La Réunion

M's family live on the North-West part of La Réunion, and the volcano we hiked up (see part 4) is on the South-East side, so we'd driven all the way down and around the West coast to get there that morning. After our long hike, we drove back up and around, on the East coast this side, to see the rest of the island. Just before sundown we arrived at a place where the volcano had recently split open on the side, dumping lava onto the highway and all the way down to the beach and into the ocean; the island is still growing! This most recent activity had happened long enough ago that the lava had already been removed from the highway (and the highway repaved), but recently enough that the earth was still hot and steaming. We pulled over to take a few pictures and feel the hot earth through our sandals.

Looking uphill here, you can see lots of steam around the area where the earth had split and the lava had oozed out.

We got back in the car and P told me he wanted to show me something coming up a ways ahead. Apparently there was a church that had been in the path of one of these lava flows back in 1977, and the path of the lava had split, leaving the church unscathed; a miracle! The church is now called Notre-Dame des Laves, "Our Lady of the Lavas." I'd pictured something like a huge v-shaped lava flow with a little church situated somewhere in the middle, maybe with a small ridge conveniently placed uphill to help the lava split on the way down. Instead, what I found was a large church with a lava flow coming directly to the front door and turning sharply at two right angles, just a few feet away from the church! This was amazing; absolutely crazy. Unfortunately the scale and angles of everything made it very hard to get any pictures that tell the story well. This first picture is the church from the right side, with a view uphill on the left there. Back when the lava came down the hill, everything to the left would've been black (but is now overgrown with vegetation) and the road would be completely covered with lava. In the foreground, that's the lava that veered to the right of the church...

I'm now standing uphill of the church, facing the front door, with P for scale. On the left is the lava that veered to the left of the church, just a few feet before touching it.

I'm standing in the same place but looking a little to the right to show the other path of the lava after it split, with M for scale. In the background is the general area from where I took the first picture. That's also our car, incidentally, with D waiting inside.

I'm now just in front of the door (just off to the left). The lava forms a perfectly clear path around the perimeter of the church. I'm sure someone dug some of the lava away to leave this perfect, walkable path, but it's still pretty amazing. You can walk around the corner and all the way along the church in this little trench of lava.

In the yard next to the church there's this fantastic statue called La Vierge au Parasol, "the Virgin of the Parasol."

Next: Part 6 — Paragliding!