Published in "Sawubona" magazine

Snapshots of Paradise

Reunion is an idyllic tropical island in the Indian Ocean, with more than a touch of quirkiness. Here miracle churches and voodoo, black and white beaches, active volcanoes and ancient cirques, French cuisine and Creole curries live happily side by side in a melting pot of East meets West meets Africa.

Story : Keri Harvey

Reunion is completely unexpected. It is wilder than Mauritius, tamer than Madagascar and has lashings of its patriarch: mainland France. There are tropical beaches, good rum and Creole culture reminiscent of Mauritius; colourful crafts and traditional religion much like in Madagascar, and good cheese and wine, small smart cars, and the language and style of France. Yet there's also plenty that is pure Reunion, unlike anywhere else in the world.

We gingerly steer our little black Peugot along the right-hand side of the road and out of the capital St Denis. In the next week we will hug the coastline through colourful towns and villages ablaze with bright paintwork and brookey lace, bouganvilla and poinsettia. Now and then we will head into the interior to taste natural drama in the landscape, but mostly we will try to remember to "keep right, and honour left" at traffic circles.

"Reunion is like a big rock with three holes poked in it, plus a fountain of fire," is how a local described the Mascarene island, just east of Madagascar. The three holes are the cirques of Cilaos, Salazie and Mafate, and on the eastern side of the island is the active volcano aptly named Piton de la Fournaise or Furnace Peak.

So there's precious little level ground or sand on Reunion, making it particularly difficult to build roads and cemeteries" so both cling to the coastline. Few roads head into the rugged, unpopulated interior. Instead, the bulk of the population lives in little towns along the coast, mostly named St Something. St Denis heads the list, followed by Pierre, Paul, Philippe, Andre, Joseph, Benoit, Marie, Suzanne, Rose and more. But Reunion is not exclusively Catholic, not even close. Rather, folklore has it that the national saint of the island arrived in a wooden box.

Apparently colonials asked the Vatican for religious relics in an attempt to improve the moral values of the people. So when a box of old bones arrived marked "Expedito" (meaning "dispatched" in Italian), local religious leaders presumed it was the remains of a saint, which is how St Expedit took his place as national saint. Another version is that he does expeditious work, placing curses on people as a way of revenge. Regardless, today St Expedit is revered by Reunionnais of all religions as the national saint, though he is believed to be perfectly capable of both good and evil deeds.

As we drive, small red roadside shrines appear at regular intervals. Some are adorned with gifts, candles and flowers and others house a decapitated statue inside. Story is, the decorated ones are a show of thanks for a deed carried out. And the decapitated ones depict a request not executed by St Expedit, or they could be an attempt to break a curse. We quickly end our visit to one of these roadside shrines when a carload of people pull in behind us, clearly there to meet with the saint. Suddenly a visit to the Miracle Church of Notre Dame des Laves, in Piton St Rose nearby, seems like a much better idea - hedging our bets with the good gods.

Locals claim the Miracle Church story to be pure fact, and it involves a feisty priest and a volcanic eruption. The landscape of this south-east section of the island is constantly changing as lava flows remodel the area, but this particular priest would have nothing of it. As a wall of lava moved swiftly in the direction of the town in the late seventies, he stood steadfast in the doorway of his church and refused to budge. The lava flattened much of the surrounding town, and as it moved towards the church the priest remained put. Then, as the boiling lava reached the church doorway, it split into two streams, flowed around the church building, and joined up again to flow into the sea. The church of Notre Dame des Laves was completely untouched, though it is today still surrounded by the hardened lava flow. People say it was a miracle.

As we travel on along the coastal road encircling the island, religion in some form is everywhere. Catholic churches stand alongside intricately painted Tamil temples and spirey mosques and an array of religious icons sprinkle the island. One such icon is the black virgin or La Vierge Noire in the village of Riviere des Pluies. She is said to bestow health, prosperity and protection, and locals believe that children who receive their first haircut at the black virgin's feet will always be lucky in life. Another is La Vierge au Parasol (the virgin with umbrella) on the east coast. It's believed she provides protection from lava flows when Fournaise erupts. On one occasion the local mayor moved the virgin to safety during an eruption and lava apparently consumed the area. Locals were infuriated and immediately moved her back to her post to protect them, which she has done ever since.

Curiously, Reunion is a relatively new island in the scheme of earth. It was born only about 2,5 million years ago when Piton des Neiges rose from beneath the Indian Ocean. At over 3 000m high, this extinct volcano seems to keep watch over the island, and its inspiring volcanic scenery that draws adventure sport lovers from around the world. For hiking, canyoning, trekking, abseiling, paragliding and diving they come. Others visit just to marvel at the scenery and relax on the popular white beaches of the west coast. But few ever leave without visiting the dramatic trio of cirques.

These collapsed volcanoes are the "three holes poked in a rock". And as we make our way to the biggest of the cirques, Cilaos, it's enough to make your head spin. We ascent 2 500m through 200 hairpin bends on a narrow mountain road into the midst of the cirque. It takes 90 minutes though the journey is only 34km, but the scenery is all rock spires and witches hats with old man's beard waving in the gentle breeze. It's a fantasy land of rock faces and enchanting atmosphere, and when we arrive in Cilaos we are completely surrounded by amphitheatre, as if cocooned in rock.

The cirque of Salazie is again quite different; green and verdant with waterfalls wherever you look. This glistening emerald garden is said to have 100 waterfalls, and one even flows directly onto the road - which can be a little unnerving for the driver. Then again, Mafate is a complete contrast: dry, barren and inaccessible. About 650 people live in this cirque, totally cut off from the outside world. They live off the land and everything brought in to the cirque is on foot or by helicopter. Few inhabitants have ever even seen a car before, which lends a medieval air to the place.

Ironically the capital St Denis is not too far away from this bizarrely antiquated settlement, and is a clean white coastal city built into the mountainside. It has all the attributes of a typical EURpean city with great restaurants and accommodation, traffic congestion and parking problems, good shopping and plenty of site seeing. We sample it all and savour a last Creole cari (curry) lashed with ginger, garlic and thyme - washed down with local vanilla rum. It's only been a week, but we have driven and explored the dramatic island driving full circle from St Denis and back again. And still we are amazed at all there is to see, do, experience and savour on this idyllic Indian Ocean island. Reunion is just 2 500km² and has only 750 000 people, but it has unimaginable diversity, indescribable natural beauty and scenery that is pure outdoor theatre. It's a little piece of heaven on earth.