Reunion Wrap Up

From Hellbourg we travelled south – out to the coast  to Saint André  and back up the next valley – to the town of Bourg Murat (near Le Tampon). This is the location of the La Maison du Volcan, a museum which opened in 1991 and is devoted to the study and presentation of volcanos around the world, but particularly to the two volcanoes which comprise Reunion, the Piton des Neiges and Piton de la Fournaise. 

The Piton des Neiges is the (allegedly) inactive volcano which forms most of the habitable part of Reunion. It rises 7000 m from the sea floor, and reaches a height of 3,000 m above sea level.  The last eruption of the Piton des Neiges was 12,000 years ago – not very long in geological terms, but long enough for people to assume it is ok to live on tip of it.  The Piton de la Fournaise is right next to the Piton des Neiges and seems to erupt every 7 to 10 years and as a result claims the title of the most active volcano in the world.  The museum, amongst many excellent displays and explanations of volcanos in general, had a 30 minute movie of the eruption of Piton des Neiges in March 2006.  Apparently the 2007 and 2010 eruptions were not worth mentioning.  The 2006 eruption completely destroyed a village and lava flowed across the main road in the SSE of the island. Don't remember hearing about it on Australian TV and News Media.

View from Nez de Beoffe

We tried to visit the volcano, but were defeated by roads and time. The drive to the Nez de Boeff took nearly an hour on Tuesday afternoon (about 15  km) around thousands of hairpin bends, narrow roads and sheer drops.  Our plan was to drive to Pas de Bellecombe (along the same road but 30 km further on) the next day and walk the three hours to the top of Piton des Neiges.  Given the difficulty of the drive, the need to come back on the same day and then head to the airport and the likelihood of a difficult walk, we decided not to try this time but to come back again better prepared, possible next January.

Instead of heading up to the volcano, we drove back to St Denis, took in some of the local markets and museums and then drove to the beach at St Giles (near Saint-Paul)  to eat and look out to sea while waiting for the plane to Paris.