From the Beach to Mars - Reunion Island
The ‘e’ in Reunion Island has an accent over it, which marks it as French, yet the lush volcanic island sits in the Indian Ocean, about 500km east of Madagascar.
Despite being half a world away from Paris, Reunion is proudly a region of France - Euro, right hand drive, and cobbled streets included - a delightful paradox for the first time visitor.
It’s unfortunate that the island is best known for it’s connection to the missing flight MH370. In 2015 a piece of debris washed up on the shore, making Reunion seem as remote as the Pitcairn Islands in the South Pacific.
The reality is far more exciting - with luxurious beachside stays, mountainous trekking and a very active volcano. Here’s four ways to experience an island that locals like to call ‘a wilder Hawaii’.
Get high
Reunion’s distinctive mountainous landscape is obvious on approach to Roland Garros airport, at the foot of the towering Piton des Neiges (3070m).
But to get a real sense of the scale of these peaks, strap into a helicopter seat, Jurassic Park-style, and fly across the island (theme tune optional).
Corail Helicopters runs daily flights from sunrise - and we recommend an early start as the angled morning light beautifully accentuates the steep volcanic slopes.
Sit speechless while the pilot points out Cirque de Mafate and Cirque de Salazar, two massive prehistoric calderas. Large communities are sprawled out in this wild, gorgeous terrain, as well as odd, Bear Grylls-type solitary homes at the very foot of the valleys. Reunion is five-times the size of Singapore - and constantly growing.
There’s a quick swing around the Trou de Fer waterfalls before heading back to base, which on a clear day offers views from the coast right out to the horizon.
Head to the hills
An hour of gut-wrenching turns on a mountain road is all it takes to transition from windswept beaches along the coast to the dense, tropical greenery of Cirque de Salazar.
Perched high at 1300m is the fairy-tale town of Hell-Bourg - one of 150 officially titled ‘Most Beautiful Villages in France’.
This creole village seems to have its clocks frozen in the late 19th century - the architecture tinged with colonial influences like vaulted ceilings and wraparound verandahs, and the facades daubed in cheerful pastel hues.
For those who need a bit of sweat on the brow, Hell-Bourg is the start of two major trekking routes - the six-hour journey up to the caldera peak, or the challenging two-day round trip up to Piton des Neiges.
End off with a night at Les Jardine D’Heva (from €98 with breakfast) - five homely cottages hemmed in by lush flora like deep blue orchids and pink begonias.
Taste local
This should come as no surprise but Reunion, a region of France, is awash with French food. But there will be another time to enjoy butter and fromage.
Focus instead on the vibrant local cuisine known as Creole cooking. The flavours in a spread of Creole food encapsulates the rich ethnic history of Reunion Island - from African slaves shipped in from Madagascar in 1665, indentured Indian labourers that arrived two hundred years later, to the French landowners that ran the economy.
Chef Dennemont Francois, a hefty, blustery matriarch, still heaps giant servings of her parent’s recipes onto customer’s plates.
Do an alfresco lunch at L’Anse de Cascades, a popular restaurant frequented by locals for half a century.
The spread is intimidating - rice served with a broad selection of dishes like lentil stew, fish or cheese stuffed samosas, Brede (edible leaves and stems stir-fried chinese-style), and a fiery side-dish of Rougail (tomatoes, pistachios, chili and lemon). The creamy-sweet heart of Palm gratin is a delightful marriage of local ingredients and French cooking.
The flavours are mostly familiar until the Cari comes out of the kitchen, steaming up the windows. This gravy-based dish looks like a typical Indian curry, but the pungent flavours of stewed jackfruit and sweet pork flavoured with fresh vanilla make this a uniquely Reunion dish.
Order to go, and feast by the waterfalls in this peaceful, leafy corner of the island.
Go up an active volcano
The south of Reunion Island is dominated by Piton de la Fournaise, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It blew as recently as February this year, one of 150 eruptions since the 17th century.
Like Anne Hathaway jumping in and out of the dresser at the Oscars, the drive up from the coast involves several drastic changes in the landscape. Stop first at Le Pas de Bellecombe, a viewpoint at 2050m that feels like a pastoral European countryside with Limousin cattle grazing the rolling hills.
The yellow genet flowers that color the landscape disappear completely as the road curves around to Le Plaine des Sables - a vast open area that surrounds the peak of Piton de la Fournaise. From a distance it looks like images beamed back from the Mars rover - and up close the ground is thick with red and brown basalt rocks.
Hikers look like tiny colored pixels on the steep slopes leading up to the peak - but leave them to their misery and head down to the coast to walk on cooled lava flows. Reunitours does a four hour tour deep in the bowels of the volcano, along (hopefully) emptied magma chambers.
Fly to Reunion with a stopover in Mauritius, from $1200 return on Air Mauritius.
This article first appeared in Time Out Singapore
