To Réunion Island via Paris, December 15–18 2021
It was quite an ordeal finding a destination for our winter trip. There were constraints on where we were allowed to travel due to Covid restrictions, constraints on where we were comfortable traveling due to Covid spread (not so much our own risk given our vaccinations and boosters, but not wanting to cause risk to others), and the increasingly complicated schedules of our adult children. We seriously considered, alphabetically: the Azores, Chile, Fiji, Mafia Island (Tanzania), the Maldives, Réunion Island, the Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, with possible add-ons in Switzerland or Turkey. Somewhere along the way we stumbled upon Socotra Island — the entire island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and although it is part of Yemen, many functions seem to be run by the UAE and it receives a small but steady stream of adventurous tourists. We settled on two weeks in Socotra plus a few days in Turkey en route, and planned the entire trip.
Socotra is reached by weekly charter flights from Abu Dhabi, and we were assured there would be no problem securing seats. But when the flights opened for our dates, the carrier steadfastly refused stays of more than a week. Deeming such a complicated trip not worthwhile for such a short stay, we scrapped the entire plan and switched to our second choice: Réunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean, an “overseas department” of France famous for its hiking.
Réunion is quite popular with French tourists, and we were late with our planning (it was mid-November by this point), so arranging the trip was a challenge. The centerpiece would be a 10-day “grand traverse” of the island on foot, which Emily volunteered to plan. With many of the mountain huts fully booked and some closed over the holidays, Emily worked miracles to craft an itinerary that largely followed the established GR-R2 hiking route and had somewhere for us to stay every night. We might have preferred to use a service like this one that makes all the reservations and even transports luggage for the occasional town stays, but they told us it would be impossible to arrange the trek at such a late date — apparently Emily achieved the impossible. Emily’s hiking “road book” (as it’s called by the operators) is a masterpiece that trumps anything the professionals would have given us.
Meanwhile, Jennifer worked on the eight different plane tickets (Tim & Clara are still living in Switzerland, and four of us needed to end at a variety of different times), the nine different Covid testing requirements (which all changed two weeks before the trip due to Omicron, then again multiple times during the trip), and other plans outside of the trek. At some point Emily decided that after Réunion she would head to the nearby island-nation of Mauritius for a week of surfing, and she invited others to join her — Alex signed up for the full week and Tim for a few days; Jennifer and Clara both needed to skip the extension for other obligations.
After our first set of Covid tests, we were finally on our way. We rendez-vous’d in Paris and spent a pleasant winter afternoon wandering around the city before continuing to Réunion Island.
We didn’t know quite what to expect, but we found Réunion Island (more accurately L’île de la Réunion) to be an interesting combination of French and African influence, perhaps an Indian Ocean version of the Canary or Hawaiian Islands. We spent a day and a half in the main city of Saint-Denis — not especially interesting, but useful both as a rest stop after the long travel and as a place to prepare for the trek. We enjoyed tasty local food and celebrated Jennifer & Alex’s (33rd) and Clara & Tim’s (2nd) wedding anniversaries, conveniently on the same date.
Next: The Grand Traverse of Réunion Island on the GR-R2 hiking route
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