Day 1 Reunion

Our first day in St Denis dawns grey, wet and thundery! Breakfast in the hotel dining room is a lavish spread washed down with coffee and tea. We have free access to a WiFi connection so check out some maps of Reunion over breakfast.

We obtained a small map from reception of St Denis and the young man pointed out the best way to get into town from the hotel. We drove down the steep hill, starting to appreciate now why we had had trouble finding the place last night. The city is built on the hillside which is scarred with ravines hence following a straight line from A to B requires you to go up, down and around to get to your destination.

We found a multilevel carpark with an incredibly narrow entrance so I drove around the block again to check it out a second time before entering! I managed to negotiate the driveway and parked safely...phew.
First stop was the Grande Marche...which was full of souvenirs most of which we would have been unable to bring back into Australia as they were wooden or of natural fibres. The only thing we purchased was a large bottle of water. It is extremely humid and we were dehydrating rapidly. While we were wandering around it started to rain heavily. Down Rue Marcechal Leclerc one of the major shopping streets.

Come midday and everything closes up for a couple of hours so we wandered around stopping to look at the main Mosque Noor-e-Islam, a couple of Chinese temples, a Hindu temple then later the catholic Cathederal St Sauveur.

We found the local Petite Marche much like Queen Vic market back in Melbourne, plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, live poultry, spices, flowers etc. Tropical fruits and vegetables we did not recognise alongside familiar ones were the order of the day.

We walked down to the waters edge along Boulevard de l'Ocean. Lots of rocks no sand here.

We walked up Avenue de Victorie passed the war memorial and Ancien Hotel de Ville back to the car and home to our hotel to put our feet up for a while before dinner.

Ile de la Reunion ???

This seems to be a place very few Australians have heard of and I have to admit until about the 1st of April I also had never heard of it. NOW I have not only heard of it I have been there and would recommend others go check it out too.
It is french territory, Department 974 and is in the Indian Ocean south west of Mauritius.  http://www.reunion.fr/
Mike read about it in an email from the French Tourist Office (something we get on a regualr basis) and wondered where the heck it was. A bit of research later and he was convinced it was the sort of place we should visit.
Now on one hand he is saying we are poor but on the other what a great place for a holiday. Well not being slow in coming forward I thought I would do a little research myself and work out the hows and wheres of getting there.
I discovered a french airline called Air Austral flies direct to Reunion from Sydney on a tuesday and flies back to Australia on a sunday. 12 days sounds like the perfect holiday to me. So on monday the 2nd of April we booked and flew out on the 17th! The internet makes life so easy for holiday planning. Before we left home I had booked car hire, hotel accomodation, inquired about helicopter flights over the island, dolphin cruises, learned a little about the islands history, what to expect of the local flora and fauna and what sort of weather to expect.
Then we just had to wait 2 weeks til our departure date which was planned to coinincide with a visit from our daughter Emily whose ship was sailing into Melbourne on its way to New Zealand. 

HMAS Warramunga

Emily at work.

All smiles as her duties are completed.

It was fabulous and made us very proud to see our daughter (in dress uniform) lined up on the deck of HMAS Warramunga with her fellow sailors as the ship steamed up Port Phillip Bay and docked at Station Pier.


It is a 12 hour flight from Sydney so we arrived at 1830 tuesday evening Reunion time.
No issues getting our luggage and going through customs. We headed to the info counter to find where to pick up the car we had booked. Out the door over the road and there is a special building with all the car hire firms represented. We had a voucher as it was all paid for before we left home so we headed to the desk we were directed to by the info person only to be told we were at the wrong place and should try a different place. After talking to them we were directed to a 3rd company. Finally someone who would honour our voucher but had no record of our booking!! His problem he said BUT we do not have an automatic car as ordered only a manual Citron 3 gazoil vehicle. No worries we just want a car and to get to our hotel. The car has a few dings and is out in aisle 2 see you in 12 days back here at 10.30am. No instructions on returning the car a point that would prove an issue later. It must also be noted that another person approached the car hire man only to be told he had NO cars left! So we were indeed very lucky to have any car at all!
Now I thought I was being clever printing out instructions on how to reach our hotel from the airport...NOT SO. The instructions were hoplessly inadequate in that we could find none of the mentioned streets and not only was it dark and wet, we had been up for about 24hours, we were driving a lefthand drive vehicle on the righthandside of the road..the odds were rather stacked against us. After driving around and around for sometime we pulled into a carpark and tried to ring the hotel only to get someone telling us in french we had the wrong number (or something like that). While driving around I had seen signs to a Mecure Hotel (this we knew to be a large international chain) so we figured someone would speak english and assist us to hire a taxi to follow to our hotel. We found the hotel which was surrouonded by a large fence with keypad/intercom access needed...but as a car left I walked in and approached the recption desk. The young woman was extremely helpful (and spoke beautiful english) she rang a taxi and told him of our dilemma. He arrived about 10 mins later and I drove with Ishmael while Mike followed in our hire car. We had a great chat and Ishmael was curious to know whether I ate kangaroo and whether I would rather eat it or beef:) He led us safely to Hotel Bellepierre where we were to spend the next 4 nights. It was by now 2100 and again we found friendly and helpful staff (with excellent english) who booked us a table in the restaurant for dinner after we had been to our room to freshen up. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and realised 2100 really is not late for dinner if you are french!
Needless to say we slept VERY well and awoke refreshed the next morning ready to start exploring Isle de la Reunion.

