Sunday 8 January 2012

Piton de la Fournaise, the walk to the volcano crater in la Reunion


The wake-up ring (for the beauty above) was at 4.30 in the (still pretty dark) morning...A bit after 6 am we had the following amazing views of Piton des Neiges (next two pictures), the highest peak in la Reunion with its 3069 metres.

Shorthly before 7 am we were parked and ready for 5,5 hour walk to the crater of the volcano Piton de la Fournaise. Walking down and up on frozen lava and lava stones in different colours, passing by small and big craters, we arrived on the top of the crater Dolomieu and were stunned by its colours...
 
On the next photo is the Piton de la Fournaise, one of the most active volcanoes in the world!Last (small) eruption was in 2010, last big one was 2007.
 
We spent almost one hour on the top, at 2631 meters, contemplating the view and eating fruits.
The first picture is taken from the helicopter we took this morning to view the island from above, more to come a bit later:-)












 
 

Inbetween the lava the plants start to grow again-simply impressive!

3 comments:

Filip said...

It looks like a nice hike. But getting up in the morning must be hard.

Greetings,
Filip

Barb said...

Such colors and vistas - your reward for rising early!

betchai said...

beautiful out of this world color and landscape which was made more beautiful by early morning colors, i love walking at the crater too because it makes me feel like i am walking on another planet, just imagining :)