Local time: January 28, 2014
On this fourth day, the weather was not good from the morning. It was raining near St. Pierre where the hotel is located. The helicopter tour was postponed to the next day, Wednesday (this day is Tuesday).
We had no choice but to stay here, so we decided to head for the valley of Silaos as planned.
Here on Reunion Island, even though it is a small island, there are steep mountains that form three valleys. Silaos is one of the three valleys, and it’s the one that you have to follow the steepest path to get to.
We were very anxious in the occasional strong rain, but fortunately a local light truck led us in a very good way, which made the drive comfortable.
More fortunately, as we approached Siraus, the rain weakened and we could see a little blue sky between the clouds.
According to Google Maps, it was a little over an hour away from St. Pierre, but it took almost two hours due to the fact that the road was tighter than expected.
Fortunately, the rain had almost stopped when we arrived and we were able to see the sights without any problems.
Throughout the city, you can see houses in the Creole style, an architectural style unique to this region.
Siraos, with its steep mountain roads, is said to be a valley where slaves used to run and hide.
Today, it is a popular tourist destination on Reunion Island, with trekking, hot springs, and it is also the only area in Reunion where wine is produced, and local wine was sold at the tourist information center in town.
The town association was relatively new, but the interior was very nice.
After that, we drove the car again to the hot spring facility, but we seemed to have taken a wrong turn and found ourselves on the mountain road to the other side of the city of Silao.
However, the view of the valley of Silao from there is very spectacular and beautiful.
The terrain is amazing, and the view is spectacular.
This kind of luck was happening and we ended up staying in Siraus for almost 3 hours.
We then headed back down the steep mountain road to the coast, this time passing through St. Pierre, where we were staying, to the southernmost town on the island, St. Philippe.
This town, located at the southernmost tip of Reunion Island, is just south of the volcano Piton de la Fournaise, which is the symbol of the island. There are no tourist attractions here, but the natural palm groves, lava flowing from the volcano, and the beaches that have cooled and hardened are all worth seeing.
The only disappointment was the weather. It was drizzling when we arrived, so we couldn’t take our time to appreciate this pristine nature.
After that, we came back to the hotel in Saint-Pierre. It was already past 6 o’clock in the evening.
After a short nap, we had dinner this evening at Le Bruit Qui Court, a restaurant right in front of the hotel.
I was anxious to see if it was open, but the reputation on TripAdvisor seemed to be good, so I made up my mind and went in, and it was a pretty good restaurant.
It’s basically French, but it’s tropical Reunion, with a somewhat oriental flavor.
It was very good. Not local at all, but the white wine from Gascony that was recommended was very good. By the way, Gascony is the area where I visited in 2013 GW.
On the way back, you just go back to the hotel across the street, very easy and nice.
その後シャワーを浴びて早めの就寝。明日は早起き、タイトな山道ドライブの疲れを十分癒やさなければなりません。（続き）
