It's getting chilly over here; down to 18-20C last night and 25C during the day. Its Reunion's winter after all and just cause I'm Canadian and supposed to be use to the chill...well, all I'd say to that is that, I know what to do when it's chilly....bundle up, eh! We had to dig deep to find our warm weather clothes!

Emerald has been rafted up at Port de La Point des Galet marina in La Port for the last few weeks and while its not our favorite place we have rented a petit auto that gets us out and around.

Our preferred marina was at St Pierre that declined our first request when we initially arrived to Reunion. Since, we have visited the port and met the Captainarie, who was very friendly and offered us a berth. However the weather has not been favorable (excessive swell) for an entrance into its tricky little harbour. So it's likely we will remain at Les Galet's till we depart.

Ile de la Reunion is petit France through and through. From the language, multi-cultural society - much as France is today, the French social government system, the yummy cuisine, driving and their habits, similar types of shops, signposting, the Euro, the markets, etc. Its well organized here, has everything you can imagine and everything for the most part works. A day drive into the magnificent les Cirques, via the valley of waterfalls, the circular gorge area of center Reunion, is reminiscent of driving in Provence or the Pyranees which I've had the pleasure of hiking. Les Plaines et la Volcan (http://www.fournaise.info/webcam06.php), a recently erupted and re-occurring volcano (in fact it let off some steam yesterday), is unique and a great educational visit. Hiking the hundreds of footpaths, trails and visiting the hill communities, that are well documented in the La Reunion 152 Randonnees booklet, has given us an excellent flavor of this island territory. PS: we've only hiked a random selection of these 152!

And we do miss the anchorages and our cruiser friends. After the Maldives and Chagos - life in a marina is just not cutting it for us. Yesterday, I dropped my anchor, just to make sure it worked mind you, and it near put a tear in my eye!

We are now planning and preparing for our next passage to Madagascar and initially to the east coast island of St Marie (Nosy Boraha) and the town of Ambodifototra for a week or so. Its approx 400Nm NW from La Port and will take us a few days to sail there. This is an island rich in pirate history and will be our first taste of this country that promises to offer us something different. It's also on the migratory trail for whales at this time of year so we hope to get some good sightings.