The population in La Réunion is very diverse: many slaves were brought in from Africa. After the abolition of slavery in 1848, at the behest of Victor Schoelcher, the plantation owners looked for contract workers from Madagascar and India; there were also a lot of immigrants from mainland France. Although most cities on the coast are named after a Catholic saint, the main cities like Saint Denis in the North or Saint Pierre in the South have all kinds of places of worship: a cathedral on one block, a mosque on the next, then a Hindu temple followed by a Buddhist temple, a Catholic church and so on...

Tamul Hindu temple in Saint Pierre

A few buildings:

City hall in Saint Pierre

Old sugar cane mill near Saint Gilles

Creole house in Hell-Bourg, cirque de Salazie

Note: Hell-Bourg was named after Louis de Hell, governor of the island around 1840 and is actually a pleasant mountain resort where people from Saint-Denis come to escape the heat during the summer (Summer is December-March; this is the Southern hemisphere, remember).

I mentioned a few beaches on the West coast; unfortunately many of them were closed, following a series of shark attacks: one surfer killed in Boucan Canot last July and another one in Saint Gilles in September, a few weeks before our visit. Local authorities launched a shark fishing campaign, but only one fish was caught (300 kg still...); other beaches , such as Saint Leu or Saint Pierre were still open (and surfers moved over there).

Les Roches Noires beach in Saint Gilles: closed to swimming despite the school break, following a shark attack last September

School picnic under the filao trees in Saint Leu

Saint Leu is a renowned surfing spot.  The West coast is well exposed to the trade winds and the small coral reef with the quasi-absence of a lagoon allow some good waves to develop.

Outta my way shark! I'm off surfin' !

Incidentally Saint Leu is also the  spot for paragliding (the landing place is on a beach right next to the surfers).

Most of the island coast has no sand beaches at all; there are some natural basalt rock tide pools, such as this one in Manapany on the south shore:

The Southern hemisphere contains even less land masses than the Northern one: here in Manapany, on the southern shore, we are under tropical latitudes (21 degrees South); if we sail south from here, it's open seas all the way to the Antartica, some 8000 km away... Similarly open seas to the east: the Western Australia coast is a good 6000 km from there.

Up in the mountains

La Réunion is a mountainous island: the highest point is the Piton des Neiges, topping at 3070 m (10700 ft).

Piton des Neiges (3070 m) on the left and Gros Morne (3019 m) on the right.

Around the giant mass of the Piton des Neiges, three large circular valleys (cirques) have been formed. The Cirque de Salazie is on the northeast:

Cirque de Salazie seen from the Bélouve forest, early in the morning before the clouds move in...

There's plenty of water in Salazie: the cirque is facing the rainy east coast (windward coast) and is often filled in with clouds. Two big waterfalls, Cascade Blanche and Voile de la Mariée are flowing inside the cirque; I've posted the pictures in last Friday's Photo blog.

The Cirque de Cilaos is in the South:

Another valley called "Grand Bassin" near Cilaos:

Grand Bassin and the coastal town of Saint Louis

A tropicbird (named "paille-en-queue" in Réunion and Mauritius)

The third cirque, Cirque de Mafate, in the northwest, is a special case: Mafate has no roads of any sort; it is only accessible by foot or helicopter. Settlers moved there in the 19th century having been ruined by one of the many economic slumps and started planting their crops. Nowadays, Mafate is a hiker's haven (unfortunately disturbed by frequent helicopter flights). We haven't hiked it in its entirety, but we could see some of it from a viewpoint named Roche Verre Bouteille, reachable after an hour's walk.

Cirque de Mafate seen from Roche Verre Bouteille

Swallows (Mascarene Martin) and spiders are waiting for insects pushed over the rim by the trade winds

Plants and Trees

As in Mauritius, the main crop in La Réunion is the sugarcane, covering hectares of fields on all coasts; other crops also include some vanilla (Bourbon vanilla) and  geranium used in fragrances. Local produce includes both tropical plants (mangoes, papayas, pineapples, oranges,...) and temperate plants like tomatoes.

On the coasts, the commonly found trees are the filao trees and the inevitable coconut trees and palm trees.

Filao trees

Up the mountains however, the forests are totally different: highland tamarins and some very unique tree ferns.

Highland tamarin trees and tree ferns in the Bélouve forest

Tree ferns in the forest near La Plaine des Cafres

Tree fern on the rim overlooking the cirque de Salazie

Rain forest near La Plaine des Cafres. Wild orchids are growing on rotting tree trunks

Arum wildflowers in the forest

Platane tree near Cilaos sprouting new leaves: it's spring time in the southern hemisphere!

Next Part...
OK, enough pictures for a single diary. In the next part, we'll visit the volcano (hot stuff!).