EC-Rider Travels

A little concerned that we might feel a little queasy on our overnight journey, Lucinda and I took a sea sickness pill and slept SO well – in fact struggled to wake up all day – not sure we will be doing that again. When we eventually woke, we were coming into Port Est of Reunion Island where we were greeted by lovely ladies dancing on the quay. After a delicious breakfast, with everything you can possibly imagine on offer, we disembarked and headed off on our first excursion, with rather dishy Gregoire. This adventure is one of many difficult choices between different options, all of which you want to do. In this instance, we all chose the volcano tour and set off with Gregoire towards St Pierre in the south of the island.

Gregoire took to the microphone telling us about his small, prosperous and very French island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. His English was excellent but some of his pronunciation just a little off – much talk of the sugar-can!

Reunion is an overseas department of France and the most outermost region of the EU, though unquestionably benefits from this, with beautifully maintained roads, new cars, modern hospital etc – a stark contrast to anywhere else we were to see on this expedition.

Reunion has a population of almost 860,000 and sits upon a huge volcanic rock, resting on the ocean’s floor to a depth of 4,000 meters. Only 3% of the volcano is visible but is still about 40 miles long by about 30 miles wide with a coastline of approximately 140miles. It consists mainly of rugged mountains, the tallest, Piton des Neiges, rising to 3,069m, which is the highest point in the Indian Ocean. It also has one of the world’s most active volcanos, the Piton de la Fournaise, erupting approximately every nine months.

It is a world heritage site with 40% of the island being heavily protected, national park or primary forest. It was discovered by the Arabs in about 1100, then by the Portuguese and then the French. The island remains under French control, with French passports and the Euro as currency. Almost everything is imported, so it is very expensive, although they do produce sugarcane, vanilla, rum, some wine and coffee and currently trying to produce CBD. Their two claims to fame is that a young slave boy from Reunion, Edmond Albius, working for a botanist, discovered how to artificially pollinate the vanilla plant by hand, and is largely responsible for the multi-million euro industry. The method is still used today and it was Reunion who introduced vanilla to Madagascar and Mauritius. Also the aviation pioneer and fighter pilot Roland Garros, came from Reunion Island.

The population is of mixed ancestry, having come from Africa, Europe and Asia, with African descent being the most predominant. The common spoken language is Reunion Creole although this is rarely written; education is in French as is any administration or formal conversations. Crime is low and they hope to be 100% green by 2050.

We headed inland from St Pierre through farmland where cattle were happily grazing in the plains and up winding roads into the forest. As we rose higher, the landscape changed from luscious green to an almost lunar scene, everywhere covered by gorse looking vegetation called amberville, endemic to the area and altitude. The soil and rocks became redder with increased iron content. It was incredibly beautiful.

We stopped at the Nez le Boeuf to look down the volcano ravine and then rose higher (approx 2,350m) to see the crater of very active Piton de la Fournaise – it was very much smaller than we expected and difficult to believe that it was the world’s second most active volcano – after Kilauea in Hawaii.

After our viewing of the volcano, we returned to the rather unfortunately named Le Tampon, where we were to have our Creole lunch. This was interesting but rather delicious. After lunch we visited the Cite de Volcan museum which, being typically French, was all in French so we struggled a bit to understand the volcanic geology in full! It included a 4D film of a journey through a volcano with jiggling seats and blasts of hot air around our legs – like a crazy Disney ride!

In the evening we had a briefing from the Expedition Team, summarising our day and explaining what would be happening tomorrow. We were then introduced to our Captain, George Hendry, from Ayrshire, who although looked as though he wanted the earth to swallow him up, made a very good and funny welcome speech. He then introduced his very multinational team: Alastair – Chief Engineer from Glasgow; Dragon – Hotel Manager from Serbia; Karen – Purser from the Philippines; Esperanza – Doctor from El Salvador; Andrew – Chef from Romania and our friend, Johnny – maitre d’ from the Philippines