chemin d'Houndorbe
64490 Bedous
France
In the heart of the village of Hell-Bourg, surrounded by the landscapes of Reunion's National Park, Geoffrey has been offering an immersion in the island's history and unspoilt nature since 2020.
Through his guided tours, he invites visitors to discover the village's heritage treasures while raising awareness of the ecological wealth that surrounds Hell-Bourg.
A visit to Helbourg means stepping back in time to the beginning of the cirque's colonization. The history of the place, but also the history of the people who were there, the relationships between people in La Réunion, is very important: we talk a lot about multiculturalism.
We talk about marronage, bourgeoisie, poor devils, poor yabes, poor upper whites, fat whites too, and all these people are going to be at some point in this same place, sometimes a few years apart, of course, but not much. And it's really a concentration of very, very varied history in this place called Helbourg.
All around the village is the National Park, and on a visit to Helbourg, we'll be passing on messages, sharing about this natural and cultural heritage, and also talking about how to preserve it.
Many of our visitors go out on the hiking trails before and often after the visit, and we tell them the right way to hike, how not to bring back invasive exotic species, how to preserve the trails, avoid trampling, don't pick flowers, don't pick just anything, and of course be careful with this wealth which is very, very fragile.