Merry Christmas!

La suite!

I Did It!

Now that I have less work I took the time to go to « le Piton des Neiges ».



We left Cilaos on Thursday and got some rain as soon as we started walking. The hike to “le Piton des Neiges” can be done in two different ways: you can walk roughly 5 hours with an elevation of 1700 meters, you can walk roughly 3 hours with an elevation of 1100 meters, spend the night in some sort of cottage and start walking at 3 in the morning to walk the remaining 2 hours with an elevation of 600 meters. We chose the second option. You can only walk up during the hike and the few moments with no elevation are very short. You start the hike in a quiet forest and it is very pleasant but the steps made to avoid the path from becoming too slippery can quickly become tiring. I don't hike often, I need some time for my body to get warmed up and to be able to walk properly, things are easier when I am walking on a flat track or a track with a small elevation. In this case having to produce such an effort to walk along the steep track that lead to the pass on the way to “le Piton des Neiges” was very difficult for my legs. We couldn't really enjoy the landscape on our way up, the clouds that were quite low were blocking the view as well as bringing rain. I started reducing my speed as soon as I felt my heart beating too strongly, I did exactly the same thing as when I was riding a bike on “la Route du Volcan” I would go as slowly as possible to be sure to get to the end.



I didn't need to achieve anything, I just wanted to reach the goal of the day which was the cottage. I was slowly walking behind my hiking partners with small steps, I had my poncho on and my eyes were only looking at the ground to avoid loosing my motivation. My partners had a nice rhythm but there was no way for me to try and follow their rhythm or I wouldn't last very long. I stopped walking each time I felt like it but tried at the same time not to do it too often. We finally made it to the cottage after a 3 hour walk, we had walked for 8 km. It was still raining when we got there, we were soaked from the rain as well as the sweat but it was great. We changed clothed, got warm, ate a very good “rougail saucisse” and went to be straight away because we had to wake up at 2:30 AM.



I couldn't sleep and I have no idea why. I had two blankets to be warm, I even removed one during the night; I usually can sleep anywhere but this time I had plenty of time to count the sheep and sing songs to myself. Waking up at 2:30 AM was not difficult at all but starting walking in the dark and under the rain to get to “le Piton des Neiges” was. We started walking on a very rocky track with our headlamps to help us. Walking on rocks is usually a pain but it is even worse under the rain, sleepless and with headlamps. I was afraid to twist my ankle during the whole walk, the rocks were slippery and being tired really didn't help. Each time I go hiking and it gets tough I tell myself “I hate hiking but here I am so better reach the goal” and I indeed hate hiking but it is the price to pay to see amazing landscapes. An hour later I raised my head and saw that it was not raining anymore but more than that I could see the stars. The possibility of seeing the sun rise at the top without any clouds to block the view got me in a very good mood. We were halfway, I was very tired but I was almost there. 20 minutes later we were back inside the clouds and I was quite disappointed, the top was getting close and it would be a shame if it would be completely inside the clouds. 15 minutes before getting to the top we got rewarded, we were above the clouds and we would get our sunrise.



We got to the top 30 minutes before the sunrise. Waiting for the sun to rise in the wind and the cold is great when you are all sweaty but it sure was worth it. We had a sea of clouds in front of us where we could see “le Piton de la Fournaise”. Le sun rose behind the volcano, we were looking forward for it to bring some light but mostly warm us. It was happiness after torture, we enjoyed the sun's warmth a while before walking back down.
Here is something less for me to do in La Reunion: I was on top of the highest point in La Reunion and watched the sun rise and I can assure you I will not do that again anytime soon.

La suite!