Fail Week and the Completion Thereof

Guess. Just GUESS where I went this weekend!
I'll give you a couple of clues...

It's not China; it's not Fern Gulley; it's not the scene of the first Twilight film. But it does look like all of the above! After a very unsuccessful first attempt at hiking last weekend, and really a very unsuccessful week as a whole, Kira and I dashed out of class a few minutes early yesterday as Mme Gautier went on about "stardust amidst the sumptuous serenity" in Translation Theme Litteraire, and caught the 12:35 bus up and out of Saint Denis. With our packs, hiking shoes, and itinerary ready to go, we approached the Roche Ecrite (Written Rock) National Park, sans failure.

For the first REAL hike of my life, I proudly announce that A. I made it! and B. It was awesome.

La Roche Ecrite is a 2270-meter-high viewpoint over the entire Cirque de Salazie, along with a nifty glance into most of Mafate and as a perk, the trail allowed for a pretty impressive panorama of the northern coast of the island. [The interior of the island is made up of three "cirques," or geological ampitheaters created 200,000 years ago by an extinct volcano.]

So yes... we trekked through quite the terrain: through bamboo, tamarins, and all other kinds of incredible vegetation, over mud, rocks, clay, makeshift boardwalks over muddy rocky clay, slats of eroded dried lava, and under, over, and around all sorts of trees, trees, and more trees.

To make sure and arrive at the viewpoint in the early part of morning so as not to risk cloud-cover disrupting the sight, we hiked the first 2.5 hours yesterday afternoon to a Gite de la Montagne: a little dormatory-style cabin high up in the mountains. We went to bed early and got up at 5 this morning to prepare our excited little selves for the remaining 1.5 hours to the top. Too bad we had to wait until 6 for the silly sun to illuminate the path enough to hike. Nonetheless, by 7:30 I was gasping for breath from the steep climb, only to arrive at the top and have all remaining traces of said breath taken away by the incredible view.


The descent was a workout as well, carefully watching our footing on the slippery trail. On the way down, we came across MANY runners, (yes! Running!) supposedly training for the Grand Raid, an annual race through the island covering something like 150km and 9000 meters of elevation change that takes place each October. One of these runners thoughtfully told me "Faites attention: ca glise." Oh really? Hmm... I didn't know it was slippery... I haven't already climbed up and halfway back down or anything....

Anyway, we got back to the trail head at Mamode Camp at noon and let our muscles rest/spaz while we ate what remained of our packed food. As we began to finish off the hike by taking the 45-minute path back to the bus stop at Brule, a car full of hikers we'd passed early this morning offered us a ride back to town. Thanks to them, we were within a mile of campus by the time we SHOULD have been getting on the first of two buses home. Glory! Fail week, officially over!