French in Reunion Island

[Mick974]

hi all.
I’m Mickaël, 41 years old, from Reunion Island, a small stone between Madagascar and Mauritius.
I’m a young diver (since 2 years, n2, near 40 dives).
Already dive in Nose be, South Africa (sodwana bay), and next week in Mayotte.
Nice to see you here bro

 

[JMBL]

Hi there, welcome on board. Would you mind telling us a bit about diving in la Réunion ? I bet you can dive all year long, not like in la Métropole.

 

[Zef]

Bienvenu!

 

[champacs]

Yes, we can dive all year long, water is about 28-29°C from December to March during the hot, rainy season, and only 23°C in July and August during the middle of the cool dry season (but I need a hood and a 5mm wetsuit at that time of year!).

Diving is mainly concentrated along the sheltered west coast where there is a coral reef. We fairly regularly see turtles (mainly green and some hawksbill), rays as well all the usual reef life (about 500 species). Humpback whales can be seen and swum (but not dived) with from about June to September. There are some wrecks, but they tend to be quite deep (35-40 metres or more).

I always say that (unlike e.g. Sipadan) Reunion is not a place to travel to just for the diving (it has a lot else to offer though: hiking, paragliding, mountain biking, lava tube exploring, canyoning etc. etc.), but if you're here and you're a diver you should definitely dive and see for yourself. (I live in Reunion but have also dived in about 25 countries around the world, so have some points of comparison ;-) )

 

[Compressor]

Welcome Mick974. Even where you are, there is internet service thank fully.
Send us some pictures of your island please.

 

[Mick974]

thank you all, as specified, the Reunion is a pleasant diving site..but I would add that the south also has very rich coral garden, and that we can meet the pelagic when we move away lagoons .
I did a good dive on one of the wrecks accessible at level 2 (about 36 / 38m) and I had the chance to run a dive with dolphins, for 15min to about 15m (we dried our bottles for enjoy ... lol)
I have only forty dive to my assets so little experience ... but that's good

 

[wnissen]

Wow, that is really out there. Welcome to the group!

 

[Jiminy]

Yes, we can dive all year long, water is about 28-29°C from December to March during the hot, rainy season, and only 23°C in July and August during the middle of the cool dry season (but I need a hood and a 5mm wetsuit at that time of year!).

Diving is mainly concentrated along the sheltered west coast where there is a coral reef. We fairly regularly see turtles (mainly green and some hawksbill), rays as well all the usual reef life (about 500 species). Humpback whales can be seen and swum (but not dived) with from about June to September. There are some wrecks, but they tend to be quite deep (35-40 metres or more).

I always say that (unlike e.g. Sipadan) Reunion is not a place to travel to just for the diving (it has a lot else to offer though: hiking, paragliding, mountain biking, lava tube exploring, canyoning etc. etc.), but if you're here and you're a diver you should definitely dive and see for yourself. (I live in Reunion but have also dived in about 25 countries around the world, so have some points of comparison ;-) )

Everyone here would love pictures and video if you have any! Welcome to the board

 

[Wingy]

I thought Reunion is one of the most stunning islands on the planet. I'd had Reunion on the list since Bora Bora after asking locals where they would go on holidays and repeatedly hearing RI as their number one pick. When I decided to head to Madagascar I found Air Mauritius had a once weekly flight direct from Wester Australia so chose that route PER > Mauritius > Reunion > Nosy Be purely for Reunion. For my buddy from California it was a much more convoluted route but after a few days in Mauritius on touching down at Roland Garos and picking up our hire car (necessary - taxis are hideously expensive and we did use public transport once after our helicopter tour back to St Denis) we both were amazed at how beautiful this rock is. We stayed at St Paul and dived with an op at St Leu in February so not the optimum diving season and I did enjoy the dives but found a lot of surge. Diving differences I noticed - Y Valve yoke 12l Dumpies I had never encountered before and must say did not like and frequency which the Ops called off dives due to weather. I fully understand this however a word to visitors to RI - neither my phone or my buddies (AU and US carriers) worked at all so we did not get notification of cancellations. A bit of a bummer when you're trying to discover as much as you can topside and below but we found plenty to explore. I used my 5mm and was comfortable.

The only time either of us had communication at all was when my phone beeped and I found a message from the Australian consulate advising me that the embassy was closed due to - Flooding in Le Tampon - possibly the best worded text message I've received.

Food - Divine, from a tiny cafe in St Pierre to a once in a lifetime lunch at Roland Garos Cafe that cost the earth but was worth every euro. We also loved the Sunday evening food trucks (good value) and waterfront closure for people to be able to enjoy the sunset or exercise and the kids playgrounds. A real sense of community and happiness there.

Accomodation - expensive as is everything on RI, definitely worth every ludicrous Euro - the helicopter tour over Le Piton and the Falls is more than draw dropping even if ridiculously expensive.

Not a budget destination but WOW - I think you sell your small rock very short Mick

 

[Mick974]

Yeah, it’s true....the Indian Ocean choose if you can go or not...lol
I’m going to see if I can share some film, here is picture of my last dive