Takamaka

There always come a time when the place I am staying feels like a second home and when that happens it gets more and more difficult to get out of the house on the week-end.



In La Reunion, we have been staying in the same apartment since my first assignment started in may. As my trips to Paris were very short I could leave stuff in there instead of travelling back and forth with everything. The landlord is extremely nice and it is a treat to be located at a 5 minutes walking distance from the beach and a 2 minutes walking distance from the city centre. We are starting to feel at home and we are not always in the mood to go visit something or to have an activity during the week-end. There is still a lot of things we haven’t seen: le "Piton de la Fournaise", le "Piton des Neiges", le "Cirque de Salazie", le "Cirque de Cilaos", la "Plaine des Palmistes"... The whales are staying quite close to the shore these days because it is the time when they give birth, you really have to be careful to what is going on at sea when you are driving along the coast line and if you are lucky you might see something. There are so many things to see but since our arrival we feel the urge to stay home or go to the beach far more than the one to go visit the island.



We went to visit the eastern part of the island this week-end, it was the first time since our arrival and we went to Takamaka. As soon as we drove out of Saint Denis we could see that the vegetation was quite different, the East is much greener than the West. There were sugar cane fields in every direction and you could also see some wind turbines on the side of the mountain. Takamaka is one of those beautiful viewpoints you can find on the island, you will have to go through the winding roads that my wife loves so much. Even though she dislikes those roads they are always a good training to improve her driving and in La Reunion those roads are mandatory to get to see the beautiful places. Takamaka is a must see, once you get to the viewpoint you will see the lush and green mountains with some waterfalls. It is possible to go for a walk on the side of the mountain but the area is quite damp so the track is often muddy. I really wanted to use the small cable car to go down in the valley but it can only be used by the dam workers. You have to go to Takamaka even if you don’t stay a very long time; the waterfalls may seem far but the panorama is amazing.