4 August Hell Bourg

The thing to do on Reunion is hiking. We'd been south to the volcano, looked into Mafate cirque from the west side, now it was time to head to the east side of the island with the help of local friend Christine. When she heard we weren't able to rent a car because it is holiday season she offered us a lift on her way to work.

We left the marina at 6.30am with our walking boots and fleeces (mornings are chilly) and Christine drove us around the north and to the bus station at St Andre. We were early so there was time for a coffee and croissant at the morning market before catching the 8.15 bus to Hell Bourg, high up in the Cirque de Salazie. The journey on the bus was the first adventure. The road is carved from the edge of a gorge and winds up and up following the valley; to one side we had a rock face and on the other a steep drop to the river. There were waterfalls gushing from the rocks all along as the road took hair pin bends and crossed narrow bridges up to the town of Salazie and on to the higher town of Hell Bourg. We felt like we were in a ski village because the air is clean and cool and there is a lingering hint of wood smoke.

shrine at 3 Cascades

Cirque de Salazie

looking in to the gorge

Our first walk was up (what else but up?) to Les Trois Cascades, a good climb through the trees until we emerged on to a rock plateau with a stream babbling towards us and a white and blue shrine presiding above it. David 'Monkey Boy' climbed rocks to reach higher and found a further pool above the first, but we only found two cascades. What happened to the third?

typical Creole house

We walked back to town for our second walk which took us along the side of the valley for a full view of the cirque. This particular path is used by hill runners for their training. It rises 1,000m in 1km. Being neither hill runners nor in training we puffed our way to the half way point before returning to town for a nice coffee while we waited for the bus to take us back down to sea level. The ride down was just as good as the ride up and having someone else to do the driving meant we could both gaze out of the window like kids on a school bus.

From St Andre we took a bus to St Denis, the capital, changed and a then a bus back to Le Port and a short twenty minute stroll back to the marina.