Hell-Bourg

Hell-Bourg, one of the “Plus beau village de France”, in fact, the number 1 outside “Metropolitan” France, was established in 1830 and put itself on the map with the discovery of hot springs in the vicinity.  The town was named Hell-Bourg in honour of Governor de Hell, who promoted the hot springs (probably as a reaction to a difficult time at school with a name like Hell).  It is now famous as one of the Unesco classified Creole Villages which have distinctive architecture as illustrated in the photos below.

Apart from the buildings, Hell-Bourg is famous for being inside the cone of a (claimed) extinct volcano.  This has two effects.  Firstly, the road in clings to the side of a steep ridge high above a raging river, and secondly, the sport of choice is either drinking rum (the pressure of living on the edge) or running over mountain tracks.  Just once, somewhere in the world, I would like to labour over a difficult walk for a couple of hours and not have someone jog past me the other way after running all the way to the end and half way back.  It happened not once, but four times on the track to Belourve – a spot somewhere on the ridge above Hel-Bourg with an elevation of  1,507 m towering above the 900m high Hell-Bourg.  It seems that there is a race across the island which lasts 2 days, over the mountain tracks and the half of the population that does not drink rum is currently training for the race.  We heard this from a Swiss man, young and fit who walked the track that took us two hours in around half the time.  He had just finished the walk across Réunion in 10 days. So it must be some kind of a race.

However, it was not all confidence shattering for the intrepid walkers.  A least we did better than this guy.

The view from the walk was pretty impressive, and more so since the weather on the way up was fine and clear. We had the opportunity to look down on Piton d’Anchaing at a mere 1,352 m…..

……… and to be reminded of the only road out of town

and to remember how it looks when you come too near the edge!

We spent the afternoon at the herb garden of in the house of M. Folio and discovered that the camellias in our garden at home have a productive use.  If you rub the flower between your hands for a bit, it turns into a natural soap.  The town and surrounds are full of interesting plant life….

…. and some friendly locals.

Day 1/2 Sydney to Réunion : St Denis and then on to Hell-Bourg

There are two very good reasons to fly Air Austral.  The air fare is $1,750 return to Paris, and the plane is only half full.  Once on the plane, the food is very good and the service is attentive, relaxed and friendly.  In addition I have found that, with advancing age, 24 hours in the air is just too long, and the deteriorating Qantas service – including the latest blitz on bag weights – is only bearable when cashing in frequent flier points.  So a stop on Réunion Island in on the itinerary.

Réunion has spent most of its history as a French colony.  That status is very different from the glory of being a British Colony. French colonies are part of Metropolitan France and so have the advantage of using French currency, having representation in the French parliament and having all the French institutions (including French bread) transplanted in the community.  The British on the other hand tended to take from their colonies.  I did not understand the difference in 1976 when travelling in Africa, but I could see the results then, and they continue today.  Réunion has a modern airport, a modern functioning airline with new planes, a freeway all around the island, and what appears to be a safe, clean place to live.  It also has the most active volcano in the world and a landscape that you would expect from a volcanic island with a sufficient rainfall coming off the Indian Ocean to support a rainforest. 

As it is built on the sides of and in the craters of old volcanoes, the centre of the island is steep and rugged.  Since it has a high rainfall and steep slopes, every where you go you hear water running. If you stand still too long something will grow over you.

It also has some beautiful, steep winding roads with deep drains on the side and a sheer drop of about one metre into the drains. Combine this with driving on the right side of the road after a 12 hour flight the day before, and you have a pretty clear description of today. Just to add spice, include French trained drivers and the threat of rain and fog, 25⁰, 90% humidity and no air conditioning.  The scenery was impressive, but I only saw the edge of the road and the cars coming the other way or overtaking me on the hairpin bends.

One of the features of the vegetation is bamboo.  I am not sure it is native, but is sure feels like it is at home! It is everywhere and comes in all shapes and sizes.  In spite of the fact that it is strong, flexible and useful for all manner of things, I still thing of bamboo as the preferred  material for Brother Richard's cane.  I can't look at it with any positive thoughts!

Before we set off from St Denis, with the help of jet lag, we spend a few hours in the morning walking around the city centre.  Our first stop was the cathedral where we discovered that it was First Communion Day.  Everyone dressed up and happy, fine sunny morning and a lovely setting in the garden in front of the cathedral was all too much for Dominique to resist. She was there in the middle taking photos and talking to the kids.

We arrived at Hell-Bourg, a town of 600 inhabitants, in the middle of the island at around 1 pm on Sunday – French Fathers Day – and so joined in the festivities and tried the local Creole food. These Creoles make a fine chocolate mousse.  The main course was fish or pork or chicken mainly curried or spiced.  Coconut and beetroot feature heavily.  We spent the afternoon walking around town taking pictures of the  Creole houses for which the town was listed by UNESCO.  Tonight we will try some of the local rum and try to shake off the jet lag  before testing ourselves on one of the many (steep) walks around here tomorrow.

