Dialog - Seite 57

Spending a day at the beach in La Saline-les-Bains, relaxing, reading and preparing for our big trip to the "Piton de la Fournaise" volcano the next day.

Hiking from Entre-Deux down towards the "Bras de la Plaine" river, where our travel guide advertised a natural arch made of lava stone we never saw. On the way back, we learned the meaning of rain in "rain forest", but also that most showers don't take long.

Driving down south to the Cap Méchant ("the malicious cape") in cloudy and windy (but nonetheless warm) weather. On the way back, we thought of visiting Entre-Deux but turned around after landing in a rain shower (and decided to come back later).

In Saint-Gilles-les Bains, the next bigger town, for souvenir shopping.

A small trip to a series of three basins near St. Gilles les Bains. The hiking paths go alongside aqueducts, one of them leading throught tunnels! On our way back we caught a glimpse of the paille en queue bird.

In the Takamaka valley, famous for its waterfalls down the more than 800 meters high vertical walls covered with green vegetation.

Our first exhibition lead us southwards towards Saint-Pierre and from there via the only road to cross the island over the mountain pass, down via the Plaine des Palmistes to Saint-Benoît and back home, passing Le Grand Brûlé (where lava flows from Réunion's active volcano into the Indian ocean) and lots of small villafes along the island's south coast.

Starting at Karlsruhe main station, taking the TGV to Paris from where our flight left (which was faster than flying from Frankfurt!). After an 11 hour overnight flight we landed safely on Réunion, picked up our rental car and headed towards La Saline-les-Bains on the island's west coast where we had our apartment.