Reunion

From Saint-Leu to Saint-Philippe, the south coast is dotted with rocky caps, lava boulders and beaches fringed with filaos or coconut trees. The villages of traditional Creole houses pop up on a road bend or a hillside, and, within this lush and generously preserved nature, local people continue to live as they did half a century ago. The soul of Reunion is reflected in the east side of the island with its volcanic eruptions that take place once every year, but are not serious most of the time. As for the south of the island, it largely consists of agricultural land full of sugar cane fields, refineries and 'sperm whales'. These are not marine whales but heavy trucks loaded with cane stalks. (In this region ?sperm whales' can easily catch fire or overturn, as can sometimes be heard in news bulletins on the radio.) However, there is more to Reunion than this, it is undoubtedly one of the most charming and likeable places that you could visit. Along the southern coast, the coral reef is much less developed than at Saint-Gilles. The lagoon intersects and, therefore, the numerous passages and the beaches in particular are different from those on the west coast. In Saint-Leu, the sand is composed of white and black grains, due to its coral and volcanic origin. Further down in the south, at Etang-Salé, the beach is completely black, with very fine grains of sand, and even further to the south than that, Grande-Anse, a beautiful white sand beach is an exception to the rule.