42. Contribution - Grand Bénare

This Wednesday I left the house at 4:30 a.m. to do a hike that has been on my to-do list for a very, very long time: the Grand Bénare.

Nora (Belgian) as well as Léo and Mathis were waiting for me at the university. I didn't know either of them before, but they are on the same bachelor's program as Nora.

We headed west to enjoy the sunrise on the Maïdo. Even though I've already seen it twice, it was magical. All the colors literally explode before your eyes and it looks different every minute.

Two other friends of Nora, Léo and Mathis, joined us here, who I also didn't know, but who were also very nice :)

At around 6:45 we continued with the actual activity of the day - the hike. This starts right at Maïdo and was really very, very beautiful. We had a phenomenal view of Mafate the whole time, because it was so early there were no clouds in the sky and the temperature was very pleasant.

The hike was really relaxed at the beginning, there were steep climbs every now and then, but these were interrupted by regular flat sections, which made it really fun. Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy the view the whole time, because my hiking companions were obviously motivated to be athletic and rushed up the mountain a little too quickly (for me) :D

The last hour of the climb was really hard for me. Because we had been going at breakneck speed the whole time before and it was really steep uphill from then on, I was really physically exhausted. On top of that, the ground was just a mixture of rocks and gravel, which made it extremely exhausting to make progress. And on top of that (yes, I'm looking for excuses), I hadn't eaten anything, hadn't drunk enough and was sick.

But no matter, after an hour of struggle I finally reached the summit cross at almost 3000m and was properly rewarded: the view was amazing!

At the top of the summit (the third highest on La Réunion, by the way) we ate a little and took a break, and then we went back down the whole annoying gravel path :D

In general, the descent was unfortunately not that nice, the clouds had come up and you could see absolutely nothing anymore, the path was really difficult to descend and also much more boring than the ascent, since we had taken a slightly different route.

But no matter, we had a good chat and laughed a lot. After a total of 5 hours of walking, we had successfully completed the hike. To give you an idea of how quickly we were moving: it was actually supposed to take 7 hours.

My feet and knees were incredibly sore and I was totally exhausted, but that didn't stop me from going to play beach volleyball in the evening. Unfortunately, I couldn't really play because my knee wasn't particularly happy about having to bend all the time again.

In the evening I watched a film with Léa and then went to bed, dead tired.

I think this hike is one of my favorites so far, although next time I would like to take more time to enjoy the view.