Gusenyuka, umusatsi wimpongo namakoti yubuzima

Stones. Magma. Lava. Gases. Sulfur. All of this awaited us on the hike to the active volcano 'Piton De La Fournaise'. But let's start from the beginning: On Tuesday, we woke up very, very early. Too early to think clearly. We had a small breakfast and made sandwiches for the journey. Outside, it was only 5 degrees Celsius, but the higher we drove, the warmer it got, and suddenly the sky was no longer covered in clouds and fog. The sun shone down on us with all its warmth. We drove straight through a sea of fog. It looked absolutely enchanting!
Then our guide stopped at a parking lot and we all got out. The volcano formed around the time the dinosaurs went extinct. There have been three collapses of the volcano since its formation. This means that the volcano collapsed three times before it remained as it is today. Additionally, there is a so-called hotspot near the volcano. Here is a brief explanation: Magma repeatedly rises up from the Earth's interior and melts the Earth's crust. This is how the volcano is formed. It is stationary, so it does not move, but will remain here forever, even if Africa might be in this spot someday.
Its magma chamber has a main vent (a passage for magma leading to the crater), which is 'no longer in use'. Countless subsidiary vents sprout from it. When the volcano erupts, the lava no longer comes out of the crater, but can come out anywhere else. But you can never know where.
The main crater is 1.2 kilometers long and 800 meters wide. I don't know how deep it is. I just know I don't want to fall in there!
By the way, since 1950, 47 eruptions have been observed. In February and April 2020, the 'Piton de La Fournaise' also erupted. So far, only one man has died, who fell into a cooling secondary crater. But he did not die because of the height, but because of the 250 degrees Celsius, which, as I said before, had not cooled down yet.
The hike lasted a total of about six hours, covering a distance of approximately 12 kilometers. We only walked on cooled lava stones. They are very sharp and also very lightweight. You can see deep cracks everywhere. These are from previous eruptions of the volcano.
Sometimes it smells very strongly of sulfur. I don't really like the smell. The whole area is full of what is called deer hair. They shimmer golden and are very rare.
They are not actually from deer, but from the lava. When it is windy, parts of the freshly erupted lava turn into thin threads. They are good for 'sprouting' (I had 4 of them) and are extremely fragile. The slightest pressure can break them. We then had lunch and took photos in one of the secondary craters. When going down, it is easy to slip on the sandy ground. That's why we walked very slowly. Nevertheless, we were at the foot of the volcano quite quickly. Now we only had to walk about two kilometers to the rock wall. And from there, climb about 160 meters up the stairs :(
It was a very impressive, albeit exhausting, experience.
After all the hiking, two days ago we just rested. The most tiring part was probably the drive to the new hotel, or rather: to the lodge. The hotel already had the word lodge in its name and was designed accordingly. Only there were no lions or elephants in the garden. Only deer appeared, sometimes even in herds.
Yesterday, we woke up early again. Once again, we didn't know where we were going. It was just strange that instead of our underwear, we were supposed to wear our swimsuits. We drove most of the time along a winding country road and then stopped at a bridge that crossed a small river. That's when we realized: We're going canyoning!
We were given a wetsuit, a life jacket, and our hiking shoes to wear. Then we walked along the river and jumped into the river from a height of about 5 meters for the first time. We slid down small waterfalls, climbed along the rock walls, jumped from rock ledges, and simply let ourselves drift comfortably. The highest jump we made was about seven meters. It was really a lot of fun, and my brother and I spent the whole afternoon in the pool (no wonder, it was 28 degrees Celsius😉).
Let's see what we will do tomorrow...