9. Beitrag - The Three Waterfalls in Hell-Bourg

Since I don't have university this Wednesday , I want to go on a hike. However, I didn't want to go alone and my current group of friends didn't do the hike on September 2nd. still too traumatized to accompany me. So I wrote to the Erasmus WhatsApp group (a big effort, to be honest) and asked if anyone would like to come along.

So it happened that Isa and I got on the bus at 6:30 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. today and drove about 2 hours to Hell-Bourg. This is in the east and is a small village near Salazie, one of the three valley basins.

The journey with the L83 from Saint-André was once again absolutely amusing, because a normal-sized bus drove up the narrow road to Hell-Bourg, which was really very narrow at times. Here it is also customary to honk before a curve so that bus, car and truck drivers know that someone is coming towards them and that they have to slow down. But this little death ride was immediately worth it, because all you can see along the entire route are the steep mountains, rock faces, lush greenery and countless small to large waterfalls.

A fun fact: On this route there is a waterfall that falls onto the road, which is why the official warning and road sign "Pisse en l'air" is there.

When we arrived in Hell-Bourg we were immediately greeted by this view:

We then first looked at the ancien therme de Salazie , the ruins of a thermal bath from the 1930s.

Then we continued on our way to Trois Cascades . This wasn't particularly long, but it was extremely steep (almost the entire 30-33% gradient!!). However, due to the elevation gain we were able to get another great view of the mountain peaks:

When we thought we had reached the waterfall, we were a bit disappointed: you could hardly see it from where we were and the further path was blocked off by a fence... but not very well, so we stayed there are still long and could actually almost stand in the waterfall. By the way, this waterfall is called Trois Cascades because its water flow is essentially divided into three individual streams.

Interim note: How big is bamboo please????

When we returned to Hell-Bourg on the way back, we spontaneously decided not to use up our food but instead to go out for a Creole meal in a beautiful restaurant. I wasn't particularly hungry so I just ordered the Assiette créole starter plate. On it was samoussa, bonbon pimento, accras de moru and something else I couldn't identify. It was really delicious!

Afterwards we looked around a bit, visited a church, checked out the tourist shops and, purely by chance, found a confiture shop that had only existed for 20 days! Of course, I had to immediately donate start-up capital and bought a jar of Confiture Salazie Chouchou Goyave from the extremely friendly seller. Whether it was worth the €5 remains to be seen :)

The last item on the agenda was a visit to the Maison Folio . This villa dates back to the colonial period and has been renovated and restored by the current owners according to traditional architecture. The interior of the house is furnished with antique furniture and has the characteristics of bourgeois Creole huts (Google quote: "Veranda, symmetry of rooms, Creole ceiling, floor and lambrequin").

While the interior of the house was also very impressive, I was particularly blown away by the garden. I felt like I was in a botanical garden and a jungle at the same time.

After this visit we took the bus back to Saint-Denis. The return journey was very unspectacular until several police officers suddenly appeared and stopped the bus at the airport. Then they came in, wanted to see a valid ticket from everyone and then even brought a police dog, which searched the bus three times (and also jumped on the bus passengers, etc.). That was also a new experience... :D

PS: Today we met and petted many cats, so today was a good day. :)