Early start today at 7am, I was picked up by the 4x4 company, with no English guide. This did not bother me as I never usually listen to guides and I really only wanted the transport out to the volcano, La Piton de la Fournaise, literally, the Furnace.

We drove for about an hour and entered the national park, we stopped at the first viewing area which was already above the cloud bank. I looked over at huge mountains and looked around my immediate area and saw cloud floating around even where I was standing.

We then went to view the lava fields, what a sight….a huge expanse of just nothing. We finally reached the rim of the outer crater and looked down into it. There was another smaller crater in there which was the main active crater. As I do not speak French and everyone just seemed to be hanging around, I decided to attempt to get down to the main crater. I didn't come all this way to stand at the top, look down and say Gee that looks cool!

I hiked over to the walk down the crater, which took about 20 minutes going down into the crater, but I was kidding myself if I thought it would take that long to get back up. It was all jagged steps! Visions of Mt Sinai flashed before my eyes and I shuddered, remembering how hard that climb had been.

I ran over cooled magma and up to the active crater, once there I climbed to the top and looked in. It felt great to be standing in some place so wild. I spent a little time there before heading back up. Though not before Teddy and I took lots of pictures.

On the way back up I met the guide who had come looking for me. I used the no French excuse, he didn't seem that phased. I had to hurry up and ended up really puffed out, but as always when you see through something worthwhile a great sense of accomplishment follows. I made it back to the group and then headed for the next stop, which was an old church in the town of St Rose. Inside showed the 14 stations of the cross on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, which I've actually walked. How odd to find them depicted here, and I wonder how many of the others actually knew what they were looking at.

After that we went to the other volcano on the island for a quick look, this ones actually dormant. The guide then showed us another active crater and the most recent lava flows. We put out hands over the rocks on the ground to feel the heat rising from the vents. It was then I realized what I was being shown, this whole island is covered in these vents, the place is covered in volcanic features!

We were then taken up a winding bumpy road to a restaurant to have lunch. We were served traditional Creole food, which I didn't particularly like and after lunch I had a cup of tea, or rather a bowl of tea and the guides played a guitar and sang traditional songs which was pretty cool.

After lunch we made a final shopping stop at a vanilla shop at St Phillipe and were then taken back to our respective hotels. I spent the long way back listening to my ipod, feeling the wind in my hair and marveling at how much I'm enjoying my freedom.