As promised in my
last post about
Cilaos, here I was three weeks later back in the
cirque, but this time for two days of some (fairly) serious
hiking!
We started at just under 600m altitude, about 1.8 km up the road from Pavillon, a place where the main road to Cilaos crosses the
Grand Bras de Cilaos river by a metal bridge; there's also a
gîte here. (Another path leads from behind the gîte, but because it involves many river crossings it's best avoided if there's been rain).
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| our path only involved one river crossing |
We only had one river crossing during the hike, and we reached it after about 30 minutes walking.
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| interesting shapes beside the river |
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| Cilaos always has amazing scenery |
The path we were hiking along is known as the Reposoir path; reposoir is a word which normally means resting-place but can also mean a temporary altar. I don't know which is applicable here, although resting place seems more likely. It's also known as the Burel path.
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| old dead 'chokas' (green aloe; furcraea foetida) |
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| the path is quite overgrown |
After a gentle start during the first half of the hike, the path becomes a lot steeper during the second half. Most of the 800m gained in altitude is during the second 3 km.
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| looking back down at the river behind |
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| this spider had a good eating supply |
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| Almost at Ilet à Cordes |
Finally we reached the plateau on which Ilet à Cordes is perched.
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| looking back towards the coast from Ilet à Cordes |
The village gets its name from the fact that during the 18th century escaped slaves used ropes ('cordes' in French) to access the plateau and escape from slave hunters. Today most inhabitants make a living from agriculture.
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| fields of onions |
Lentils have been cultivated since 1835 and represent more than 60% of the crops in the village.
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| lentils and bananas! |
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| Sign on arrival in the village at the end of the hike |
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| satellite map of our Sentier du Reposoir hike |
On arrival we wandered around the village admiring people's gardens and some of the wild plants.
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| Air potato (dioscorea bulbifera) is a species of yam |
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| unripe strawberry guava ('goyavier'/psidium cattleyanum) |
As Reunion has so many
micro-climates you often see plants in one place on the island that you don't necessarily get to see elsewhere.
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| Giant granadilla fruit (passiflora quadrangularis) |
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| Giant granadilla flower |
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| Loquats, known locally as 'bibasses' (eriobotrya japonica) |
After a picnic lunch we took a 6km round trip hike to the Bras de St Paul.
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| Bras de St Paul |
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| satellite map showing walk from gîte to Bras de St Paul and back |
On the way back we stopped off to see the village chapel, Notre-Dame de Sacré Coeur, which was built by all the villagers in 1906. Next to it stands the village elementary school which was originally built in 1920.
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| Notre-Dame de Sacré Coeur chapel |
We spent the night at the same
gîte as for our
last trip (Gîte Grondin) and set off the next morning at 8am to hike to Cilaos town.
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| signboard when leaving Ilet à Cordes via La Chapelle |
This hiking path is known as the Sentier de la Chapelle. I didn't take any photos of the first part of the hike as it was down a narrow, sandy path with a precipitous drop and I needed both my hands and all my wits about me!
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| looking back at the path we'd just come down from Ilet à Cordes |
Starting at just under 1400m altitude we descended about 800m over 3km until we arrived at the river Bras Rouge.
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| riverbed, Bras Rouge |
We could see the remains of an old bridge, probably swept away by a cyclone.
A little further there's a junction which gives you the possibility of going to a place called La Chapelle (a rock formation), and half our group took this option, while I was part of the group who carried on straight to Cilaos.
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| path junction with La Chapelle |
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| path up to Cilaos |
This second part of the hike, while steep in some parts, was not quite so nerve-wracking as the first part!
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| looking back at Ilet à Cordes from Cilaos |
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| looking back at the path we'd just hiked |
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| signboard on arrival in Cilaos |
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| Satellite map showing hike from Ilet à Cordes to Cilaos |
Useful links:
- The ONF website (National Forests Office) is in French, but has up-to-date maps you can download showing trails that are open (ouvert, in green) and closed (fermé, in red). Always check it before hiking anywhere.
- The Runweb site has English information about hiking in Reunion.
- Video (in French) of La Chapelle hike
- Wikitravel.
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