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HIKING LA REUNION

A hidden volcanic paradise.

By Javi Lorbada

January 13^th, 2020

This island lies in the middle of the Indian Ocean, east to Madagascar and 175km southwest of Mauritius.

A French region, a hidden paradise.

Madrid - Paris - Saint-Denis

Even though we had almost no hopes for an OK-ish flight to Reunion island, we enjoyed a decent plane, good food, and some sleep.

11h from Paris to Reunion in which I could read, watch a couple of episodes and finally sleep from time to time, the truth is when I finally woke up crew just started serving breakfast.

We landed on time, got the luggage and headed to the city center of Saint-Denis.

Soon we realized Sundays are kind of a holy day, everything is closed, Tourist information center included.

With no many options, we headed to the coastline walkway and had a beer, such a great moment.

After that, we were kind of hungry and ended at Vapiano for pasta, from every other choice we had, this place was the most reasonable price for us.

Lunch took some time, the great thing was our apartment was ready so we went to have a shower! Finally!

In the early evening, our mood was chilling down, maybe not having slept much helped. We found a couple of local bars at the shore in which beer and food are way cheaper, on our budget. Here we drink and eat. Straight after we hit the bed.

Saint-Denis - Saint-André -

Hell Bourg - Le Grand Sable

6 am we get up and prepare for the day.

7:30 am we take the first bus towards Saint-André, the bus goes smoothly.

Arrived on time and walked to Intersport, a store, we believed, it could provide us with the camping gas bottle, soon we saw they didn't have but the guys next to did.

The guys next to, did have, but didn't fit our ignition system, a bit frustrated we got back to the station and waited for the second bus.

This one to Hell-Bourg, similar bus, goes as smooth as the first. The scenery though started to change, an amazing canyon in the mountains, totally green and full of waterfalls, so many, so beautiful!

Once we arrived we try to find gas, but failed, we bought a bottle we thought it'd work but it didn't, the decision was made, we continued without a stove, no warm food, which is a bit shitty.

1:30 pm, after lunch, started to hike, we take a secondary route to see a waterfall, we ended up, river crossing and well deep into the rainforest, missed a machete for some parts. It seemed no one has passed through this route in ages, that was cool, sometimes scary.

For that reason we walked slower than expected and ended up sleeping in the middle of the forest where we could find a spot for the tent, it was late and dark, next to the river, we dined.

Baguette and sliced meat, not bad at all though.

Le Grand Sable - Col de Fourche -

La Nouvelle

Same time as the day before, 6 am, got ready and start the hike, sleeping wasn't too bad, even though our tent was on a rocky, not straight area, we all seemed to had rested good enough.

The first part of the day's hike was great, not to difficult through the forest. The second part towards the Col de Fourche, 1946 m, was one of the toughest hikes in a long time, a vertical wall (technically a vertical km) with 20kg on my backpack wasn't pleasant. The mist was covering peaks and no vistas, no motivation.

Reached Col de Fourche, felt so good in there that we had lunch. Ideally, the view would be stunning from the top, the whole Cirque de Mafate would be seen, for us, the clouds.

The clouds rolled in, and that seemed to be a common thing on the island, open skies at sunrise, clouds from the rainforest are formed at midday, so sunsets are not an option. Soon we were getting cold and we continue the descent to La Nouvelle.

Our legs were tired and even though we went at a good pace we felt it, therefore we stopped a few more times. Until we arrived at La Nouvelle.

This village was only reachable by helicopter or on foot. It's actually a pretty village in the canyon. Surrounded by volcanic mountains, seems like a paradise. After a shower, we enjoyed the non-existent sunset with a beer and some traditional food.

La Nouvelle - Trois Roches Fall - Marla - Col du Taibit

I woke up for sunrise and really enjoyed it, walked around the village looking for the best views, such a beautiful valley.

After breakfast we started the day, a bit later than yesterday and went to the Trois Roches Falls, this place was impressive, was scary too, a waterfall we couldn't see the bottom and I would say more than 50meter drop, such an awesome canyon.

After some time there we started the ascension to Marla, the toughest part the trek, quite steep up and the sun was really strong.

Arrived at Marla and had lunch, with a refreshing beer, of course!

There we discussed what to do next and decided to continue to Col du Taibit (2000m above sea level).

The ascension was difficult as well, on top of that, clouds were again on top of us, so no sunset, even though I saw a few sun rays breaking in, at the end totally foggy sunset I had to imagine mountains around.

So with no sun we prepared dinner, enjoy the nightspot and went to bed, we will hike back to the Col du Taibit for sunrise.

Col du Taibit - Îlet de Salazes -

Bras Rouge - Cilaos

This day the three of us woke up at 5:30 and hike up to the mountain pass Col du Taibit for sunrise, it was fantastic, although the view was better to the Mafate Valley the sun coming behind the tallest peak in the Indian ocean, Piton de Neiges, was amazing too.

After enjoying the view, getting warm by the sun we walked down to get the tent and get ready for the day.

The route was long and difficult, pretty much all the time going up and down, on top of that, not many clouds that could save us from the heat, so at a certain point, we had a bath in the river, very refreshing.

Then continue onto Cilaos, last couple kilometers of a very steep slope, but we made it.

There, a big beautiful village, we actually changed the idea of continue hiking and rent a car, for two reasons, one friend feels very tired, and reason two, if we continue hiking we probably can't do as much as we have in mind. We will do more hikes but probably 1 or 2 days long.

After sorting all the formalities for the car and transportation to pick up the car, we just enjoyed the sunset with a BBQ at our little and colorful overnight stay.

So far we had walked for 76 km, ~125.000 steps and about 705 floors climbed, not bad at all.

After Cilaos we explore the rest of the island by car, and that was outstanding, we were incredibly lucky witnessing whales from shore as well as Piton de la Fournaise volcano in action.