October 30th

As I start this I realize our Reunion jaunt is coming to a close. We just checked into a hotel for our last night. 🙁

Anyway, yesterday, we awoke and had some sun, so we went out and about. We drove to Grand Bassin parking area; got out and trekked 25 minutes, with some up a metal stairway to an awesome overlook of the Grand Bassin Waterfall. We had it to ourselves, too. It was a nice waterfall into a small pool area. We could not get any closer than the overlook due to falling rock and an apparent issue from this. We hiked back out and met half a dozen or so people trailing in.

We arrived back at our place for breakfast of scrambled eggs with leftover rotisserie chicken, yogurt, and coffee /juice. Relaxed a bit and then back out – drove up to Gite de Belouve. This area is in the Salazie Cirque. The parking area was full (including a very large group of motorcycles, that were loading up to leave. We found a parking place finally, and went to check out this area. So Gite means a hostel in a rural district. Well, there was a dorm type building that was closed. There was also a restaurant that was not open yet, but you could smell lunch – it be opening soon! The main attraction here is the plateau-type area with fantastic views and trails going all round. One trail was a hike down to Hell-Bourg – this was one of the first places we visited when we arrived!! It made me feel kind of nostalgic. There was also an old cable car up here. Looks like it ran to Hell-Bourg, but was not running now and was sitting there rusting away, but a great photo op. After we toured about, we went back to our car and headed back to our place. We did see and stop at a grill place and bought four pork skewers. We ate 3 of the skewers for lunch, but that was enough. So good!

After lunch we had siesta. Then supper with the last skewer in pasta with last of our garlic sauce. Then we watched our church service from back home via ZOOM; connected with some family via WhatsApp; and bed by 2300. Very good day!!
Today, we repacked all our stuff, ate breakfast of some sausage (The place below us made it. They also own the apartment we are in.) with bread; yogurt; coffee/juice; and another awesome lemon tart, again sharing one. We checked out by tenish, after I petted their very old labrador-type dog – pet therapy!

We headed over to almost Saint Rose, so we could say we did a complete ring of Reunion Island! Catching the ring road we arrived in Saint Anne. e went to two sites here. First was the Bassin Bleu (French spelling of blue!). It is a runoff area from a mountain river that has been made into a basin area – pool area. Many people were enjoying it. The water is very clear and clean looking – inviting! Second was the Church of Sainte-Anne. It is a very different church, but beautiful. It was described as… “a mixture of Baroque style and Gaudiesque style.” The church was open, so we went in. I was surprised – it was very plain looking inside. But then we saw the side chapel and this made up for the plainness of the main church. The chapel was pastels and seemed “fairy-taleish”.

From here went north to Saint Benoit. We took a side road back into the interior to Takamaka. This area is known for its many waterfalls. They all come to a pool we could not see. In 1968, the French dug 315 meters below this ground to make the Takamaka dam for hydroelectric power for the island. There were a few waterfalls, but it was clouding up and starting to rain, not great picture taking time. Also there was a much more spectacular waterfall along the side road, to get to these smaller ones. Anyway, we backtracked to get back to the main road.

At Saint Andre we stopped at Restaurant Creole L'Authentic, having one dish of poisson, one poulet (which was one fish and one chicken). Each had big scoop of rice – the fish was flavored well, but a bit dry, as it was from dried cod; the chicken was best had a good amount of juice and mushrooms also. We also were served a side of lentil soup, that needed just a very, very small dab of the hot, hot chilies served with it.

From here we drove into Saint Denis, thus ends our jauntings of Reunion. Tomorrow we fly out.