X3 Reunion Free Ships

[Leontina Heidgerken]

Weare visiting Reunion Island on 3rd Feb and are trying to find a private tour company to take us on an island tour rather than use the ships tour, and its proving anything but easy. We have contacted all the ones we can find on line and they are all booked up. Does anyone know someone they can recommend ? How easy is it to pick up a tour when we dock ? Do they have mini buses waiting as in many other ports of call ?

Our last resort is hiring a car. Anyone done that here? How easy was it to get to the car hire company and drive yourself ? Bearing in mind we are British and drive an automatic car on the left, I understand in RI their cars are nearly all manual, right hand drives.

We visited Reunion on a cruise in 2014. Reunion is a fabulous destination but we didn't find that there were any mini buses or tour operators at the port unlike a lot of other destinations. (This could have changed in the interim as more ships are calling there).

Reunion is quite an expensive place and our research indicated that taxis were scarce and very pricey. We ended up booking a ship's tour to Piton de Fournaise and it was one of the best tours we have ever done. The scenery is wonderful and it was well worth the trip.

Reunion was on our bucket list after seeing a documentary on the island a few years ago so we were desperate to see the island. We too tried to organise a private tour with no success and friends of ours who only do private tours were left with the shuttle to St Denis.

It seemed to us that everyone in Reunion drove brand new cars and our guide told us that the residents refuse to drive second hand cars so these all get shipped off to Mozambique which might account for the shortage and expense of taxis.

I've just noticed that you have made other posts recently with the same question so I'm just repeating myself. My understanding is that hire cars are also expensive but perhaps try contacting one to see what the daily rate is.

Bronte2, thanks so much for your reply. Im pleased to hear you liked it to somch. You have reassured me that RI is worth investing time and money on. We had never heard of it before. We eventually managed to book an automatic hire car with Avis, and we understand their office is walking distance from the ship. We will do plenty of reseach now and decide which places we want to see with the time we have there. Hopefully it will all go to plan :). Thanks again xx

Yes we did hire the car from Avis and it all worked really well but we did a lot of research first. We paid 63 for a Peugeot 308 automatic for the day. If you have no walking issues it's an easy 10 minute walk from the ship (uphill). Google the route so you know exactly where you are going. Driving was ok for us but they are quite erratic drivers. Also it takes a lot longer to get anywhere than you expect. Leave plenty of time. One more thing, watch out for stray dogs, they are everywhere it was very sad to see. Good luck, it's a lovely island.

Bronte2, thanks for this valuable info. It's a shore excursion for us, then. I noticed on our cruise line's shore excursion page that the trip to the Piton goes up to 8000 feet and is not recommended for those with breathing difficulties, so unfortunately I have to give that one a miss. But the Garden of perfumes and spices excursion sounds equally lovely.

Hmm that's interesting re the excursion to Piton de la Fournaise! I don't recall any warnings when we went as I would have been wary due to DH being a bit susceptible. He had no issues whatsoever but of course if you have been given a warning then it's not worth the risk.

The Picton Castle had a fine classic sailing ship passage from the lovely island of Reunion in the western Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar, all the way around the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Town, South Africa. Twenty days and about 2,000 nautical miles. Good sailing all the way to Africa. Once along the coast near Durban we made great time getting around southern Africa. Four days and 850 nautical miles. Even making 266 nautical miles in one day noon to noon. A record for us.

The change in conditions as we sailed southwest out the tropics was striking. Sailing along in warm balmy tradewinds for days on end, even after we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn at 23 degrees south into cooler, much cooler winds. Changes in colour of the seas from bright blue to a dark sea green. And a change of smell, richer, brinier, much like the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Strong fair winds and a strong current moved us right along. Albatross and sea lions made appearances.

And we were mixed in with massive ship traffic. Little 300-ton Picton Castle in amongst ships of over 100,000 tons. We saw ourselves over 300 ships between Reunion and Cape Town. These are just the ones we saw with our own eyes and on AIS and radar. Many more just out of sight, over the horizon, no doubt. These days the Red Sea is being avoided by these sometimes huge ships of over 1,000 feet long. Some of the ships could take Picton Castle on deck athwartships and none of her 180 feet would stick out over their sides. It was like we were on the ship super-highway. West bound ships passing the Cape and then on to Europe, Texas, Brazil and New York. East bound ships headed for Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, and onwards to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere. Tankers, car-carriers, bulk loaders and plenty of huge container ships. Quite the parade of ships.

