Day 11: From Bourg Murat to the Gîte du Volcan

The vegetation zones of today’s route can be described as follows: From the Lower Austrian “Bucklige Welt” to the tropical rainforest, from there via Scandinavian moors to the Icelandic volcanic desert. And all this in only 7 hours on the Île de la Réunion. But let’s start at the beginning. The first look out of the window shows one thing: Not the best weather today. But we see this in a positive light: Firstly, we would have dragged all the rain stuff for nothing, and secondly, pictures are often especially interesting in cloudy conditions.
After breakfast, we ask our hosts to organize a cab to take us back to the GR R2, because walking 5 km on the busy N3 does not seem tempting to us. Especially not in the rain.
Across meadows, passing large herds of cows and cow patties, we walk higher and higher at a leisurely pace.

Soon we end up in an open heathland. We march up to the edge of the Rempart de la Rivière de l’Est. The ground is getting more and more barren and some plants take every opportunity for a nutrient-rich underground 😉 That the landscape can also be very inhospitable for humans is shown by the monument to the ranger Josemont Lauret, who fell victim to cold and exhaustion in October 1887.

The weather gradually gets better and when we reach the top and look down on the Plaine des Sables, we already have blue skies.

We descend and the vegetation changes drastically: barren and resembling a lunar landscape, the lava desert stretches in front of us.

A look back shows the Rempart de la Rivière de l’Est. In the left part of the picture, before the long steep face begins, one can guess the serpentines of our descent path to the Plaine des Sables in the upper part.

We hike along the desert, over lava slabs and crunching lava sand. Impressive, the contrasts between the dark rock and the single green oases.

After about 20 kilometers we reach our destination, the Gîte du Vulcan, with an amazing view to the sea.