Of Mosquitoes and Lava

Me and The Queen were both sick and tired of the world we live in (respectively) so we decided to take a holiday (together).

Where shall we go?, we ask.

There is no sliver of doubt that if we were both in Asia, we would have immediately clicked our mouse over any one of those cheap budget airlines to any one of those cheap island destinations in this region.

The only slight problem we have is that we physically separated by a continent and two seas:



"Pick a destination between the two crosses" - never as easy as it seems. So we decided to first start off with each other's rule of elimination.

The Queen eliminated any destinations where local loins are measured anything less than 6 inches in average. So this effectively ruled out the entire Asia Pacific region.

I eliminated any destinations where I need to cover my head or be branded as a wanton woman. This effectively ruled out the Middle East.

We both stared at Africa.

We both eliminated South Africa (too far, no kick).

The Queen pointed out Mauritius for the beaches. I pointed out Madagascar for the lemurs.

Then we saw the tiny speck in between.



A google search reveals that 'the tiny speck' is an overseas department of France with a population of 785,000, is an (unfortunately) unknown travel location boosting 63 km of lush forestry, mountains, beaches and even house one of the region's most active volcano, the Piton de La Fournaise - which by the way only recently erupted last month. News from BBC and Taipei Times report that up to present, the lava continues to flow into the Indian Ocean.

Images of lava-flow from Piton de La Fournaise into the Indian Ocean.

Furthermore, there was an outbreak of the Chikungunya virus which has claimed 200 lives islandwide but accordingly is coming to its tail-end January this year.

I commented to The Queen that both the virus and volcano eruption appeared to be 'over' already so technically as the nature of nature is, they will not re-occur.

The Queen responded that nature, is as nature is, will continue to spit out rubbish at us whether it is mosquitoes or lava. Any time. As it pleases.

We deliberated for a moment.

The Queen and I agree in unison: "À bientôt, Le Reunion!"