In the early morning sun, Aly stood on the gangway of the hospital ship Global Mercy in Freetown Sierra Leone, straining for a first glimpse of the approaching vehicle. Aly had been waiting for three decades for this moment; holding a life-impacting event close to her heart, and never quite believing that she and Catherine would ever meet again.

Their first heart-breaking encounter took place in a hospital in Sierra Leone in 1993, where 18-year-old Catherine had been lying in obstructed labour for 4 days. Catherine and her husband, Augustine, had been counting down the days to meet their first baby, but events took a terrifying turn when their baby got stuck during delivery. Without the means to afford a Caesarean section surgery, Catherine was left with no option but to wait for nature to take its tragic course.

Fast forward 30 years, and Dr Thomson reunited Aly and Catherine online. They quickly grew close through numerous video chats, and devised an extraordinary plan: to meet and volunteer together aboard the Global Mercy, now in Sierra Leone.

Mercy Ships uses hospital ships to deliver free world-class surgical services in low-income countries, while strengthening national health care capacity through education, training and advocacy within the nations we serve.

I'm still single so my reasons for not wanting to go on a cruise are completely different than those who are married. They have children and need to find babysitters before setting out on the ocean for three days. I just have to make sure to turn the stove and the Xbox off before I leave the house.

But what part of spending a week on a boat with people you tolerate sounded like a good idea? I'm the coolest person I know, and even I wouldn't want to spend a week with me on a boat. (Every day brings a new revelation as to why I'm going to die alone.)

High school reunions are about putting on your best act for an evening and giving the "resume." How am I supposed to put on my best face for a whole week? Not even the best pathological liar can maintain that many falsities. And what friend is going to let me drive his or her Jaguar to L.A. and park it for a week while I'm at sea?

It's important to catch up with these people and compare notes, if you will. I want to see which careers they chose and how many children they have. I just don't want to pay $400 to do all that on the Pacific Ocean. And being one of a handful of single folks, I'll undoubtedly pick up the tab on stuff because I don't have children of my own to spoil, so I have to spoil my friends, instead.

Let's not make the 10-year reunion such an exclusive event. Instead, let's set up dozens of blankets at the Santa Clara City Park, grill burgers and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and bring a projector so we can watch "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion."

You never know where the journey will lead you. Through volunteers like Donna and Dr. Venter, Mercy Ships can continue bringing hope and healing. Interested in using your talents to do the same? View current volunteer openings at mercyships.org

Congratulations Donna for serving humanity in action, an inspiration indeed to all who have been your neophytes, colleagues & neighbour in East London. May Mercy Ship grow from strength to strength driven by tour dedication & passion for the development of humanity. Zodidi from Port Elizabeth

I met James Krodel and his wife Mary on the first day of the Iwo Jima Survivors and Family Association 70th anniversary reunion. I toured part of a museum at Fort Sill, Oklahoma with James.

James agreed to allow me to share his memories. He wrote the papers after a doctor told him to record everything he could remember to help him sleep. James and Mary graciously sent me a copy of his memoirs with a note and a picture of James and I together taken on the last day of the reunion. This is his story.

We arrived at our destination at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, California on schedule. Our stay was long enough for a total of 21 injections and paper work. We sailed out to sea from San Francisco November 1944, going under the Golden Gate Bridge headed toward Pearl Harbor.

My mind flooded with so many mixed emotions and thoughts of leaving loved ones behind. I felt lost and alone. My greatest fear was the unknown: Where am I going? What is expected of me when I get there? All my thoughts were troubling and my imagination ran wild.

Prior to reaching Guam, we docked at Eniwetok, Marshall Islands [now referred to as the Enewetak Atoll. We were in enemy territorial waters. A Japanese submarine had been following us for days. We learned that an enemy submarine had destroyed and sunk several U.S. supply ships earlier in this area. One of the destroyed ships contained salvageable canned food. I volunteered to help unload the cargo, because I was so sick and tired of being aboard ship so long.

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