Reunion Island
Far from the heavenly clichés of the Indian Ocean, Reunion Island will delight hikers rather than idlers. Made of volcanoes, cliffs, disheveled waterfalls and green jungle, the sheer beauty of this island is deserved and conquered.
This piece of France, warming itself in the sun of the southern hemisphere, does not lend itself to the traditional image of the tropical islands. Neighbor of Mauritius, known for its captivating lagoons, Reunion is more enigmatic: villages lost between narrow peaks, lunar landscapes or waterfalls down the heights similar to the veil of a bride.
Resolutely volcanic and mountainous, the island is a devilishly sporty destination: hiking, overnight refuge, paragliding, canyoning, lava tunnels. Add to this breathtaking natural space an original culture at the crossroads of three continents: Asia, Europe and Africa.
Reunion is a volcanic island born some three million years ago with the emergence of the Piton des Neiges volcano which is today, with an altitude of 3,070 m, the highest peak of the Indian Ocean . The east of the island is made up of the Piton de la Fournaise, a much younger volcano (500 000 years old) which is considered as one of the most active on the planet. The tip of the island represents only a small percentage (about 3%) of the underwater mountain that forms it.
In addition to volcanism, the relief of the island is made very rough by violent erosion. The center is home to three large cirques dug by erosion (Salazie, Mafate and Cilaos) and the slopes of the island are crisscrossed by many rivers gullies ravines whose torrents cut the slopes of mountains to several hundreds of meters deep.
The old massif of Piton des Neiges is separated from the Massif de la Fournaise by a gap formed by the plain of Palmistes and the plain of Cafres, passageway between the East and the South of the island. Outside the plains, coastal areas are generally the flatter regions, especially in the North and West of the island. The southern savage coastline is however steeper.
Probably spotted by the Arabs since the Middle Ages, Reunion was inhabited only from the middle of the seventeenth century, about 150 years after its appearance on portulans Portuguese navigators. Until then known under the name of Mascarin Island, it becomes under the island of Bourbon a stopover of the French East India Company on the road of the Indies then, from the years 1710, a true colony practicing the culture of the coffee . Become a plantation company, it passes under the direct control of the King of France in the 1760s before being reassigned to the sugar cane industry at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It is definitely renamed its current name and slavery is abolished in 18482, replaced until the 1930s by the practice of commitment.
Quand venir à la Réunion
Résolument tropicale, la Réunion compte deux saisons distinctes : un été chaud, pluvieux et cyclonique (décembre à mars) et un "hiver" frais et sec (juin à septembre). La côte Est est, de loin, la plus humide. La moyenne des températures s'élève à 21°C en saison sèche et 28°C en saison humide. La présence de hautes montagnes pondère cependant cette présentation par trop simpliste du climat insulaire. Les moyennes de température en montagne n'excèdent pas les 12/18°C en saison sèche/humide et les hauteurs de l'île sont souvent couronnées de brouillard. Les cyclones menacent parfois la Réunion en saison chaude
Santé
La Réunion ne pose pas de problème particulier pour le voyageur. Les informations qui suivent visent donc, pour la plupart, à parer à des éventualités peu probables. Elles ne doivent en aucun cas vous alarmer. Le soleil, la marche, la plongée, le changement de climat peuvent cependant entraîner leur lot de désagréments, que les médecins et les hôpitaux de l'île vous aideront facilement à résoudre. Les randonneurs, quant à eux, doivent tenir compte des risques de foulures, fractures, coups de chaleur ou de froid.
Contact : +262 692 74 02 90 eric@wildtours.fr
Head office: 27 Ch. R. Mondon - 97432 - St Pierre - France