Trip to South Australia

Saturday 17th March and at 9am we decided to go on a little road trip to South Australia...hey it is only about a 10 hour drive. Well we were packed and out the door by 10am, we are getting good at making a quick escape. Shortest way was along the Western Freeway to Ballarat then the Western Highway to Ararat, Horsham, St Arnaud, Kaniva, across the border to Bordertown SA. From here we headed to Murray Bridge, it was getting late and we started to think about where to stop for the night, on a quick drive through Callington (an old copper mining town) we found no accommodation so continued on toward Adeliade. We kept going and turned off the highway at Mt Barker, still not finding anything obvious we headed into Hanhdorf a lovely little village in the hills that was originally settled by German migrants. After a few knock backs at full motels we headed out of town being advised that there was a hotel on the way into Adelaide we might find a bed for the night, we went past a sign advertising vacant rooms in...so in we went and woohoo they not only had a room for the night but it was considerably cheaper than some of the others we had looked at .
It was clean and comfortable. As by now it was 8pm we headed into the hotel dining room for a buffet dinner...first mistake next was to have breakfast there the next morning, ah well live and learn.
We went for a wander down the main street of Hanhdorf the next morning and wished we had not eaten already as there lots of little cafes ready to serve us a delicous breakfast from what we saw others having.
We checked out of the motel and headed south to the Flerieu Peninsula driving along the back roads just taking our time and checking out the scenery. Lunch was at the market in Strathalbyn. A lovely little town, see photos below.
Then we drove down into Victor Harbour to look at the view out over the sea. On the way back we stopped at the Alexandrina Cheese Company for a cuppa and a cheese tasting plate for afternoon tea, There was a live female country band playing and quite a few people around. We opted to sit outside (sorry ladies but the music was awful). This time we thought about the night's accommodation earlier and figured we would head back to Hanhdorf. We checked into the same motel(different room) and did not make the mistake of eating at the hotel...we instead went next door to the local pizza parlour but found on the menu pork belly with prawns and salsa and crisp duck legs with salad. WOOHOO we hit the jackpot..it was a yummy meal, the staff were friendly and efficient and we were entertained by the next table of women and 2 blokes celebrating one of the girls 40th birthdays. A pre-requisite for this party was that you wear a fascinator ( a type of small hat)...and the blokes wore them too!
Breakfast the next morning was partaken a a cafe at the other end of town and was also delicious. Round 9am we headed off home opting to go the long way via Mt Gambier so we could see the Blue Lake, which is in a volcanic crater.
We stopped in Naracoorte for lunch then onto Mt Gambier...it was a hot day and getting late so we stopped for a quick photo shoot then headed toward the border and Victoria. 4.30pm saw us in Casterton in need of a cuppa and a loo stop..we also had an early tea of homemade pies from the local bakery. We made it home by just after 9pm so our long weekend ended.


Looking toward Mt Langhi Kiran as we head off down the road to South Australia. We had a nice lunch of salad and cheese in Beaufort and there we saw this intriguing structure and worked out it was a shelter for the crossing supervisor...way to go Beaufort.

This giant Koala we found in Dadswells Bridge when we stopped for a break.

Looking down the main street of Hanhdorf.

the trees lining the streets were starting to take on the beautiful autumn colours of reds and golds.

Get a load of the door height of this old building, Mike would have had to duck to get through.

Now this is for the well heeled motorcycle traveller, complete with trailer to carry the luggage!

an interesting sculpted cypress tree in main street of Hanhdorf right outside the most amazing cake shop...we were strong and did not indulge:(

This wonderful stained glass fountain was erected to commemorate the founding families of Hanhdorf in Alec Johnson Park.

They certainly knew how to make a bank secure back in the good old days...lol Check out the metal door grating. This is in Strathalbyn a town in an area settled by Scots migrants. Close up of a corella.

Look closely and you can see that the white dots in the trees are actually birds! The place was alive with corellas...we saw them fly on mass from one side of the gardens to the other...amazing.

Looking across the bridge of the Soldiers Memorial Park in Strathalbyn.

Just loved the colour of this rose in the Soldiers Memorial Park, Strathalbyn.

There was a bee sitting in this rose.

An apricot rose in the Soldiers Memorial Park Strathalbyn. We had a very pleasant cheese tasting plate for afternoon tea at the Alexandrina Cheeese Company on the Flerieu Peninsula.

This cow sculpture was outside the Alexandrina Cheese Company.

Looking over Victor Harbour South Australia.

Looking from Victor Harbour toward Point Elliot.

Here is Mike sitting in the whale with Victor Harbour in the background.

We stopped at a lookout over looking Victor Harbour which was a massive whale mosaic dedicated to friendship between a chinese city and Victor Harbour.

The countryside was rather dry.

I could not resist taking a picture out the cr window of this amazing cloud formation we saw as we were driving through the South Australian countryside.

We saw lots of massive grain silos along the road most with a train station nearby. There were acres and acres of vines beside the road in the Coonawarra district.

This are the flowers of an interesting tree we spotted while having lunch in Naracoorte.

These interesting seedpods we saw on a tree (which we have yet to idnetify) in Naracoorte where we stopped to have lunch on our way home.

The Blue Lake Mount Gambier South Australia...it really is that blue!