Ravine Saint-Gilles

Last night's drive in a new to me rental car, in a foreign land, in the pouring rain, at night.... Was difficult to enjoy.

Heck, the whole transit experience kinda sucked.

The Madagascar airport money exchange didn't have small bills so I was left holding less than 10€ of ariary (Malagasy money). No big deal: I'll buy a drink and wait for my plane. Only the bar in the Antananarivo airport doesn't accept Madagascar's national currency. Annoying. Not a tragedy and certainly not worth getting upset, but combined with a 90 minute delay for my hour-long flight for which I grossly overpaid in Mayotte... I was feeling less than rosy about the experience.

Upon boarding the plane via a drizzly tarmac, I couldn't help but notice that there was, in fact, a jetway and it was, in fact, attached to the plane. Why I am standing in the drizzle with the roar of machinery in my ears when there's a perfectly comfortable access attached to the plane? C'mon, airport/airline.... Do better.

I took my grumpy with me as I boarded and when the attendant made me stop so that she could (helpfully?) check my seat number, I was over it. I wasn't pleasant to her and that was regrettable as she hadn't done anything really wrong. But ... C'mon. I can find my dang seat without someone saying "It's on the left". Yeah, I got it. Stopping me to make me dig out my stub from inside my passport inside my bag... Isn't customer service.

Anyway, being grumpy made it less fun for everyone and I felt even worse for having been snappy with her.

As if mirroring my mood, our flight was among the most unpleasantly turbulent that I have ever had. We were thrown around pretty well for at least 20 minutes. It was enough that the captain came on to remind us of emergency water-landing procedures as lightning crackled and flashed outside my window.

For the record: hearing emergency (crash) landing procedures in that setting is much more effective than before take off. I think all of us were actually listening for a change.

So!
We finally landed safely (and very smoothly) in Reunion Island! I wish I could say that I refocused and was happy, but mostly I felt nervous about getting my rental car because it was 9:23 and the rental car agency says that they close at 9pm. I was supposed to land at 7:15.

I'd already changed lodging once due to the first place telling me that their reception closes at 5PM. What kind of hotel closes reception before sunset?!?

Anyway, I'd double checked to be sure I could check-in all night as needed, but without a car I would've had issues arriving.

To my relief, and a nice step towards smiling, the rental agent had stayed late and was very sweet and spoke English.

Fortunately previous-Steve had the foresight to download maps of where I was going. I love it when I don't make my life more difficult!

With a little bit of enthusiasm and a lot of rain falling, I found my cute little rental car and got on my way towards the coastal town of Saint-Gilles. I only made a few small wrong-turns and arrived at a cute, clean, and comfortable 'hotel' around 11:30 PM. I'd started my trip in Madagascar at 1:30PM. Total distance travelled was about 1,000km (600 miles) I'd guess.

But there's a tree outside my door that smells like the sweet scent of somewhere I
want to be. The breeze is warm but refreshing. The rain has washed-clean the world and Reunion has flowers everywhere.

I'm sitting on a concrete quay sipping fantastic coffee and eating both a pain au chocolat and a chocolate chip cookie while listening to a church bell chime the hour and watching a guy tow into waves on a foil-board. The water is crystalline blue the way water only gets when the sky is flat-gray.

I'm watching a beautiful little family play in the sand while hobie cats zip out of the harbor entrance to zoom in the light and variable wind.

The foilboarder just did a backflip exiting a very well-surfed wave.

The fun is finding me.
I just forgot to see it for a little while.Read more