The Technology

Apart from the blog, other technology has changed since 1975.  My digital SLR Canon 350D seems dated after only 5 years, but still takes great photos.  Unfortunately, the 50 mm lens does not fit it!  Apart from the camera, however, I have been spectacularly unsuccessful in mastering technology on the road, with several huge bills from Telstra to prove it. So I have given up and decided to copy people who do it better than I have done.

The first step is staying connected. While there is Wi-Fi at every airport and rail station and also in many hotels, I never seem to be able to connect to it. I have noticed that the more expensive the hotel the more expensive the Wi-Fi – so that it is generally free in a hostel, and up to $10 per megabyte in a 4 or 5 star establishment.  In any event, I need some connectivity when out and about – and data roaming is out of the question.  So I stole an idea from “Around the World” and purchased a Netcom MyZone wi-fi modem – about the size of a credit card.  I have combined this modem with a sim card from iPhone Trip.  The MyZone card provides wi fi across 3G which can be shared across several devices using normal wireless connection, while the iPhone Trip sim provides unlimited 3G data downloads almost anywhere in the world.  Unfortunately, Isle de Réunion, did not show up on the list, so I chose my activation date as the start of the French leg of the journey.  As it turns out, politically and administratively, Réunion is part of France, so the card would work here as well.  Remember that for next time!

I have installed the Truphone app on my iPhone which will allow me to make calls over wi-fi for 2 c per minute, so that will reduce the cost of the global roaming.  I also downloaded “700 City Maps” app to provide mapping without continuous downloading ( makes no sense with unlimited data!) along with a map of Réunion to stop me from being lost.  Not such a great solution for a number of reasons. The first is that the iPhone is too small to be a useful map except in emergencies. Secondly, the iPhone GPS is very poor, with an accuracy of anywhere between 150m and 1 km.  When I tried it today it put me in a park next to the beach.  Trouble was, I was in the hotel three streets away! And finally, the map does not expand to a useful scale and show all the street names. Maybe it will in the big cities.

My computing needs are still served by a Dell Inspiron 700m, six years old, speakers not working (headphones ok) one usb plug not functional and the hard disc filling up too often.  However, it is robust and reliable, so it is having one more holiday.

Then there is the Kindle.  I bought the Kindle DX (larger format version) so that I could read pdf files at a reasonable magnification, and it has proved a great success for 90 page board papers. So I brought it along to try to reduce the weight in my hand luggage.  Last year we spent 4 weeks in France and Korea starting late January, and I had finished the three (heavy) books which I did not want to throw away within the first week.  I read them twice, but still had a few gaps.  So I have loaded up the Kindle with some reading relevant to the trip, and some board papers! We will see how that goes.

I was very excited a few years ago to come up with the idea of resealable plastic bags to carry my cables plugs and chargers, but the bags always lost interest in resealing before the end of the trip.  So now I have decided to steal Vanessa’s idea of a click seal lunch box. A bit of a tight squeeze but the converter plug, the camera cable to connect to the laptop for downloading photos, the iPhone charger, the kindle charger and the charger for the MyZone all fit in.  I have seen some ads for consolidated USB chargers, bud did not find a suitable one to take this time.  Bringing all the chargers into one device is on the top of my technology wish list.

On with the trip.

The Start

Thirty five years ago, in March 1976, I left Sydney and headed for South Africa, first stop Mauritius.  I kept in touch with my family, and occasionally with my friends, with an aerogram once every two weeks or so. I took slides on my Canon Ftb, with 50 mm, 1.4 lens (still the best lens I ever owned). We phoned home occasionally by queuing up at the Post Office and calling reverse charges.

Yesterday, I left for France, via Isle de Réunion, just a short hop across the water from Mauritius, and decided that this time I might try my hand at recording the trip on a blog.  I started this blog a few weeks ago just to see how to do it, so I thought I might use it!

The trip will last around 5 weeks, and will cover a few days in Isle de Réunion looking for volcanoes and bananas (not the $14 per kilo bananas with no taste), followed by some family visits in Paris and Mamers (where we will catch up with Vanessa), then down to Vendee to visit  Dominique’s cousin, Gerard.  From there we will cross to the Island of Noirmoutier to be there for the start of the Tour de France.  The race will leave the island along the famous "Passage du Gois" (the submersible road) to the mainland and away for a couple of weeks of pain  - provided they meet the tide.  We, on the other hand, will head down to the South of France, and over to Corsica, before heading back through Paris and home.