Now that we have Sim for Internet at slightly less than an expensive rate, car and map, we hit the road. Our first drive was up to one of the 3 Cirques – Cirque Cilaos. The center of the island is a large volcano with 3 calderas that have caved in and led to 3 distinct areas within the large crater, forming like a cloverleaf of craters. There is road to 2 of them and you have to walk to the 3rd. There are small towns and villages in all the Cirques and where the road doesn’t go, you can walk. There are around 1000 people that live in Cirque Mafate, where there is no road; it is a walk or a helicopter to get there. The drive up to Cirque Cilaos was an amazing drive. One of the best we have ever done. It is the road of 420 bends; that is only the hairpin bends. The road meanders up the side of a volcano and down the other side again and all places in between. For those of you who know the old Otira gorge, it was like that for at least one hours driving. The scenery was absolutely stunning. It was hard to imagine that an island that is only 200 km diameter (main road) could have such dramatic landscape. We were blown away. Sheer drop off, rising cliff faces, and roads just built into the hillsides. It was fortunate that the French had a hand in building the roading infrastructure and it is was truly reminiscent of driving in the alps when roads was slightly less sophisticated. The road was 2 lane for the most part, but did drop down to one lane, when it had to be carved out of the rock or going through a tunnel. What was even more amazing was there was no traffic regulation of going through the one-lane parts. It was just a case of pot luck and hope you didn’t meet anyone coming the other way (at times you could not see due to the bends in the road) and also hope you wouldn’t have to be the one that had back up. We got to Cilaos and it was a true mountain town. Small streets, now made into a one-way system as the road were not wide enough to cope with 2 cars at the same time. It was a hikers paradise. There were trails all over this island and they are well marked. They were reminiscent of the old goat tracks through the mountains that we started on as kids. And all the while overlooking the dramatic drops and sheer mountainsides of the island. From all the cirques, it is easy to see the highest point on Reunion, Piton des Neige sat just over 10,000ft tall. For such a small island, the landscape is incredibly dramatic. After spending a day up at the Cirque, we decided to take a day off.