Up super early again at 5:15am to shower and have breakfast before our pickup at 7:20am.

This morning we went on a 45 minute helicopter ride over the island . It was a little pricey but so worth it as the views were just phenomenal!

We took off from St Paul and flew towards the cirque of Mafate where we did our 3hr walk a few days ago. OMG, when the heli came over the lip and then dropped into the valley it was like the opening scene from the first Jurassic Park movie.

We flew into the end of the valley and did a loop to gawp at the 3 massive waterfalls dropping from the rim to the floor below. After this we circled up and saw another waterfall above these too. My favourite part of the whole trip and just amazing to see (especially as I scored a window seat).

We then flew over towards the volcano and lucky for us the weather was good and we could clearly see what we had failed to see yesterday on the 4wd tour - the amazing du Piton de la Fournaise.

Wow. It's huge! The crater edge we stood at and looked out at only cloud yesterday, we could now see was the edge of a drop of several hundred meters to the volcano . There were so many mini volcanoes on its slope too where magma has bubbled up and burst out.

Our pilot did two circles over the top of the main vent and sure enough, it's steaming away in there.

Du Piton de la Fournaise is a very active volcano with an average of 3 eruptions every year.

The last started in January 2017 and went for about a month. It's amazing enough to see when not spewing lava. I imagine seeing it erupting is incredible, but so you don't have to imagine it, here's a link: http://youtu.be/UZbXwwqRKR4

After the volcano we flew over the cirque of Cilaos and could see all those hairpin bends we navigated only a few days before. Again the scenery was simply stunning.

Lastly we flew from south to north along the 12kms of lagoon and could see the coral shoals in the super clear water . Tried but could not spot any chompys cruising the ocean looking for surfer noms.

Sadly that was the end of our 45 minute flight. I could easily have stayed up there for several hours, a sentiment not shared by a Swiss girl on our flight who was soaked in sweat and desperately clutching her vom bag by the time we landed. Poor thing.

Once back at our resort Jeff managed a last minute snorkel out to the reef using one of those new masks that enclose your entire face letting you breathe normally through your mouth or nose. Looks a little odd but good to use he said and he saw lots of fish including some black ones that kept nipping at him.

Checked out and drove to St Dennis, allowing plenty of time expecting the usual traffic jam around the city and .... made it there in 40mins instead of anticipated 2 hours.

Dropped the hire car back super early and it was in an "acceptable" state of cleanliness despite us not vacuuming inside (seriously, this was an expectation from them!) .

They also don't insure the bottom of the car (eg for the crater potholes in the volcano road) or the roof due to high risk that one of those steep cliffs will pelt a few lumps of lava at you. Interesting policies.
*As a side note, we were told that the cliff road on the west coast is the most dangerous road on the island due to its habit of dropping car-size rocks on actual cars. When rainfall hits 30mm there they close the two lanes closest to the mountain. When it hits 50mm they also close the two outside lanes. All due to the increased chance of landslides and rockfalls.

Actually pretty happy we didn't know this until after we drove it for the last time! But it does explain why they're building a massive elevated road out in the ocean near there. The new road is the most expensive road ever to be constructed by France to the tune of EUR 1.7 billon.

Doo-bee-doo-bee-dooed around the airport for a few hours until our flight time . Found out you can buy a snack of tinned olives from a vending machine. How weird .. and now Robbie will be getting an unusual Reunion momento. Hahaha

Flight was good although someone near us was a bit Boris BO on the nose. There was also a school group who screamed like they were on a roller coaster when we took off, landed and everytime there was any turbulence which was quite amusing.

Kunal's son Yash picked us up at the airport and dropped us at our resort "La Piroque" in Flic-en-Flac which is in the south west area of Mauritius.

The travel time was a lot better than to Trois aux Biches in the north west - an hour compared to what felt like nearly 2 (though some of that might be due to Kunal driving like an old man and his son actually doing the limit).

Welcomed to the hotel by the hotel relations manager who was a little bit like the Indian actor who played Timmy Patel in the tv show Rules of Engagement. All careful clipped British pronunciation and gentlemanly mannerism. He was very nice but it was awfully difficult to keep a straight face. Maybe we're just infantile. Hmm, probably.

Our garden bungalow was very cute. It's built in the Piroque style (hence the name of the resort), with a thatched pitched roof and walls made from whitewashed stone. Cest Bon!

We also had dinner included at this resort as the minimum option was half board. To Jeff's food snob surprise, the buffet was quite good, with fresh and tasty food.

Around 9pm the dinner show started up. Tonight's was "African drumming". After about 20 mins of that we decided to have a walk around the gardens and then call it a night. Feeling a little tired after the early start anyway.

Goodnight Captain Piroque