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parts of the route I had run from the air made me realise the scale of the climbs and the race in general . I ’ m glad I didn ’ t take the flight before the event , because I would almost certainly have been scared off .
After the flight , I explored the vanilla farms and plantations and then headed into town for a bit of shopping . I was surprised to find that everything shuts down and all the shops close for at least two hours over lunchtime . Well , when in Rome and all that , so I too had a leisurely lunch of local cuisine and beer while I waited for everything to re-open . I ended my last evening on the island by enjoying a sundowner at La Barachois , the old gun battery , and now a lovely promenade .
Final Sights of Reunion
For my last day , I hit the road , and took a clockwise drive right around the island , stopping to explore as I spotted interesting things and places along the way .
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The south-eastern part of the island is home to Piton de la Fournaise , one of the most active volcanoes in the world , and there is evidence aplenty of its regular lava flows down to the sea . The road has obviously been rebuilt numerous times as the massive lava fields stretch away on both sides of it . One little town has a church now known as Notre Dame des Laves , which somehow remained unscathed during an eruption in 1977 , despite the lava flow fully encircling it .
I also drove along the engineering marvel of the new coastal road , essentially a 13km long bridge built in the sea alongside the old road at the foot of the ocean cliff , connecting the capital city of Saint-Denis with the important harbour city of La Possession . Then , after my island circuit , I headed off to the airport for my journey home . Back in Cape Town I was met at the airport by Petro , who had arranged a get-together of my trail buddies that evening to allow me to bore
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everyone with my pictures and war stories . Thank you , Petro , and everyone , for pretending to listen !
Anton Neethling , official survivor of The Diagonal of Fools
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Head for Reunion If you ’ re interested in tackling one of the toughest
trail races in the world , go to
www . grandraid-reunion . com / english to find out more .
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Images : Anton Neethling |
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The 48 rugged mountain ISSUE 154 trails | www of . Reunion modernathlete . co . za await those who are brave enough |