Sure Travel Journey 5.4 Spring 2019 | Page 40

STJ 5.4
ADVENTURE
SPECIAL EDITION
SPRING 2019
GOING WITH THE FLOW
RÉUNION ISLAND IS LACED WITH A NETWORK OF CRISSCROSSING LAVA TUBES
THAT RUN BENEATH ITS SURFACE. TEAGAN CUNNIFFE WALKED THEIR LENGTHS
TO ENTER AN OTHERWORLDLY LANDSCAPE
I held my hand in front of my eyes and
blinked slowly. I saw nothing. It felt like
a blank, black disk had slipped over my
eyeballs, cutting me off from light. The
floor was gritty and cold under our backs,
but the air was warm and comfortable.
Water dripped steadily from the ceiling
of the lava tunnel. The weight of the
darkness took on a physical quality,
pressing us downwards; we lay in silence
in the womb of the Earth.
Réunion Island was formed through
multiple volcanic activities from a hot
spot in the Earth’s crust around five
million years ago. Lava pushed up,
gradually building a towering volcanic
massif that now reaches 7000m from the
“
Some of these
tubes run for
kilometres in length,
often big enough to
stand upright in but
sometimes too narrow
to crawl through
“
© ADOBESTOCK
40 // MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE
ocean floor. The top three percent of this
cone is what we know as Réunion Island.
Originally a French colony, Réunion is
226 kms from its neighbour, Mauritius.
Both are fiercely proud of their mixed
Creole, French, Malay, African and Indian
cultural heritage but are very different in
identity. In Réunion, Jurassic landscapes
draw the active traveller keen on hiking
and exploring rather than sipping
cocktails on the beach. Twisting roads
lead to high, sharp mountain peaks
and lush forests dissected by tumbling
waterfalls, but the biggest attraction
is its volcanoes.
There are two volcanoes on Réunion
Island: the now-extinct Piton des Neiges
and the younger Piton de la Fournaise.
The latter is the third most active volcano
in the world, with its last recorded
eruption in 2007.
When a basaltic shield volcano like
Piton de la Fournaise erupts, it does so
with a grand show. Lava pours down its
sides in thick veins, heading towards the
ocean, where it meets crashing waves
in hissing combat. When the eruption
abates, the outside of these magma
flows cools and forms a thickening crust.
The inside, however, remains molten