One or more days canyons?

If the main goal of your holiday is canyoning, get organised to descend long canyons, with two or more days descents. One day long gorges (at least the ones we descended which should be the most beautiful according to the information we collected) are really remarkable but not more beautiful than many others in Europe. If your holiday is a "multipurpose" one, like ours was, canyoning is anyway something you must plan.

Seasons and sun light

In July daylight lasts for about 12 hours and the sunset is about at 6 p.m. The weather is often very beautiful in the morning but during the afternoon it may becomes cloudy and it could slightly rain.

Blue / green / red canyons

This is the canyons classification reported on the Colas guide, depending on the environment. During the dry season do not face blue canyons because they are dry and even full of "mephitic" pools. The only attempt we made (Divon) ended up after two rope descents. Red canyons, as well as green ones, seems to offer the right conditions for canyoning; in the green canyons there may be problems with the flow, even if in the only one we descended there were seaweed on the pools bottom. Surely eastern coast green canyons have stronger flows than the ones in Cilaos or Mafate.

Accesses and returns

The paths we rid, also during trekking, were perfectly marked and maintained. The paths timings reported on signs and on the guide were always quite reliable or even abundant.

Shuttles

Near Cilaos we didn’t have any problem in hitchhiking (we even got a lift while we were still on the return track, with a simple sign). Hitchhiking seems to be a very common way of moving on the island (only by men…) even if we didn’t do it far from Cilaos.

High falls

Almost every canyon has split descents on rope. Due to the remarkable flow during the rainy season, bolts are always in uncomfortable positions and not easy to find. Besides, we found out a few errors in the data pertinent to the falls lengths reported on the Colas guide (see our technical data). Then you have to be aware that the first who descend must be even more careful then usually and prepared to rise up along the rope.

Information

A good advice is to collect ALWAYS any kind of information before moving. Because of the poor frequenting and the violent flows during the rainy season it’s always impossible to be sure about what you are going to face inside a canyon.

For maps and guides:
- MAISON DE LA MONTAGNE in St. Denis.
For canyoning:
- REUNION SENSATIONS in ST.GILLES; the girl, Natalie, is kind and qualified and as soon as she understand that you are able to practice canyoning by yourself she doesn’t try to sell you any organised tour.
- RIC ŕ RIC in CILAOS (Reunion Sensations business rivals); they usually reshuffle the figures of Pascal Colas and his friends and, besides, the cool chief EMERIC gives updated information.

In point of fact, for canyoning near Cilaos it's better to settle down for a few days. For canyoning near Mafate, the most comfortable settlement is the seaside area of St. Paul / St. Gilles. For canyoning near Salazie and in the east, it's up to you: it's even possible to settle near the beaches if you want to spend on the lagoon your days of relax.

St. Denis hospital (CHD)

Go there for any kind of problem you may have: faultless service (almost with an excess of zeal) and ultra modern structures ...and we’ve been there for just a simple dysentery!