DIARY OF A Camper-Van Couple

Eager to break out of the doldrums of Covid lockdown, this couple swopped home comforts for a camper van – and a trail-running adventure on the island of Réunion.

- ALANA MUNNIK

The last few years put a damper on the world's travel plans; and the Munnik family were not immune. Covid plus having a young baby meant nesting at home ranked higher on Maslow's hierarchy of needs than heading off on a holiday abroad.

But at the end of 2021, after our brief hiatus from the world, we made a promise that 2022 was definitely going to be the year our adventurous souls would travel again.

After throwing around a few ideas, I mentioned to my husband Oli that Réunion Island had been a destination on my bucket list for years - not least because of the iconic ultra trail events held there every October.

So I took a chance and booked our flights blindly, hoping I could still get a media entry to the Grand Raid Réunion, as public entries had already filled up. But whether or not I would manage to score a race entry (I didn't), we knew that at the very least we would still have a trail-running island getaway for a week.

In the little spare time I had between mothering, working and training, I managed to research trail running on the island. All the reviews claim Réunion is a trail-runner's paradise, with more than 900 kilometres of diverse trails packed neatly into an island only 65km long by 45km wide. They're not wrong.

And the scenery there changes faster than a TikTok video, offering an array of landscapes to immerse yourself in - from fields of sugar cane to circles of high peaks to forests, plains and an active volcano - all enclosed by a shimmering azure blue coastline.

I knew that true to my nature, I was going to want to pack as much variety as possible into our week on the island; which meant we would need to be agile and mobile.