The day began early, very early in the morning at 6AM in freezing temperatures by driving to the foot of the volcano
From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion |
We started early as we wanted to being the hike just at sunrise (the colors being amazing at this time):
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The hike began with a 150m descent first from an outer ridge (in the background) of the secondary crater, leading to a long, that is few-hours long "moonwalking"
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In order to get a few nice photo shots we climbed some smaller craters:
From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion |
The hike then continued on a mars-like landscape...
From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion |
before reaching the main crater.
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Note: this photo we did not take during the hike, but two days after from air.
The climb of the main crater was quite a challenge and seemed never-ending as the route went spiraling up, each time giving the impression the summit is "just around the corner" just for a new stretch to unfold.
...forward a couple of hours...
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Going around one of those "corners" offered us an incredible view of the main lava flow
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and the next corner of the most recent lava flow, both leading down to the ocean (some 2300m below us):
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Forward a couple of hours more...we finally reached the ridge of the main crater:
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... a rewarding site it was.
As always, we did not go alone, taking Gulliver with us
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The descent wasn't particularly easy either, especially walking through the "martian desert" seemed endless, but after the 7-8hours hike, we were both proud to look back to our "achievement":
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