Reunion Island

I was in high school French class when I learned about the "DOM TOM:" overseas territories of France with various levels of dependence on the French government. There are a lot of them.

From Wikipedia

The DOM TOM are convenient vacation spots for French people. They are usually gorgeous tropical islands, but the malaria risk is very low compared to Madagascar/Africa (no pills needed!).  French is usually an official language and some of countries even use the Euro as currency. Google maps works very well and many restaurants and bars have WiFi. 

The unspoken tragedy is that France brutally colonized these spaces in the 16-17th centuries - and they are not among the countries who successfully rebelled and gained independence (even those that did were generally not successful until the 1950s - think Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, etc.). Some argue that the strong link to France has saved the DOM TOMs from economic collapse and political tumult that has ravaged other former colonies. I just wonder how all of the former colonies would have done had France kept her grubby mitts to herself and not decimated indigenous populations in the first place. This hypothetical question doesn't compare favorably to the "convenient vacation spot" idea though.

I finally got the chance to visit Reunion Island this winter. Réunion is similar to other destinations in that people generally misunderstand you the first time you say you're going there ("No, not my high school reunion!").

Off the east coast of Madagascar, a blip in the Indian ocean, this volcanic island features stunning hikes and turquoise water beaches. More important than all of that, though, is the easy access to lychees.

car lychees

hiking lychees

roadside lychees: note the regional spelling

Beach lychees

We stayed in St. Gille les Bains, about a 45 minute drive from the airport in the capital of St. Denis. There really is no public transit option for tourists - there are rickety buses but they are few and far between, their schedules don't permit for much freedom in planning activities. It was strongly suggested that we rent a car, and we did. The steering wheels are on the same side as they are in the states (a luxury we were not afforded in the rest of the countries on the trip) and you drive on the right side of the road, so the only driving preparation you need to make is learning stick shift. You can rent an automatic transmission car for about double the price of a manual if you must. The car rental companies were not bashful in charging outrageous rates (see above comment about tourists not having a choice) - we paid about $110 per day for a wisp of a Peugeot with 100k miles on it!

I would say the best things to do in Reunion are hiking and beach days. However, we made a harrowing realization on our first beach day that the locals seem to want to sweep under the rug. Literally no one mentioned it. The only indication of the island's deadly past is a relatively innocuous flag:

Mountain views from the water

"By raising this flag, we admit that our oceans are infested with bull sharks and people have been left limbless even when swimming in the netted area."

But man, that water is tempting. We got an AirBnB right on the beach and the experience was lovely (though I stop short of recommending that specific airbnb because of sanitary issues inside the unit).

Hiking

So if you don't feel like risking your life on the beach, hiking is the Reunion activity for you! We focused on Mount Maïdo, since it was the closest mountain to St. Gilles. It takes about an hour to get from the city to a place to park to hike, and the road is almost exclusively comprised of hairpin turns.

We drove up in the dark to catch the sunrise.

A lot of hiking Maïdo takes place in the clouds. For our first venture, we went in the afternoon and cloud cover was, to put it lightly, complete.

Hiking apparel rules apply: layers are best.

We got almost to the top (which looked a lot like the way up: cloudy) when Mike spotted a break in the clouds. It was gone in an instant, but the view we momentarily glimpsed was one of stunning, deep ravines far below. Thanks to that lucky, fleeting break, we decided to come up the next morning before the clouds rolled in. It just so happened to be January 1, so we got a great start to 2019:

Sunrise on Mount Maïdo on Reunion Island

Other sought after, but further away, hikes include Cilaos, Mafate, Piton de la Fournaise, and for the multi-day hikers, les Trois Salazes. We didn't do those but there are plenty of websites that can give you extra info about them if you know what to google (which, now you do!). You should always hike in the morning in Reunion, because clouds come in hard in the afternoon. Also don't forget sunblock - breaks in the clouds at that altitude mean short spurts of very strong light, and we both got burned despite our usual care. Hiking Maïdo up and down from the parking area takes a good afternoon - I'd say about 2.5 hours each way at my leisurely pace.

Le Bassin Cormoran

Another "happy accident" location we stumbled upon (we saw people randomly parked on the side of the road and walking down a random trail in swimsuits) is the Cormoran Basin. This is quite a hike, I'd say about 40 minutes of wandering with cave crouching (some people were doing it in flip flops... how?!) that ends at a gorgeous cerulean swimming hole with a little waterfall. With my first advice being "do it," my second most important advice is "wear the right shoes." You want to be equipped for the hike and jagged rocks in the basin, but also be able to swim and not be forced to hike back with wet shoes (or have to pack them - beurk*). I had brought these on the trip with me and loved them, but sadly I didn't have them with me for this little excursion because I had no idea what to expect.

*Beurk = "yuck" in French

So we didn't swim much, but it would have been lovely after the sweaty hike!

There is a trail, but this is generally the type of terrain you hike on.

This is your reward. Find a spot on the crowded bank to throw your stuff and hop in!

Fun fact, in finding the link to the site for reviews for this place (mostly in French), I just now realized that it is apparently forbidden to go there. Now that I think about it we did duck under a peeled-back fence, but at the time it didn't register as something out of the ordinary. As one reviewer noted (review posted the same time we were there): Comment peut on laisser ouvert un site dangereux mais bien de mettre de panneaux interdit et laisser un passage où tout le monde pénètre.
C'est vraiment intolérable. [How can you leave open such a dangerous site, with signs saying no entry, but still leave open an entrypoint where everyone goes through? It's quite intolerable.]

Weather Notes

We went in January and the weather was HOT and glorious. Their winter is from June - September, but even then you can count on an average temperature of about 70 degrees (or should I say 21c, brush up on your metric/celsius conversions!).

We only had 3 full days in Reunion (2 of which were holidays - Monday [blame the French, many things aren't open on Mondays] and New Years day) but we felt pretty fulfilled with the hiking/swimming combos. Throw in a walk around the city center and a break for crêpes, and you've got yourself a lovely little vacay. We didn't have time to linger, because we had to get going to our next destination: Madagascar!