Pedal

I went for a bike ride a few days ago that I will never forget it.



We left at 7 in the morning to get to “la route du volcan”. Once on the road, we left the car halfway to our destination and started riding the bikes. The weather was nice, the top of “le piton des neiges” was not yet covered with clouds, I was wearing an extra jacket because it was cold. The bike ride started with an easy pace, I tried not to go too fast because I knew that we had quite a long way to go and I wanted to keep my strength. I found out that I started having difficulties as soon as the road tilt reached a certain level. I was riding my bike while being on the fourth speed of the bike in the middle plateau but I quickly found myself on the first speed in the largest plateau. I was not used to riding a bike for long distances, I tried to ride as slow as possible to not tire my legs too fast: I was going so slow at some point that I had a hard time going straight.



My legs were hurting so much in the hairpins that I had to stop at each curve to rest. I gave myself goals to reach during the ride to help me go forward. The few times I have been on a bike I was either riding in Paris or going down “le Maido” on a mountain bike. I felt a great deal of satisfaction when I reached “le pas de sable”, there were only a few hairpins left separating me from the place I like the most on this earth: “la plaine des sables”. We had a short boomerang session, it was everything I needed to relax after the suffering. Throwing boomerangs in “la plaine des sables” is the third thing I like to do most on this island after scuba diving and mountain bike hiking. I caught the boomerang twice, lets hope I will catch it even more next time. We concluded the bike ride to reach “le pas de bellecombe”, we were on a dirt road and had to breathe all the dust that each car passing us by was raising while we were avoiding potholes.



The way back was easier as there was more down than up but the climb up from “la plaine des sables” was tough. The ride to “le pas de bellecombe” had killed my legs and I didn’t have the energy to climb that kind of road without stopping to rest at each curve. I found out on the way back that I could actually ride without any problems when the tilt of the road was light but my strength went very fast when the tilt increased. When I was speeding down the road I couldn’t stop myself saying: I rode all that up! The clouds started to gather and a light drizzle started that was quite refreshing. Of course the drizzle turned into rain and I had to slow down to avoid getting out of the road. The change of the strength in the rain made me feel like I had stepped through an invisible door. I was feeling like I was close to the end of the ride and remembered that we had started with a slope, the ride had to end with a rise! I remembered the rise to be short but it just wouldn’t stop, I don’t remember how many times I had to stop to relax my legs. At some point I think I even stopped every 5 or 10 kicks.
I eventually reached our starting point, the whole ride was 32km long and had roughly 300 meters of positive elevation.

La suite!

I Did It!

It took us three trips to La Reunion to go to "le Piton de la Fournaise". It is no wonder that the volcano is the first touristic place on the island, the area is truly amazing.



You have to know that one has to deserve the volcano, we woke up at 4:30 AM to meet some friends and get there as soon as possible. If you don’t like waking up early it is ok too, it is not mandatory to be up at the same time as chickens do to go see the volcano but the weather changes quickly out there and the clouds often come down quite quickly. Moreover the later you get there the more people there will be on the way to the top, you may think it is not that important but it truly isn’t the same thing when all is quiet next to the crater.



Before getting to "le Pas de Bellecombe" to start hiking you will drive through "la Plaine des Sables". I have to say that this area is quite amazing, I could say that it looks like you are on the moon but I have never been there. I can at least say that it is the most astonishing landscape I have ever seen, on first look you would think that the ground is dark but when looking closely you will see here and there some red and orange. This place deserves a short hike to fully enjoy its beauties.



I like the fact that you have to drive for 2 hours to know whether you can go hiking our not. Once we arrived at "le Pas de Bellecombe" we could see that "l’enclos" (the plain that leads to the volcano) was covered by the clouds but the volcano was not. It is funny to be walking in the clouds and see them disappear as we walk. Don’t expect to find a nice little track, don’t forget that once you have come down in "l’enclos" you will be walking on cooled volcanic rock; you will have to follow little white dots painted on the rock to reach your destination.



Things start to get serious when you start climbing the volcano, powdery rock replaces the hard volcanic rock and you feel like you are walking on sand; you will then walk on sharp rock and will have to be very careful not to trip. The walk is not too difficult but you always have to watch where you step. You will see truly unique landscapes on the way: some green here and there, cloud movement, secondary craters...
Getting to the crater is the reward, the picture speaks for itself. You are at 2450 meters above sea level, it is cold but you don’t care because you are so happy to be there. The picnic we ate up there was the best picnic I ever ate.



No need to tell you that the walk back is easier but this doesn’t prevent your knees from working hard. At the end of the hike, you will have to climb all the stairs you came down to get to "l’enclos", you will really love this.
These days the pressure is building up in the volcano and a volcanic eruption is to be expected, it would have been great to be able to witness that while we were on our hike.



La suite!

The Volcano

We went this week-end to "le piton de la fournaise" for a hike to the volcano. We drove after my work to the southern part of the island, up the road that leads to "la plaine des cafres" to go sleep in "le gite du volcan". We wanted to start early on Saturday morning.



We left Saint-Gilles at 5:50 PM and reached the cottage at 8:50 PM with a 30 minutes diner break. The people who have already been there know that the road is quite sinuous when you are in the forest and that it is in very bad shape when get close to the volcano. The drive was quite difficult for my wife as she is still in the learning process, it was night time when we got to our destination and there was no lighting on the road. The serpentine path was so narrow in some case that you couldn’t feel safe especially when the headlights would show that there is absolutely nothing beyond the road.



We went straight to the dormitory as soon as we reached the cottage. The car thermometer showed that it was 3°C outside, I don’t know why I thought that cottages have eating but my wife and the 3 blankets laid on my bed showed me I was wrong. There is nothing to do except preparing the bed quickly and going to sleep otherwise you will start asking yourself if the volcano is worth all this pain. The night was interesting, I woke up many time during the night because of the cold even with my 3 blankets. My wife slept with her clothes on but she wasn’t warmer than I was. The best part of the night was when I had to get dressed to go to the restroom; it was so sweet to have to put back all my cold clothes on for less than a minute.



We woke up a 5:45 AM to be able to see the sun rise from "le Pas de Bellecombe" before starting our hike. No need to tell you that waking up was tough but you are completely awake once your feet touch the cold floor! We went to get breakfast once we were dressed, exited the dormitory and… it was raining and the fog was totally covering the sky. We asked during breakfast if the weather may change, the answer was that the weather changes too quickly around the volcano and it was dangerous to start hiking under theses conditions. We decided to go to "le Pas de Bellecombe" to take a picture (the first one of this post), the volcano is somewhere behind this. The way back home took us only 2 hours and we were greeted in Saint-Gilles by a beautiful blue sky. C’est la vie!

La suite!