Volcanic Experience 2

As we were driving down the new coastal
motorway towards the road that would take us across the island  to the volcano,the temperature began to fall,the rain drops began to beat against the windows and the fog began to appear like a speckled hen.We made our first stop.Outside an Australian woman was shivering in  a  skimpy top,so once inside the bus I had  lent  her a long sleeved T shirt I was hoping to have the opportunity to give to someone.We continued towards the highlight of the tour.The temperature outside had dropped considerably,in the bus almost as much.The rain was pounding down with greater and greater intensity and the swathes of fog had quadrupled in size.The trees and the greenery gradually disappeared  until  the terrain became one black mass with formations of lava strutting out, often in spectacular dunes.Some scenes from The Star Wars and The Planet of The Apes had been filmed there.The bumpy road with more holes than Swiss Ementhal made me thankful I had light breakfast.Then we stopped.And there it was-Piton de la Fournaise  shrouded in white  mist,not an outline to be detected.As a consolation prize there was a "dry" toilet in a shack a short walk away.I did not dare to investigate.So we boarded the bus again.The temperature inside 13 C, outside 11.A German man and his wife with a massive mole on her forehead, were constantly opening the window taking photographs,  with no regard for a frail American lady sitting in he seat in front of them,who had asked them twice not to please do it,as the rain was coming down on her.In the dining room a German harridan talks  as if she had verbal diarrhoea,her shrill voice grinding on my ears making me want to abandon the ship.What is wrong with these people? Who behaves like that?We drove for almost an hour exactly the way we came until we stopped for lunch.The starter -some local vegetable-was excellent,as was the red wine and white sliced bread.Fish dish, meat dish,both in identical sauce,  not to my liking,were served with rice.Surely nice dessert and a cup of coffee would make up for the disappointment.,I thought, until fruit salad landed in front of me,followed by lukewarm black muck.In the pouring rain a mad dash to The La Maison Volcan,supposedly a museum.Few pictures on walls museum do not make.Seats in the 3D cinema uncomfortable, film made by amateurs.After  an hour and a half  back on the bus.An American woman missing.It took the tour guide 20 minutes to find her.There is an idiot who spoils it for every-one on every tour.
The best thing about the 8 and a half hours of disappointment  was the competent but oh so frighteningly young coach driver and the polite  smiling tour guide who endearingly was the first to laugh at his own  jokes.He was very diplomatic and economical with the truth Re the way Reunion makes a living.Reunion is an overseas  territory of France,one of the few dependencies that still exist.It has been in French possession since 1642,except between  1810-1815,when the British owned it,yet it those short five years they had done more for the island than France in 300 years,they replaced the coffee plantations destroyed by cyclones with sugar plantations.Today sugar accounts for 85% of all exports by value.With at least 35% of unemployment a large part of the population relies on handouts from France and no doubt this expensive appendix  France could do without.But how do you get rid of an island you have owned for centuries, unless the islanders ask for independence and this they are in no hurry to do,they get the same wages as the French in Europe,  they get benefits as  the French in Europe.The tourists they get are 85% from France.I certainly would never want to come to Reunion voluntarily.I was overjoyed when after almost nine hours of "Volcanic Experience"  that never was I returned to the ship.The dinner was excellent, I even finished without a murmur the pastry chef's strange rendition of a blueberry cheesecake,which was a mousse in a cup with a dollop of biscuit base and some berries thrown in.God knows stranger tings have landed on my plate!And so to bed. At 8.And I slept like a baby.