Indian Ocean – Close encounter with a live volcano in a wild and spectacular landscape

My project this summer has been to scan all my old photos and negatives. A project I wont’t finish this summer, that’s for sure. I have too many albums with printed photos! Last week I went through an album from a trip to the island of La Reunion with my 20 year old son Chris in 1998. We were visiting family in Mauritius, but since La Reunion is only an hour's flight from Mauritius we chose to visit this island at the same time. Both our flight and rental car was booked in advance. We drove around the island in four days. Our main goal was to hike to two of the island's highest peaks.

La Reunion is a rather small and isolated volcanic island, geographically located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, but on the paper it’s part of Europe. The island belongs to France, so when you arrive, you are entering France! You are not in any doubt that you are in fact in France! The first to settle were Europeans and slaves from Madagascar some 350 years ago. Later people from Africa, Asia and India arrived.

One of the special features of the island is the three valleys dominating the island. When the volcanic craters collapsed thousands of years ago, a caldera -"Cirque"- was formed. If you see them on a map, or from a plane, they look like three leaves sticking out from a point in the middle. That is Piton des Neiges, the highest peak on the island which thrones 3.046 m. above the Indian Ocean. No matter where you are on the island you see this peak. A trip to the Cirques is an iconic Reunion experience. The island also has one of the world's most active volcanoes, Piton de la Fournaise with a hight of 2.632 m. above sea level. Our goal was to hike both of them.

I have selected some of the photos along with an excerpt from the diary. Unfortunately not the best quality since they are scanned.

Hiking to Piton des Neiges We made our way up through Cirque de Cilaos, to the small town with the same name. After parking the car we started the steep climb up an almost vertical wall. The path itself winds it way up this wall. Low bushes grows here. I actually think they prevented us from falling down! It was a strenuous climb. Almost 1000 m. straight up. But the view of the village and the surrounding mountains kept getting better and better.

On our way to the top

The village of Cilaos

It started to get dark as soon as we reached the edge. The tent was pitched in a hurry and dinner was cooked. The next morning we started early to walk in a slow pace the 2 hours to the top. Not that it was too steep, but a little less oxygen in the air is probably what affected us. Spectacular scenery! We could easily see how the island is completely dominated by the three Cirques: Cirque de Cilaos, Mafate and Salazie.

A rest on the way down

It was easier to walk down, but it caused strain on our knees. Almost down to the starting point, I walked sideways occasionally as my knees started to hurt. That evening we spent in a hotel down by the coast. Our legs had done the job for that day! We had dinner at the hotel. There was no talk of walking around to find an alternative place to eat.

The next morning we continued our round trip of the island to get to the volcano. We had to drive along the coast and follow the road beneath the volcano. This area is called Forèt Domaine du Grand Brûlè. When there are eruptions, the lave mass flows down towards the coast. It is easy to see all the layers from different eruptions. After some time plants starts to grow on the lava from older eruptions.

Notre Dame de la Lava

Often the lava flows have crossed the road. This is maybe most easily seen at a little place where the church Notre Dame de la Lava is located. A famous church at La Reunion. The lava flow from the 1977 eruption ran through the village. When it reached the church, it split on each side and flowed behind the church. No lives were lost. This was seen as a divine miracle.

Hiking Piton de la Fournaise Piton de la Fournaise is a bubbling and smoking volcano and one of the most active in the world. It's the same volcanic type as Hawaii. The eruptions are not of the explosive type. They are more a liquid mass from small craters. Although situated on a mountain massif, it actually consists of two craters, which have been inactive for some years. However, there are a number of smaller craters scattered throughout. They were very much alive.

The starting point for the hike is at a parking lot. The distance is 10-12 km and took us just over 4 hours. We followed the path along the crater rim. In front of us lies a lunar landscape. A scanty landscape with sand plateaus and solidified lava. Then we embarked on the steep descent to the bottom of the huge U-shaped outer crater - L'Enclos Foucque. The path is signposted to the the large crater. On our way back we passed small, but very active craters.

There were signs warning people not to get too close. But Chris defied the warning signs to look down into a small crater! We met a German at one of these signs. He had gone beyond the sign so he could look down into the crater. Chris thought he could do that too. Not only did he defy the sign. He also defied his mother. At the crater, he held his little camera out over the edge and snapped the picture without looking down. He returned with slightly burned boots and a throbbing heart. That was some of the most nerve-wracking minutes of my life!

The photo Chris took

We returned the same way as we came. It was already late in the afternoon when we returned, but our campsite was close by. Our journey continued around the island and back to the airport. Our adventure had come to an end. La Reunion was certainly no disapointment! It offers spectacular scenery and the opportunity to have a warm, close encounter with a live volcano. The small villages with friendly people gave us an the opportunity to practice our rather poor french!

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All the photoes are mine, Ulla Jensen (flickr, Instagram and facebook)

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