Mauritius and Reunion

Indian Ocean-Mauritius-Le Morne  This was a very nice technical stop en route back to Reunion from TAAF. We had a full day and I enjoyed a relaxing day on the south of Mauritius overlooking the area of Le Morne, which is a World Heritage Site. 

I could not manage to get to a Post Office on this stop and the hotel I had lunch promised to mail my card and put a affix a stamp. So here  it is. 

Indian Ocean-Reunion-Hellbourg So back on dry land and end of the TAAF trip. Had two days here before departing for home. Went up to Hellbourg which is nearly in the centre of the Island. A lovely town to visit. 

Back to French stamps again. Glad that I got a Reunion postmark instead of the usual French postal mark. 

Comoros and La Reunion

Indian Ocean-Comoros-Moroni  This small country used to have so many coups it got a name for itself. Arriving here you see that it is very volcanic with the dark black soil very evident. Moroni itself could do with a lick of paint. The culture here was quite different being a Arab  country .  Comoros gets very few tourists  and when you try to take photos of street scenes it can be challaging especially if ladies are looking on. Even when I tried to get permission , I had a number of vegtables thrown at me,, all the men just kept laughing. So that was the end of my photo taking here. 

The Post office here was getting a major facelift while I was here. Well I think it was. One local told me that the scaffolding around the Post Office has been there years ! So in effect there was no outside wall and very busy. I did manage to find a stamp window , but since it was a busy post office , it was just a question of taking the stamps that were given. 

Indian Ocean-Reunion-St.Gilles  Being a part of France in the Indian Ocean, La Reunion was the first country to use the Euro when it was introduced. The centre of the Island that has the national park and surrounding areas are a World Heritage Site. Arriving here from The Comoros from a very poor country to one that is part of Europe , quite a change. Even just the quality of the roads and the cars , one could see the difference. I was here to start my voyage to the Southern Oceans. 

A beautiful stamp from France. The Postmarks here can just have a French code or some have Reunion in the cancellation.