Saint Gilles les Bains, Reunion - Of all the places that I have visited, Reunion is probably my favourite. I’ve been there twice, just to make sure.
A convenient flight from Pietermaritzburg on an Airlink jet was followed by a restful night at the five-star Emperors Palace D’Oreal Grande Hotel before taking the complimentary airport shuttle and boarding our Air Austral flight for a pleasant flight of three-and-a-half hours.
My return visit coincided with the annual carnival in the coastal town of Saint Gilles les Bains, and after an elegant dinner at Boucan Canot Hotel’s le Cap restaurant, we joined the crowds still thronging late on a Sunday evening – around 50 000 of the total 850 000 population attended the one-day affair.
Among the painted faces, elaborate hairdos and fancy costumes were mothers pushing prams through the jam-packed streets, past DJs pumping tunes.
The island – just 45km at its widest and 63km long – is a mix of cultures and geography. The islanders are mostly Creole.
Sugar, rum, vanilla, essential oils and seafood are synonymous with Reunion. There are no snakes or poisonous spiders. The main predator is the island’s only bird of prey, the papanque.
Forty-two percent of the island is a national park (a Unesco World Heritage Site) and 30 percent remains virgin territory.
Reunion was formed by two volcanoes: the inactive Piton des Neiges (Peaks of Snow), the highest peak in the Indian Ocean at just over 3 000m, and Piton de la Fournaise (Furnace Peak), one of the most active (and safest) volcanoes in the world.
There are three distinctly different calderas – huge, steep, bowl-shaped valleys resulting from the older volcano’s collapse.
Salazie is wet, with waterfalls and rain forests, Cilaos’s climate resembles South Africa’s mountains and rugged Mafate is accessible only by foot or air.
The land rises swiftly from the sea to high plains and mountains. This results in hundreds of micro-climates, which allow tropical fruit to flourish with plants from colder climes.
Reunion is an adventurer’s dream with gung-ho activities galore and is a gourmet’s delight. With our excellent guide, Nicholas Cyprien ([email protected]), we experienced adrenalin-pumping fun and sampled wonderful food.
A head-turning drive past towering ramparts and waterfalls to the highland village of Hell Bourg in Salazie, with its ruined thermal baths, is a delightful glimpse of yesteryear – charming Creole houses, gardens ablaze with beautiful flowers and herbs.
Le Relais des Cimes provided fine food, including chouchou (served au gratin), which we had seen festooning hillsides.
We negotiated the 420 hairpin bends en route to Cilaos. The ride was a thrill, as was canyoning (hiking, abseiling and plunging down waterfalls) in the mountains. Cilaos means “the place one never leaves”.
The town nestles in an alpine amphitheatre and that evening we were thoroughly entertained by Noe Noe Dijoux, owner of the charming Hotel Tsilaosa.
In his downstairs cellar he regaled us with the history of wine in the area, plying us with various vintages and varietals, accompanied by excellent salami and delicious Piton Maido, one of 17 local cheeses.
After a hike the next day, Raymonda Gontier and her husband Mikael welcomed us for a Creole picnic. It began with the ubiquitous rhum arrange (a potent rum liqueur).
The couple have 80 varieties, infusing rum with delicious herbs, fruit, flowers and spices. Pork and chicken dumplings, starters wrapped in rice “pastry”, were followed by quiche with Cilaos lentils and dark, smoked home-made sausage, marlin with endemic “mango” ginger, and chicken in Cilaos wine with fish sauce from the potjie.
The main courses on Reunion are accompanied by rougail – interesting side dishes or condiments with, for example, tomato, chilli, peanut butter and usually an aubergine version.
We topped off the meal with corn cake, gateau de maison and vanilla rum, washed down with home-roasted, vanilla-flavoured coffee sweetened with local honey.
Down the switchback bends, through tunnels, then another twisty climb, this time to Piton de la Fournaise.
En route we dined at Auberge du Volcan, where gratin palmiste (palm hearts) and carne cabris massale (a classic stew of goat meat in an onion, garlic and oil base flavoured with spices, masala and curry leaves) stole the show.
Then on, ascending through changing flora and breathtaking scenery, over the Mars-like Plaine des Sables plateau, before a bracing hike up and down the cliff face of the volcano’s caldera and on to the magma moonscape.
We ate at Le Panoramic in Bourge Murat, Reunion’s highest village. Huge salads preceded wild banana blossom (baba-fig) with smoked pork, swordfish with combava – a hard citrus fruit, frozen and grated – with rougail in calabashes: spinach, lemon, red beans, combava and fig.
Corn cake, fondant chocolate, sweet potato cake, mango mousse and Chantilly sauce Anglais (vanilla) with mango and “red fruit” sauce for dessert saw us totter to our car.
Down to the coast we went, to the five-star Lux Hotel in Saint Gilles. This sprawling resort is fronted by a calm lagoon. I was amazed at the thriving coral just metres from the shore and spent the late afternoon in the warm water while paragliders swept overhead and surfers rode the waves off the distant point. You can also view the sealife from a glass-bottomed canoe.
That evening we were entertained by Creole musicians before fine dining in L’Orangine. Run by Christian Virassamy, it is one of the island’s most popular restaurants. The main course was toothfish and potatoes in a Champagne sauce, with the bubbly clearly evident.
Tuna, beef and roasted potatoes with a coffee sauce and foie gras topping was heavenly. A frothy macaroon and sorbet delight including melon, watermelon and orange with a ginger syrup provided a refreshing end to the meal.
This is just one of several eateries to choose from at this luxurious retreat, awarded “best hotel on Reunion Island, 2012” by the World Travel Awards.
We boarded a Helilagon helicopter the next day, our expert pilot thrilling us with low flying over the waves before swooping up and over the mountains, hugging the steep sides of the Mafate wilderness with its varied landscapes among 10 peaks.
Wow, what a finale. It was with reluctance that I boarded the return flight.
THINGS TO DO
For adventure seekers: Trekking, hiking and climbing, with more than 1 000km of trails from easy to extreme; kite surfing, scuba diving, paragliding and surfing; canyoning, skydiving, exploring lava tunnels, mountain biking, quad biking, sports fishing; microlight/ ultralight/ helicopter flights
In the capital, St Denis, Musée Léon Dierx has a renowned art collection and the State Gardens and Natural History Museum are worth visiting. Award-winning vanilla products from family industries and essential oils won’t tax your baggage limit. Volcanic pebbles are free souvenirs.
Getting there:
Air Austral (www.air-austral.com) flies between Joburg’s OR Tambo airport and St Denis every Thursday and Sunday. South African passport holders no longer need a visa.
Airlink (www.flyairlink.com) also connects southern African destinations.
ITC Tropicar (www.itctropicar.re) ensures easy travel around Reunion.
Visit the Reunion Tourism website at www.reunion.fr/en or e-mail [email protected] for a brochure. - Sunday Tribune