The
live volcano had been erupting for the last week and Joseph had
invited David and I to join him and his family on a trip to the south
of the island to see the area of Piton de la Fournaise and then lunch
at their favourite restaurant.
La
Fournaise, the furnace, volcano in the south east part of the island
is reported to be one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
There is a large tongue of lava which flows east into the sea called
Grande Brule, the big burn. It's been smoking and spewing ash for a
week. We saw the orange glow in the sky as we were sailing towards
the island on Wednesday morning.
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| looking over Plain des Sables towards volcano |
The
main roads which follow the coast all the way around the island are
good and fast, but as soon as you turn inland the terrain steepens,
the roads become narrower and the bends sharper. We climbed up from
the coast through prime agricultural land, plenty of cows and plenty
of farms up to the unfertile, towards the upper limits of La
Fournaise and a look out over Les Plaine des Sables, a moon like
landscape of orange dust, flat, rocky at the edges and one road
leading towards the car park closest to the volcano. Today we
stopped at this view point to gaze across the expanse, but opted not
to go further because the road further on had been closed for safety.
Again we were at about 2200m and the temperature was cool enough for
a light jumper – hard to imagine we are in the tropics.
As
we descended the warmth returned. At the restaurant there was a
small fire burning and a big crowd in for lunch. QG, Quartier
General, is owned by Abu and his brother who come originally from
Senegal. The welcome was warm, the food fabulous and portions large.
Abu's trademark Senegalese chicken dish was already sold out so I
choose a creole chicken dish, David black pudding. Chef Abu is a
friend of Joseph and came to join us after service. David commented
on Abu's hat, said he found it colourful and with that Abu jumped up
and brought one out as a present for his English guest. I shall now
insist David wears it when he makes our bread.
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| Joseph, David, Abu and me |
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| A hat for a chef! |
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