Hike towards Mars - Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island 1317; Maloya 00249
What and Why
'Welcome to Mars!' proclaimed our guide when we reached the base of the volcano! That was an almost perfect description of the landscape of Saint Philippe, Réunion. Réunion is a tiny French island next to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and is one of the furthest European Union territory away from Europe. So while you are in Africa in the Indian Ocean, you are literally in France. The island is famous for its active volcano Piton de Fournaise, meaning Peak of the Furnace in French.
The National Park of Réunion (French: Parc National de la Réunion) has its own endemic ecosystems, including the Reunion Island day gecko. Other than volcanoes and its endemism, the Park includes the Cirque de Cilaos a 100,000-year-old accessible magma chamber and various volcanic landscape forms and remparts.
Toponymy
Saint Philippe was named after Philip the Apostle (Greek: Φίλιππος, Philippos) who was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus (Hebrew: ישוע, Yeshua).
See
Piton de Fournaise
The volcano Piton de Fournaise is one of the most actives in the world and is still erupting occasionally, the most recent eruption took place in October 2019 CE. Rising to 2,631 m above sea level, locals refer it to 'Le Volcan'. Though it is active, it is very accessible and many, include ourselves hike up to the top and take a look. It is shielded by a C-shaped rempart on the west side of the volcano and even during an eruption, one can view the eruption at a safe distance from the rempart. So during eruption, this does not mean that there is nothing to see — quite the contrary!
We started from the town of Saint Pierre and drive all the way up to the first rempart, Le Nez de Bœuf (cow's nose) of Les Plaines des Remparts (the rempart plain).
It is one of the starting point to Le Volcan at altitude 2 km.
A panoramic view of the Les Plaines des Remparts.
The view of gorge is definitely stunning.
Signage showing that this gorge was created and broken up through a volcanic eruption 300,000 years ago.
From Nez de Bœuf, one starts our journey to Mars, and after a short drive, our guide's proclamation came. The place was naturally used to shoot part of the film The Martian. Honestly an absolutely unbelievably stunning landscape.
More Mars. We were advised not to get off the car and wander too far. Apparently fogs set in quickly sometimes and the visibility can get quite bad. After all it is a valley like rempart.
After a short drive, one will reach the main volcano station and that's the start of the hike into the volcano. The station Pas de Bellecombe is located on top of the C-shaped rempart with a good view of the volcano and Formica Leo.
The area is known as the Sand Plain (Plaine des Sables) which effectively is a black plain of volcanic rock that the road to the volcano crosses. The little pox you see is Formica Leo.
The volcano erupts two to three times a year in the past decade. During the April 2007 CE eruption, the crater cracked open and the magma chamber with a century's worth of lava emptied down from the mountainside and into the ocean, creating a massive spectacle. This picture from the internet clearly shows what happened then.
Formica Leo is an extinct crater is the first attraction along the path. It looks tiny from the top but in fact once you reach it is actually quite massive!
The second main attraction to the volcano is Corded Lava (Lave Cordée), where you will see the flowlines of the lava flow from previous eruptions.
Further walk you will reach the next major attraction Rosemount Chapel (La Chapelle de Rosemont). Outside it you see a artificially-piled-up red stone heap. Of course we contributed to the heap.
The Chapel is actually a rock formation that becomes a natural shelter created by a gas bubble in liquid lava. We are not sure if this is a real chapel of worship, but we did our vows inside.
After two hours of walk, you will reach the end of the path and arrived at the Dolomieu Crater (Cratère Dolomieu).
The crater has a diameter of 1 km, and is the biggest crater of Piton de la Fournaise. It emerged in the late 18th century CE at 200 m in width and has grown in size after multiple eruptions. The hike from the Pas de Bellecombe is a surprisingly easy walk of 2 hours only, the only problem we had was we encountered the rain on the way back. It is easier to walk towards the volcano then walking back actually.
Buy and Do
Maloya
During dinner, as described below, we were treated with the traditional music of maloya, which is a blend of music usually sung in Réunion Creole, accompanied by local percussion. Maloya is a genre of music with origins from African and Malagasy sugar-cane slaves and to my ears it sounded a bit like American blues.
The music was once banned by the French during the 1970s CE, but it is now inscribed as an ICH, as it carries a message against slavery. Originally dedicated to ancestral worship, maloya has gradually over time become a song of lament against slavery, and for the past thirty years it has represented the little island’s identity. Every cultural, political and social event on the island is accompanied by maloya, which thus became a vehicle for asserting political rights. Réunioneses are very proud of their maloya and often claim one has not been to the island if one has not enjoyed maloya.
Eat and Drink
Reunion cuisine is a bit of ménage-à-trois between Indian, French and part African, influenced strongly by Mauritian cuisine. The local specialty is definitely the curry (Réunion Creole: carri), but the most special is definitely the rougail which is a curry of a variety of meat, and believe or not, sometimes wasp larvae! We spent a night having dinner in a beachside place called La Bobine, but we kept conventional and stayed away from the rougail.
Getting There and Around
Drive to the top of Pas de Bellecombe and walk 3 hours. Once should spend at least three or four days in the island. Access to the piton requires a car definitely.
UNESCO Inscriptions
The Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island site coincides with the core zone of La Réunion National Park. The property covers more than 100,000 ha or 40 % of La Réunion, an island comprising two adjoining volcanic massifs located in the south-west of the Indian Ocean. Dominated by two towering volcanic peaks, massive walls and three cliff-rimmed cirques, the property includes a great variety of rugged terrain and impressive escarpments, forested gorges and basins creating a visually striking landscape. It is the natural habitat for a wide diversity of plants, presenting a high level of endemism. There are subtropical rainforests, cloud forests and heaths creating a remarkable and visually appealing mosaic of ecosystems and landscape features.
Maloya is a form of music, song and dance native to Réunion Island. Of mixed racial origins since its outset, maloya was created by Malagasy and African slaves on the sugar plantations and was eventually appropriated by the whole of the island’s population. Initially conceived as a dialogue between a soloist and a choir accompanied by percussion instruments, maloya exists today in an increasing variety of forms, both in terms of texts and instruments (the introduction of djembes, synthesizers, drums, etc.). Sung and danced on stage by professional or semi-professional artists, it is mixed with rock, reggae or jazz and inspires poetry and slam. Although originally dedicated to ancestral worship as part of a ritual, maloya has gradually over time become a song of lament against slavery, and for the past thirty years it has represented the island’s identity. Every cultural, political and social event on the island is accompanied by maloya, which thus became a vehicle for asserting political rights. Today, it is kept alive by 300 documented groups, including a number of world-famous artists, and by specialized music teaching at the Conservatoire de la Réunion. An element of national identity, an example of cultural mixing, a moral touchstone and a model for integration, maloya is nevertheless threatened by social changes and by the disappearance of its main exponents and the practice of venerating ancestors.
References
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