La Roche Ecrite

There is a magical mythical place in the center of Reunion Island called the Roche Ecrite. If you have the wherewithal to start hiking at 4:30 in the morning, you might make it in time for a stunning view of this unique place which straddles two cirques, Salazie and Mafate. Looking down into one cirque is like looking down into the eye of the earth. Now TWO, that's more than an earthly man might be able to handle. My pal Anouk and I decided to give it a shot.

We started our hike from Dos d'An, north of La Possession, a quick and easy way to shoot into the cirque de Mafate. I parked the car in a residential area and we hit the ground running. As is always the case with the weather here, the mountains entrap clouds early on in the day, and once this happens, you can't see much. It's a race against time and we were already late. Added confusion abounded when we lost twenty minutes roaming around the little neighborhood looking for the path. Soon we found it and were on our way.

The early morning views were spectacular. Nonetheless, we started getting nervous when we asked someone how far to La Roche Ecrite and he laughed at us, shook his head, and walked away. The next person was more helpful, "At least 6 hours from here!" We had planned to do this in one day and started to feel the heat; time to book it. The trail was something out of a fairytale: we passed through secret mossy fields and across knife-head paths, sheer rock cliffs dropping from either sides. If we didn't feel like we were starring in the Lord of the Rings, we did by the time the fog started rolling in and everything became more mysterious.

This also unfortunately meant that everything became invisible. We made excellent time to our destination but it was not time enough. The tremendous view we had hoped to see was entirely covered with clouds and fog by 11AM. We did see the Roche Ecrite, or "written rock" which is a lovely slab of concrete with graffiti on it. If you are Philippe, Pierre, or Antoine, you have been to this place more times than is appropriate, and should stop writing your name--now. In any event, anyone planning this hike would be advised to begin in darkness or stay in the gite at Plaine des Chicos so you can get the sunrise view. That's what I will do next time...

Back down the mountain side completing our 24km hike with some very tired legs and a small twinge of disappointment, but mostly we just had fun. A great time that came to a screeching halt when we got to the car to discover that some trickster had stolen the hubcaps and popped a back tire. Thanks Dos D'an! Apparently this is a local pastime in the neighborhood; locals like to give tourists the run around. Moral of the story, avoid parking in this area.

There were some kids hanging out near the car and Anouk went over to try to scare them into confessing, but they were smiley and just offered to help us put the spare on. At this point my legs were rubber--every time I took a step, I almost fell down. It was embarrassing. Especially when I realized that one of the boys, Christopher, is a student of mine at Lycee Vue Belle. A small tire-popping world. Tried not to lose face by wiping out in front of everyone, but at this point the entire neighborhood had gathered around to watch us struggle with the jack. I gave tire-changing authority to a 14 year old boy because I no longer had control over my muscles. It was an ordeal, but what are you going to do. I was too tired to be indignant. As we were cruising out of town, a friendly neighbor flagged us down. The fire started growing in my belly when we were informed that it was my student and his father who vandalized my car. Not over any personal vendetta, but just a fun father-son activity when there's a visitor in town. I hope that sweet little Christopher is ready to write "I will not vandalize my teacher's car" 800 times on the blackboard...

Col du Taibit

After a movie several weeks ago, my pal Susanne and I were invited to go hiking with a friend of a friend whom we bumped into on the side of the road. The plan was to hike from Cilaos to Mafate via Col du Taibit, a narrow little pass high in the mountains that connects two of the island's three immense volcanic craters. From there, you can see the ocean on one side and down into the Cirque de Mafate from the other.

One of the joys of hiking on Reunion Island is how the geography is so truly untouched. It's a raw and beautiful experience of extremely remote, serene, and quiet terrain. The downside is that if there's any sort of problem, you usually have to get airlifted out. About two hours into our trek, we crossed a woman who had broken her leg. Soon we could hear the helicopter rescue team off in the distance. It got me thinking that the pain of injury may be worth it just to get an island tour! Just kidding, Ma! I couldn't get enough of these guys:

We made it up Col du Taibit without another incident and began the descent down into Mafate. Somewhere along the line Susanne made friends with some radical Creole mountain-men-band- of-brothers who were hiking, skipping, jumping all over the jagged rocks without any shoes on. They were doing the same trail we were on, a roughly 16 hour round trip adventure. I had seen this once before during an earlier trek when a guy with dreadlocks down to his ankles sprinted past me barefoot on a trail that was so unpredictable I needed poles to manage it alive. A Creole pastime, I've been told.

We got hit with a flash flood as we were approaching Trois Roches, our base camp for that night:
And here is a great shot from the next morning when we got up to begin the journey back. Someone let the cows out--though we have no idea where they came from. Apparently there are individually isolated farmers that live in these very remote mountain corners. Sometimes they live by themselves, other times with their families, but mostly they are roughing it alone. Access to the outside world is limited to the decision to hike the 8 hours to Cilaos, the closest town.

You can click on the pictures to get a better look!