First of all, Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Wishing you all the luck of the Irish!
La Possession, Reunion, was our port of call for this Monday. This island located in the Indian Ocean belongs to the French Overseas Department. The population is 885,700 people that speak French, Creole , and English. The island comprises of 970 square miles and offers visits to volcanoes, waterfalls, as well as many mountain hiking trails.
The currency is the Euro, and Reunion is much more expensive than its nearby neighbor of Mauritius. A ferry ride from Mauritius to Reunion is 143 miles and takes 12 hours. The price is 45 Euro.
Here is something we did not know until we started researching this island. Swimming, diving, and all water sports are forbidden within a perimeter of 300 meters around the entire coastline. There are some beaches, but it is against the law to go into the water. There are lifeguards posted in these areas, and if you are breaking the rules, it is a reason for fines. Digging a little deeper, we learned that there are so many sharks in this part of the world, it has been named Shark Highway. The last shark attack was in 2019.
The main industry is sugar, rum, handicrafts, and the production of flower oil. Tourism has to be near the top of these industries. And finally, the hottest month is February while the dryest months are from May through November. One last fact is there are no venomous animals on this island.
Excursions today included four that were from 7 ½ to 8 ½ hours to vanilla plantations, waterfalls, volcanoes, lava tubes and caves, then ending with a Creole lunch. Only one tour was 4 hours to see the island's center and visit a geranium field where the oil is extracted for a base for perfume. The French are famous for this in Europe.
The Zuiderdam sailed into the port of Le Port – Cruise Pier 35 early this morning and on time. After breakfast, we thought it was wise to buy some Euros at the front desk, even though we will probably use our credit card. On past stops here, we always had a complimentary shuttle to St. Denis, which is a considerable distance from the port area. According to Kimberly, the road to St. Denis was closed, and later we heard it was partially closed with lots of slow-moving traffic. In addition, they said many shops and restaurants were not opened on Mondays. Whatever the excuse, there were a few other options to go somewhere from the port terminal.
Backing up a bit, we decided to leave the ship around 10:30am during another "man overboard" drill. We had considered not going anywhere, but when the noise from ongoing deck work was so loud, it drifted up to our rooms, we said let's leave. Pedestrians are not allowed to walk through this port area, so we are required to board a one-minute bus ride to the terminal uphill. All of us were told to bring our passports, which were checked by the officials in the little terminal. From there, we went right to the information reps who were selling a 5 Euro round trip bus ride from here to a shopping mall in the same town Le Port. Nice maps were handed out so we could chart our ride, and green bands were attached to our wrists. The first stop was at the Port Quest area which had many houses, grocery stores, and shops. There was a police station, a Maire du port office, and a tourist office. We had a free bus ride here several years ago, we found the nearby beach (no swimming) with some food stands. There were no restaurants back then, so we took a chance and bought two ham and cheese paninis about a foot long from a shack. They were excellent and the first time we had a chance to taste them. Now this area is built up with tons of shopping and cafes, so much so, that we barely recognized it.
Some of the folks got off here, then others that were here before us, joined our bus. One of the fellows said he was disappointed there was not one pub opened….especially on this holiday. Not sure they celebrate St. Pat's Day, but the rest of us sure do. It should be a holiday since most of Reunion is Catholic. Then the ride continued down to the shopping mall where all of us got off. A Burger King marked the spot where we were to come back to pick up the bus. We had to laugh at how many of the guests said that Burger King sure sounded good to them. Definitely comfort food for many.
This mall was very nice with wonderful air-conditioning. Not quite as fancy as the one in Mauritius, it had recognizable boutiques, stores, and a food court. Malls are always a good place to find pharmacies and a grocery store. This one had a new-looking Carrefour that was huge….more like a Costco-type place. However, we found it strange that the store would not open until noontime. At the end of each bank of registers, we saw friends we knew from the ship, all waiting for opening time. Even with the prices of the food products being a little higher with Euros, it was far less expensive that what was being sold on the ship. Take Pringles, for example. On the ship, they cost about $9 a cylinder, while here in Reunion, we guess they were more like ½ the price or less. We decided to make a sweep through here on the way out of the mall, not that we really needed anything, but we always like to look.
