Blog 9 Reunion & mauritius

Blog 9 – Reunion and Mauritius

Wednesday 10^th February

Another day at sea, the highlights of which are a Question and Answer session with Edwina Currie and in the evening a session with Ralph Allin, a first class jazz violinist. The sea state is quite rough with impressive waves – there have been storms in this area for a week. The forecast for our day in Reunion does not look promising but we shall just have to see.

Thursday 11^th February

Boudicca docks at the Port de Reunion in the early morning.  That means we are officially in Europe for the day, Reunion being a Departement de la France! We are up bright and early and by 0800 ready for immigration procedure and our trip to a viewpoint in the west of the island. We are told at 0815 that that  trip has been cancelled due to poor visibility and the alternative is to visit a seaside resort and aquarium, not high on our list of things to do on Reunion as all the interest lies inland. Luckily there are spaces available on another tour inland but in a different part of the island so we grab that opportunity and off we set in a bus with Sylvette our local guide for the day. The weather is decidedly dull and cloudy and by the time we have passed the capital, Saint Dennis (actually Paris is their capital!) and arrive at the vanilla plantation it is pouring with rain! After a soggy look round that, we head off for the mountains and the Cirque d Salazie, a natural amphitheatre where the volcano has been sculpted by wind and rain. Miraculously, the clouds clear, there is blue sky and good weather!  We can’t believe our luck! We enter a deep gorge with fantastic waterfalls (of course they look at their best due to the downpours of recent days) and steep cliff faces with lush vegetation. 

We are blown away by the dramatic, awe-inspiring scenery that  we have a chance to appreciate from several viewpoints along the way. We reach the picturesque  village of Hellbourg with its Creole architecture and arrive at an idyllic little rustic restaurant with another fantastic view for lunch.  Lunch is delicious Creole cuisine washed down with red wine, local rum and a digestif (all provided on the tour!)  We are sitting opposite Edwina Currie and her husband (an ex police Chief Superintendent) so the company is lively! Hellbourg was named after an Admiral de Hell – the place itself couldn’t be less like hell (apart from the heat!) and more like heaven.

 Everyone on the trip loves this location but sadly the time comes for us to leave this magical place. We have equally dramatic views on our way back. In St. Dennis we are shown the important landmarks and attractive Creole architecture before being taken back to the port and Boudicca. Wow, what a special day out, and the unexpected good weather! We feel very lucky

Friday 12^th February

Another day, another port, this time Mauritius. We are told that yesterday all the schools were closed due to the heavy rains but our luck holds and today the weather looks much better. Our Fred Olsen tour is South Island Discovery with Andy our guide. It is very interesting to compare Reunion and Mauritius, so close and yet so different even though both are volcanic. We drive through the capital, Port Louis, and stop at a viewpoint high above the town with a great wide view of the area and also a crater.

 Yes the weather is clear and quite sunny and definitely very hot and humid! Our next stop is at Le Grand Bassin Sacred Lake. It is an important place of pilgrimage for Hindus (49% of Mauritians are Indian). Water from the Ganges is poured into the crater lake and once a year in February half a million Hindus from around the world come here to honour Lord Shiva and present offerings to him. We are blessed by a Hindu monk and given a third eye and symbols of long life and good health in red on our foreheads.

After a viewpoint over Black River Gorges, we come down through a shower, luckily short-lived, to a rum factory where we have a tasting and lunch. Even hotter and more humid now!  The afternoon highlight is seeing the Seven Coloured Earth – multi coloured terrain caused by uneven cooling of lava – the colours never run into each other even if it rains.

We get back to the ship at about 1630 after another fascinating day. A local dance troupe comes on board in the early evening and performs a Sega dance- soul dancing of the African slaves. Boudicca leaves port in the late evening to the sounds of a ship deck party with a tropical theme! Just as well the clocks change tonight and everyone can have an extra hour’s sleep!

PS. Apologies if this sounds like a travelogue. We were given so much information and there was such a lot of input in these two days. Hope it is of interest to you – just skip the bits that aren’t!,