Foillsichte: 04.02.2024
On Friday, Léa and I arranged to meet Ben and Mario, two Germans who will also be staying here for some time. We wanted to go on a trip together, which I had actually already done, but then things turned out a little differently.
The planned hike was Grand Étang ("Great Lake") with the waterfalls of Bras d'Anette . We left at 9 a.m. and had breakfast when we arrived at the lake. Afterwards I felt much, much better because we had gone out for a drink the evening before and I was still feeling a bit nagging.
We started the tour around the lake to get to the waterfalls, but were abruptly stopped after about half an hour: due to the heavy rains of the last few days and weeks, the path had been completely flooded. So we turned around and just tried going the other way. After another hour and a lot of scrambling off the path, we eventually realized that we wouldn't be able to get to the waterfalls.
However, since we were determined to see another waterfall today, we simply drove to the closest one: the Cascade Biberon .
It was really beautiful there - the way to the waterfall was a 30-minute walk, with the most beautiful flowers planted around it. It seemed like you were walking through a landscaped garden that was occasionally crossed by a river.
I liked the path almost more than the waterfall itself, especially since we decided not to swim in it due to the low temperatures and just admire it from the observation deck.
There we also met a guide from the national park (the waterfall is in the Réunion National Park) who told us that in 2014 a family died when the basin suddenly flash flooded. We then talked to the guide for a while (or rather he talked to us... :D) and took a few photos.
When we got back to the car, we chatted a bit before heading home - but not without first eating a taco at Plaine-des-Palmistes . Yummy!
Overall, the day was really nice and we got along really well as a group, talked a lot and, above all, laughed a lot. A nice day despite the rather cold weather :)