Yesterday we went on a 15-km bike ride to Etang St Paul and Tour des Roches, starting and finishing near the Grotte des Premiers Français.
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| waterwheel at Tour des Roches |
Although Saint-Paul is on the dry, west side of Reunion, it's home to one of the island's largest water surfaces: Étang Saint Paul, covering 4.15 km2 (étang means "pond").
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part of Etang St Paul
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| part of Etang St Paul, looking towards the mountains |
We then headed inland to Tour des Roches, well-known for its waterwheel (see top photo), which dates back to 1820 and used to be part of a
cassava mill. The vegetation there is quite unique to that part of the island, and includes lots of papyrus and coconut palms as well as water-loving plants such as
taro, which has water-repellent leaves.
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papyrus, Tour des Roches
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Tour des Roches
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| Tour des Roches |
Our final stop was at Grotte des Premiers Français, which is supposedly the cavern (
grotte) where Reunion's first settlers (
premiers français) stayed when they initially landed on Reunion in 1663 (for more about Reunion's history see
here).
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from inside Grotte des Premiers Français looking out
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We ended our outing with a stroll around the
Cimetière Marin across the road. I've blogged about the cemetery
before.
See also:
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