The
cirque of
Mafate is one of my favourite places on
Reunion Island, and Aurere has to be one of my favourite places in the cirque.
First a few statistics about
Mafate - with a surface area of 103.5 km2 it's the second largest of Reunion's three
cirques after
Cilaos. It's lowest point is 115 metres (at the
Rivière des Galets river bed) and it's highest point is 2991 metres (the
Gros Morne).
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| Mafate |
All access, including for supplies, is by foot or helicopter - there is no road, but there are about 140km of hiking paths which allow inhabitants (and visitors!) to get about. 710 inhabitants live in about 10 different hamlets, known locally as îlets. Aurere is one of these îlets.
Starting at Bord Martin (1552 m) just after lunch on the first day, we hiked along a path I know well and which is called the Sentier Scout. As Aurere is at 931 metres altitude most of the trail head downhill over a distance of 8.45 km (although the ups and downs of the path mean you actually hike 318 metres uphill over its whole course). It took us about 3 1/2 hours, which is fairly average for the trail.
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| view of Le Port and Piton Cabri (1435m) from Sentier Scout |
At this time of year, above 1000 metres the scent of Ginger Lilies (Hedychium gardnerianum) is very strong. Unfortunately there are so many that they are an invasive species, choking local fauna.
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| Ginger Lilies are known locally as Longose |
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| Piton Cabri (left) with Aurere at its foot |
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| Ilet à Bourse (left) from the Sentier Scout |
The Sentier Scout passes a place called La Plaque (890m) where there is a mountain
gîte called L'Arbre du Voyageur and an intersection which leads to an
îlet called Ilet à Bourse and eventually La Nouvelle. This was not our direction today however, and further on our path we pass through an îlet called Ilet à Malheur (840m).
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| Ilet à Malheur (red-roofed building is the church) |
After Ilet à Malheur a footbridge crosses a narrow but deep ravine known as Bras Bemale (710m).
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| Bras Bemale, looking east |
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| Bras Bemale, looking west |
After Bras Bemale a steep but fairly short climb leads you to Aurere.
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| Ilet à Malheur seen from Aurere |
Aurere has a population of 80-90 people and has a shop, a bar, and three
gîtes: Georget Boyer, François Libelle and Charlemagne Libelle. For most previous trips we've stayed at the latter, but this time we stayed at Francois Libelle's gîte.
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| accommodation, gîte François Libelle |
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| the gîte, with Piton Cabri in the background |
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| sleeping quarters |
We had a lovely sunset which seemed to cover the whole sky.
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| looking east |
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| looking north-west, Piton Cabri to the left |
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| looking south-west, towards Maïdo and Grand Benare |
The name Aurere supposedly comes from the Malagasy word orera, meaning "good earth". It was first settled in the 1780s.
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| centre of Aurere |
The next morning we (unfortunately!) had to leave Mafate and return home (already!), but were able to return via a hiking path that we'd never taken before: the Sentier Augustave.
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| sentier in French means (hiking) path or trail |
Although I've done a lot of hiking in Mafate I'd never taken this particular path as it was closed for many years (too dangerous), and only reopened a few years ago, while we were living in
South Korea. It's been extensively renovated to make it safe for hikers.
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| leaving Aurere behind |
The first part of the path is fairly flat, and follows a water pipeline, called the
canalisation Augustave, which carries water to Aurere from the Augustave spring.
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| typical section of the path near Aurere |
The following photos of Mafate landscape are probably my favourites from the hike:
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| sign next to the 20-metre long Marianne footbridge |
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| another section of the path; there are also some ladders |
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| small waterfall |
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| an old bivouac next to the path |
There are a lot of river passages in the second part of the hike, which also becomes steeper. The latter part of the hike (when going uphill) is through a gully called Ravine Savon. As savon means 'soap' in French you invariably think 'slippery' and the ravine might well have taken its name from this!
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| one of the many river crossings |
In the end it took us about 4 hours to arrive back at Bord Martin, where we'd left our cars.
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| Finish (or start - depending in which direction you're hiking!) |
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| cirque of Salazie seen from Bord Martin |
LinksThere's not much information in English about hiking in Mafate but here's a few links which might come in useful:
If you liked this, you might like:
by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
by Geneviève Dormann is an interesting novel about life in Mauritius' Franco-Mauritian community. And Irene Frain's
