Canyoning

Water, stones and landscapes = life.



I have been thinking about trying canyoning for more that a year now but I have always used the fact that I don’t like cold water as an excuse to not to give it a shot. What is not to like: you spend the day in a stream, to go forward you will have to do some abseiling, some jumping and go down some natural slides. All this looks nice for someone who likes nature but as I am not a true nature lover things could have gone sour.



We went to the « fleurs jaunes » canyon in Cilaos and started gearing up before going in the water. You have to start with the 5mm thick integral wet suit. You then put another suit whose only purpose is to cover and protect the wet suit from being scratched on the rocks. The harness comes next, it comes with snaps used for safety during abseils; the rear part of the harness is reinforced with burlap to protect our rear ends during the slides. The helmet comes last as one would not want to smash his head against the rock. Bags containing either ropes, dry clothes or food that will be eaten at the bottom of the canyon will be carried by the strong ones. I can tell that you will be hot while wearing all this but don’t worry the walk to the start is not long.





It is now time to start canyoning, I woke up at 5 A.M. for this so my hatred of cold water doesn’t matter much anymore. We get to the water through a small slide and damn it is cold but this way it won’t take me one hour to get in it. The guide makes a small security briefing before we start going in the 20 meter high cascade. I wait for 2 persons to go before heading to the edge. The guide puts the rope in an eight shaped object connected to the harness and tells me that I am good to go. I sit on the edge of the cascade, holding the rope he handed me; I feel like I am on top of a building. I only have two things to do: if I push the rope away from me I will go down and the farther the rope will be the fastest down I will go; If I pull the rope to me I will slow down then stop going down. It is very easy. I go down with my back to the wall and I end up pretty quickly under the water, the water in the cascade may not look strong but it is something else when you are under it. Even though I took my time going down I am quickly in the pool below and I tell myself that this is going to be a piece of cake. I then take my camera (in its underwater case) out of the wet suit it was staying up until now to take pictures.



After the first cascade I was almost always the first to go, the guide would tell me to keep the camera inside my suit during the abseils but what was the point of bringing it in its underwater case if it was to not take pictures when I was right inside a cascade? For the second abseil I asked the guide if I could go with my feet on the wall instead of with my back against the wall; he answered that it was my call and warned me that it would be quite slippery. And indeed it was! Here I was trying to keep my balance on the wet rock and trying to take picture at the same time. It is neither easier nor more difficult, it is just more fun. The water was pushing hard against my feet and the slippery rock didn’t help to stay straight but boy did I have fun. Most of my pictures were crap because the underwater case is made to take pictures … underwater and it really didn’t help when I had a few drops of water on the part protecting the lens but it was ok as long as I had a not too bad pictures of myself doing abseiling.



The high point of the canyon is the 55 meters high abseil. You are in for quite a view when you are standing on threshold just before going down. You see the small pool far below and you can’t even see the whole cascade because some of it is hidden by the rocks. I went in with the camera in my hand hoping I wouldn’t lose my balance as I was walking on the rock. I was so concentrated on the water and being stable that I didn’t even look down to check how far I had to go. I think I must have been smiling all the way. I was getting showered by the waterfall as I was fighting to keep my balance, I was having a hell of a good time. The water was so strong on my elbow that it was difficult to lift my arm to take pictures. As was enjoying myself so much that I could have stayed there a while but others where waiting for me to get to the bottom. Once there I really felt like I had only spent a few seconds up there and I would have minded a quick way to go back up and do this one again.



The canyon ends with 2 shorts abseils then comes the time for lunch and getting dry. After that you will have to go through an hour long walk on a steep slope under the burning sun to get back to the starting point. The walk is no peace of cake but you will get a very nice view of Cilaos. Trying canyoning is adopting it. If you are in Reunion Island and want to try canyoning send an email to Luciano he will take good care of you.