Day 19 – Wednesday 3 February

Reunion Island.

After our initial challenges organising the day, Mava, from the Tourist Office in St. Gilles les Bains, was able to successfully arrange for Dany – www.danydrive974.com – and his  girlfriend Mary to drive us around this interesting volcanic French territory in 6 hours (anti-clockwise from the mid-west coast), including a lunch stop at Etang-Sale-les-Bains.

We then had a stop in St. Louis, where we visited the church.

We then stopped at the yellow sand beach at Grande Anse, on the south of the island.

The next stop was at the volcanic beach at le Cap Mechant.

We then drove through Le Grande Brule, the lava fields in the south east.

The next stop was at the Jardin Volcanique.

We then visited the chapel of Notre-Dame des Laves, which was miraculously spared during the lava flow of 1977.

Our next stop was at Eglise de Sainte-Anne.

 Our final stop was in the capital city, St. Denis (in the north), to see the statue of Roland Garos.

After boarding the Queen Elizabeth, and having a quick dinner in the Lido Restaurant, we were entertained again by Zack Winningham, playing 60s and 70s Rock ‘n’ Roll and Country, followed by pianist, Jonathan Ainsworth.