'Et ENFIN!' - Long time no write

Well. It’s been a while.

And time’s-a-ticking on Paradise Island. Whilst last term was jam-packed full of incredible adventures, new experiences and great achievements, I have to say that this term has been much slower in pace and I’m regretting resting on my laurels. That said, there is still time, and I have been up to a few things here and there in the meantime.

‘Oté, lé zoli zoli mem a Mafat!’ – A mighty hike in the Wild Cirque

   Golly, this must have been over a month ago! A three-and-a-half day hike on my second trip to the Cirque de Mafate started by one group member being late, and thus the traversing of a (sometimes thigh deep) river slightly aided by the light of flimsy little torches for around two hours. Needless to say we had wet boots for the whole weekend. The morning after saw a steep trudge in the searing heat up to a bright and colourful îlet where we camped overnight, waking to see a stunning sunrise over the jagged-edged mountains. Nice. Many trudges later, we’d gone to La Nouvelle, the ‘capital’ of road-less Mafate, nestled in a passing cloud that created an eerie little village with giant spider webs frosted with water droplets. The next day we were off to the lush green valley of the îlet of Marla, up a big ol’ mountain then down Col du Taibit to the Cirque de Cilaos. It’s all names of places and ting, but the pictures say it all. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

‘Maman, ou koz pa kréol, fé pa semblan’ – When the Hadlums came to town

  A couple of weeks ago, the Mum and the Matt came to visit the island. As a 24/7 translator and organiser, it was hard work, but in the end we got to see a good few places on the island and a snippet of the best it has to offer. From snorkelling around the teeming coral reefs of La Saline-les-bains and walking around Cilaos to see breath-taking views (well, for newcomers, of course) and tumbling waterfalls, to dolphin-watching and lava field from-the-coach admiration, we tried to fit in whatever was possible with the short time they spent here. Apart from my Mum trying to flag down an ambulance as a taxi when we got stranded in the South, and me trying not to translate what the nice Créole couple at the gîte in Cilaos were saying about sharks and Dengue fever in La Réunion (“No, Mum, he said sharks off this coast are vegetarian”), it was a good ol’ time. It’s kind of cool to show people around somewhere that you have some knowledge about too.

Other ting (never under-appreciate the effort of writing a blog)

  So my usual punny, eloquent and stylistic self has become a lazy old blogger ; I shall summarise with bullet-points of other goings-on:

-        -  At the University Theatre there has been an artist called Pink Floyd who has been doing exhibitions and performances for a couple of months on campus. I’ve met him and he lives up to his standards of being slightly off-the-wall and going off on the steepest tangents I’ve ever known, but all at the same time sharing his varied snippets of wisdom and knowledge. One of his exhibitions is supposed to include him lying down on a bed in a paddling pool somewhere on campus for the day. Yeah, I don’t know why either, but what’re you gonna do. That’s art!

-       -   I was asked to do a professional translation for one of the university professors recently; it consisted of an academic article about sports tourism in La Réunion. And by Jimmy was it difficult. I should FINALLY be out swimming with the dolphins next week, if all goes to plan. The documentary has officially been sent to a film festival in Tehran, and some other places that I can’t remember. It’ll be interesting to see how the research project has developed in any case.

-   - Last Saturday we went to go and see the Tamil New Year celebrations in Saint André. Except we didn't see a lot because, being the East coast, it rained. There's a little photo shown though of the triumphantly determined members of the parade that came into Saine Suzanne despite the downpour.

-       -   I got back from a weekend at the Forêt Bélouve today; a steep but short hike up from Salazie up to the tropical rainforest plains stretching for miles (oh, sorry Frenchies, I mean kilometres), the most dense wilderness you can imagine rolling over gentle hills then grasping onto sheer-faced mountains. Due to rain-mania this morning, it was a soggy little walk around the forest today, but yesterday I enjoyed a WOW sunset (pfft, who needs fancy adjectives?) and the most WOW stars I’ve ever seen in my life. The lack of light pollution means you can see everything in the night sky as clear as day, or night, or whatever – imagine even being able to see clouds of stars that form our galaxy. Yeah.
- I've seen three chameleons now. YEAH.

C’est tout pour l'instant de la petite Sophie paresseuse – next time, you can have more jokes, puns and anecdotes; I know my standards are slipping but it’ll come back to me.

Dorr for now-now,

Sophie (who else would it be?)