There was a food court with a variety of menus appealing to most everyone. Most of them were more like take-away and dine at the tables and chairs in the center. As for us, we prefer a real dine-in restaurant with table service. Assuming that was all that was here, we were wrong when we found a larger restaurant that was not just take-away. It was called Ete Indien, which we assumed meant it was Indian cuisine. At a closer look at the menu, we saw that they served a little of everything including burgers, pasta, and guess what? Pizza. They had at least 10 varieties of pizza. Staying on the safe side, we ordered a Margherita pizza, and two large draft beers called 3 Brasseurs. Perfect. It was nice sitting for at least an hour while sipping ice cold beers and savoring every bite of pizza. Within 10 minutes after we were seated, the entire restaurant was filled with customers. Most all of them were locals. We added a shared dessert of profiteroles which was served in a large soup bowl. This was our last chance for this type of dessert until we are in Europe we suspect.
Passing by the Carrefour, we changed our minds about going inside. Every single register had a dozen customers waiting in line to check out. So we continued on to the exit and reboarded the bus by the Burger King. By then there must have been 60 or more folks in line to go back. The last shuttle from this mall was 3pm we think. Taking a shorter way back, we were in our room by 2:30pm . The noisy work had stopped, and we were most glad about that.
Captain Frank came on with his talk before sail away. Once again, we would be leaving a little later due to some buses with about 200 guests that had not returned from their tours as of yet. And for a change, his talks were coming into the staterooms and not just outside in the hallways. The reason was that he had some safety advise to add later. OK, what's up? We sure hope nothing has changed with our first stops in South Africa……
One of the disappointing things we missed today by not going to St. Denis, were the sightings we always have of tropic birds. These birds are normally up high in a park, where they perch, then fly out to sea to feed. There is no denying these pretty white birds when we see that long tails swirling in the wind as they fly. We still kept an eye out for them just in case. In fact, we did not see one bird today…not even pigeons or doves in town. Most unusual.
The lines were cast off by 5:30pm, and we were shortly heading into some rough seas with significant swells. And that was the important info the Captain had to say. The crew was preparing to stash everything that could possibly fall over or fly away. Captain Frank advised all of us to be most careful with doors and stair wells. Even the doors in our rooms, since many accidents happened where you don't expect them. He predicted the 3 day sailing towards Richard's Bay will be mostly cloudy with some showers, but rough due to residual wave action from Cyclone Jude. The sea swells would be high and the winds were expected to 35 knots or better. Pitching will be the most problem, but the stabilizers will remain out. Not sure this helps a whole lot with deep pitching. Then the Captain suggested with the celebration of St. Paddy's Day, the best spot on the ship would be in the Billboard Onboard where a sing-along was scheduled at 8pm with Irish songs and drinks to match. For those who like the "motion of the ocean", the Crow's Nest would have a bar hop for $29. We think it will be a "room hop" for us after dinner and many others that did not want to risk injury.
And just as we got out away from the harbor, we saw a white dot in the far distance. Taking a chance, we took photos of this lone bird and happened to get some good shots with the backdrop of the green mountains. Guess what? We had captured a shot of a lone tropic bird in flight. Considering ourselves lucky, we thought maybe that was due to the good luck of St. Patrick's Day. Besides the one tropic bird, we spotted some dark low-flying birds which are most difficult to film.
Tonight's attire in the dining room was casual with a splash of green, of course. The waiters wore their green ties, and the bar server girls had green shamrock ears. Very amusing. Dinner was good with some new starters. One was a smoked trout with bay shrimp, which might make the non-fish eater among us change her mind. Really good – and no bones. One of us tried the ham hock pea, potato, and carrot soup, also nice. Salads were a Caesar and a pumpkin with greens and goat cheese. Good for a change. Then our entrees were the typical Irish meal of corned beef and a fried potato/cabbage nugget as a side. Some root veggies were hidden under the thinly-cut meat such as turnips. That's sneaky. A creamy gravy was all over the meat, which we did not recognize. We added mustard in ramekins and scraped off the gravy. It was good. Desserts were one scoop of ice cream each.
When we returned to our room, we discovered that one of our chairs was missing. All of the veranda chair pads had been brought inside, but the missing chair remained a mystery. We had fun investigating that tomorrow morning. Anyway, the good news was that the clocks went back one hour. We all need the extra sleep. And three sea days will be great also.
Bill & Mary Ann
