REUNION Sonia Chant

Piton de la Fournaise "The Furnace" began its who sought refuge here after escaping from the most recent phase of activity in March 1998, coastal coffee plantations in 1751. Today, continuing right through until late September, around 500 people, some descendants of those unfortunately ceasing just ten days before our early slaves, live in the many hamlets of , holiday to Reunion Island began. but, with no roads and a difficult two day trek from the coast, they remain isolated. A few of A typical shield volcano, the older inhabitants, it is rumoured, have is one of the world's most active, with more never ventured outside the Cirque. than 170 recorded eruptions since the first documented event in 1644. It first made its The highlight of our holiday was a flight by appearance some 300,000 years ago on the microlight aircraft over Mafate, revealing eastern flanks of the then active Piton des farmsteads perched in the most inaccessible Neiges, now extinct, which forms the plateaux beneath the towering black peak of spectacular 10,000 foot high point of the central Piton des Neiges. range. Equally memorable was our trek into a deep Despite our initial disappointment at not gorge of Cirque, surrounded by tropical witnessing the latest eruption, we settled down fruit trees and fragrant pine, with spectacular to enjoy a wonderful holiday on this paradise waterfalls cascading down the mountainside, island in the . With the exception colourful birds flitting overhead, and the of Piton de la Fournaise's eight mile wide strange echo of bull frogs. barren crater, the island is green and tropical, surrounded by coral fringed beaches and Reunion Island, little known outside its mother towering up to the lush and deeply eroded country of , remains an unspoilt mountain ranges of the interior, culminating in paradise, offering unrivalled scenery, coral the three, so called Cirques, high valleys beaches, many miles of footpaths, and, for the surrounded on all sides by canyon walls geologist, the great active volcano of Piton de la enveloped in mist and pitted with fabulous Fournaise, which is guaranteed to erupt again rock formations. Most remote of the three soon. Cirques is Mafate, named after an African slave

40