This is the area of the lava flows of recent decades, emanating from the volcano Piton de la Fournaise - 2600m - and which we will be attempting to climb in a couple of days.
The lava flow area stretches some 6 kilometres, going from the mountain to the sea. There are signposts along the road marking the years of the various flows, the oldest 1976, and the most recent 2007.
We stopped initially at them 2002 flow, now looking like it has a light dusting of snow, with white lichen sprouting from the tuft.
We then went on to the 2007 flow near Tremblet
This eruption came not from the main crater, but a vent about 1 km from the now reconstructed road.
Amazingly, in this still hostile looking environment, plants were already taking a foothold.
We then drove down to the sea, to the area adjacent to the 2007 flow.
It was a wild day, with big waves crashing into the rocks, but we managed to make our way to the edge of the flow.
We saw the very prevalent warning sign, in fact most of the ocean in Reunion is closed for swimming because of shark attack....
... but again the vegetation was luxuriant, with more brightly coloured flowers.
A little further down the coast at Puits Arabe we went for another short walk....and we felt glad that we weren't picnicking at this spot at the time of this eruption.
Along the path we saw a ripe pandanus fruit, and having been told by Christoff at our guesthouse that they could be cooked and eaten, one of us couldn't resist the temptation to climb the tree and grab the spoils.
Lunch was at a roadside cafe, La case volcan...
...run by a lovely creole man who gave us a taste of his dishes of the day so we could choose.
We had all three they were so good. Chicken coconut curry, smoked sausage and papaya rougail, pork and cabbage rougail, accompanied with rice and a bowl of green lentils, and washed down with his homemade guava juice. Although we couldn't finish it all, when he asked if we wanted some of his homemade ice creams, how could we resist - mango, guava, and sapote. The food was amazing, with great flavours in the main dishes.
It was a "well earned" afternoon off for us, with Albert and Marie visiting a sugar mill. The evening was our coldest yet, but we stuck it out for creole samosa nibbles, crab soup starter, a duck in vanilla main, PLUS the pandan in a sugar and vanilla syrup for dessert. It looked like this.....
....and tasted like nothing much in a lovely sugar and vanilla syrup!! Survival food we rated it.
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