off the path but luckily came to no harm. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with an excellent fish carri lunch at Chez Doudou in La Petite France.
The Seychelles clearance arrived by email. We have to spray the plane inside with insecticide before leaving Réunion.

4 May. La Petite France. We drove up to just below Le Maïdo lookout and went for a walk along the cliff edge with less clouds than yesterday. Then we drove along the Route forestière des Tamarins to Le Tévelave and lunched at Les Fougères.
We continued on to St. Louis and climbed up the narrow road full of hairpin bends to Cilaos at 1200 m. where we are staying for 2 nights in the Tamarin (tamarind) room at the Hotel Le Bois Rouge. Our host kindly found us a large cardboard box to pack up unnecessary items and send them back to Switzerland. We need to keep our weight down when we fill the plane to full capacity in the Seychelles for the 9-hour flight to Salalah, Oman.