Piton de la Fournaise Jan. 22

Here are pictures from our outing to the volcano. "Piton de la Fournaise" Most of us had already done this trek before but we wanted to come again for the boys (Steve and Tim). It's not everyday that you get to visit a volcano!
When we arrived at the parking, from where you start walking, the sky was overcast and it was sprinkling a little bit. For most of the walk we continued to have cloudy skies so no one really thought of putting sunscreen lotion. But we had to pay the price for a fun day out...Everybody ended up getting sunburnt. Any piece of exposed skin was red. All the really white people turned into red lobsters, the rest of us looked like "red Indians".
Well, inspite of all that we did have a wonderful time. We brought baguette and cheese and had our picnic lunch along the way. Because quite a few paths were closed off due to the last erruption, we weren't able to the tour of the Dolomieu crater. We took a path off to the side and followed it to the end where it was closed. It wasn't as tiring as climbing up and around Dolomieu and I think many were happy about that.

La Plaine des Sables

Steve with "Fourmica Leo" (the small red-looking crater) in the distance.

The first ones to arrive at Fourmica Leo.Steve and myself. Behind you can see faint hints of the path we came down.

Keep walking..

Steve and Sara exploring the funny rock formations.

Tim and Chris resting on a slab of volcanic rock.

Gina and Vivi enjoying the view

Here we're in some awesome cave thingie created centuries ago by some angry lava...or that's what I like to think.

My two youngest brothers, Chris and Philip, with Seb. These guys were ahead most of the hike.

I love the red!

Weird looking volcanic rock. We saw lots of this, it looks kinda gross...

View of the volcano--just before we're going to climb the stairs back up the cliff to where the cars are parked.