Reunion Island

If there’s a place of reference when it comes to talking about the descent of canyons, that’s the Reunion Island. It’s an enclave in the Pacific Ocean which belongs to the French overseas territories, traditionally identified as the Mecca of canyonism or even named by some as the Himalaya of canyonism. When it comes to talking about the “Trou de fer”, some people have named it the Everest of ravines.

Given the distance and the compromise of the descents in the programme, we offer you a combination of canyonism with mountain, so we can seize the journey and know the island, performing the move from one zone to another through the mount, performing the ascension to the highest point of the island, the Piton des Neiges with 3,070 metres high.

Knowing the island and its ravines, we have made a list of descents, choosing the most attractive and representatives ones so the journey can be as productive as possible.

 Programme

This is the most ambitious programme we offer and its chronology it’s the one shown down below:

• Day 1: Departure from Spain
• Day 2: Arrival to Saint Denis and accommodation.
• Day 3: Rivière des Roches V3 A5 III: Aquatic descent with several jumps, slides and a final 18 metres rappel that some fearless people dare to jump.
• Day 4: Trou Blanc V3 A5 III: It’s the most commercial descent in the Island. It’s a natural aquapark with plenty of jumps and slides, with amazing rappels, some of which have access with handrails. A complete ravine that will take us one journey.
• Day 5: Transfer to the Bèlouve cottage-shelter to perform the approximation until the Piton des Neiges cottage-shelter. During this journey, we will go by car until the Bèlouve shelter to march until the Pitón des neiges shelter, where we will sleep to make the ascension next day.
• Day 6: Ascension to the Piton des neiges, 3.070 metres high and descent to Cilaos. We will perform the ascension to the highest point of the island which is about two hours from the shelter, then we will descent until the roadway through the south side of the mountain to the Cilaos cirque, place where some of the most-known ravines of the island can be found such as Bras Rouge and Fleurs Jaunes.
• Day 7: Fleurs Jaunes V4 A4 IV: Without a doubt it’s the most photographed ravine in the world thanks to a Petzl catalogue in which it was included. It’s a complete descent which combined with la Chapelle will be one of the greatest descents of the island. Complete journey that we can finish by eating a sandwich in “Snack la Chapelle”. Rappels from 50 to 70 metres, slides and jumps will make of this descent a memorable day.
• Day 8: Bras Rouge V5 A4 V. Hard descent that we can minimize performing its middle or inferior part. Complete descent that we will remember because of its technical difficulties but also because of the colour of its upwelling, that dye the rocks in an intense red.
• Day 9: Transfer to Plan des palmistes and recovery journey. Given the intensity of the trip, we will use this journey to move to the village of Plan des palmistes, from where we will start next day to perform the final descent of the trip. We can have a calm journey doing tourism and visiting Saint Pierre, where we can have a bath in the sea since its one of the few zones of the island where it’s permitted thanks to its coral barrier, which maintains sharks away from the beach; or if you still have energy, we will visit the Piton de la Fournaise volcano, which is normally active in this season so we can admire this natural event that won’t let us unmoved.
• Day 10: Takamaka I, V5 A6 IV: It’s the most beautiful and complete descent of the island. Even if we talked about the Trou de Fer and the referral ravine of the island, since many years ago, the Takamaka I is considered as the most complete ravine. It’s a major descent and it’s necessary to make an effort to complete it within a journey. Its first section with three verticals from up to 130 metres like the corridor after the mini “Trou de Fer” will make of this descent the greatest adventure that we can imagine in this island. Big rappels, jumps, slides and compromise are the identity of this ravine that won’t allow us to relax until the way back, which will lead us to a path among the jungle where we will use the rest of our force.
• Day 12: Reserve day
• Day 13: Journey back to Spain
• Day 14: Arrival to Spain

*The descent of the Trou de Fer can be planned as an option. For those who want to and are ready to perform this descent with bivouac included.