GR-G1 - Day 6 - La Soufriere

We wake up early again because we want to hike far today. The plan is to go up to the Soufriere Volcano, the biggest mountain in Guadeloupe and we were told the day before that the way up is hard and arduous.

Peeling back into the damp clothes feels disgusting but after some time in them your mind grows used to it again and then it's ok. The first part of the way is completely overgrown with ferns and it's weird to walk through this landscape. It's not exactly difficult, just uncomfortable because the stems and leaves from the plants constantly brush against you from all directions. It now really feels like we are walking through the densest of jungles, even though there is no trees overhead and we just walk through the fern equivalent of high grass.

This way continues meandering for some time, sometimes looking like there is no way, just a dense mass of plants that you have to walk through. It's interspersed with small sections of jungle and we walk along a few small waterfalls too.

Eventually we reach the second part of the way. An abandoned road that the vegetation has partially reclaimed. Plants come up through the old and broken asphalt and grow back over the road. Sometimes the road is barely visible and sometimes there is more space to walk. The rest of the way we continue to the small crater of the Cisterne volcano on this road.

Once at the Cisterne we stop and eat a little bit of food. It's been a short sweet hike and we didn't have breakfast so we combine breakfast and lunch into one. We have some crackers with sardines from a can. Like so often, food tastes the best on hikes, even if it's simple food.

The Cisterne itself is covered in a thick fog, it's cold and windy and we wear our jackets in order not to feel cold against the piercing wind. Every once in a while the clouds lift and one can see the small lake in the crater that gives this place it's name. This volcano, unlike the Soufriere, is not active anymore.

We continue walking to the Soufriere and you can already see and smell that this volcano is different. There are fumes of sulphur in the air and the color of the rock is changing. Walking through pelting rain we still stop to admire the landscape.

The vegetation on this volcano is so unique and the whole mountain is covered in so many plants that it looks amazing. I stop often to take pictures of the small details and the different species because I've never seen many of these types of plants before and with the rain they look somehow fresh and alive and beautiful.

Unfortunately the way that we wanted to walk originally is closed and only accessible for people with a trained guide and gas masks because of the sulphuric acid vents that spew forth deadly gases that erode away our lungs. Sure, we sometimes go against the rules and bypass signs that say road closed but this is too hardcore and dangerous, even for us and so we walk the long way around in the rain to the top of the volcano.

On the way to the top there are a few beautiful sights. Ruptures in the side of the mountain, where sulfurous smoke sometimes gathers or makes its way out. There are still plants there and it looks like you can easily walk there, but the big signs saying access forbidden without a guide let us think again.

The cloud cover on the top of the Soufriere is even thicker than it was at the Cisterne and you see basically nothing. All the interesting "volcanic activity stuff" is hidden behind fences with locks that you can only go through if you are with a guide. So both Rebecca and I are thinking about taking a guide up to the volcano in the future and visiting the whole volcano properly with a gas mask. Guided tours are around 50€ per Person or so and so it might really be worth it.

After a short break at the top in a small mountain shelter we take a mountain top selfie at the highest point of Guadeloupe, the Decouverte. Then we walk back down the other side of the volcano again.

The view over the horizon when the clouds part ways is beautiful. You can see the ocean and a small city in the distance.

Eventually the way back goes through the jungle again and the lighter vegetation of the volcano disappears into the dense green of the trees and ferns again. Before that we take one last look up to the mountain again which again hides behind thick clouds of rain and mist.

At the very end of our hike there is one last little surprise. A small pool with a hot spring in it called Les Bains Jaunes. Relaxing our feet and bodies in the warm waters after all these days hiking was a beautiful thing to do and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Then we hitchhiked down from the mountain again, trying to make it towards the house of Nathalie before it's getting dark. We want to get our stuff and then sleep at the beach somewhere in a tent. We stopped a little bit at a small coastal town to eat and enjoyed the view on the black sand beach and the volcano in the distance over the city.

Hitchhiking was beautiful again, we met so many awesome people. One couple even bought us something small from the bakery as a parting gift and we enjoyed all the beautiful encounters tremendously. Hitchhiking is just such a rewarding thing to do. It's simply beautiful.

The only problem was that it was getting late quickly and when we finally arrived at Nathalie's home, the sun was already setting.

To me situations like this are a bit uncomfortable, when you don't know where to stay yet, but it's already getting dark outside. Talking with Nathalie and her husband they suggested that we can sleep in Malendure. There is a small guard tower there which at night time has a small roof overhead so you don't get wet when it rains and nobody bothers you until the morning.

We took a shower at Nathalie's place too and then walked through the night toward the beach. Eating a small but beautiful dinner at the beach prepared with our little gas cooker and then climbing up over the barricade of the watch tower for the Baywatch and preparing our sleeping mattresses and sleeping bags.

Sleeping on the tower was comfortable though there were a lot of mosquitoes. However the sound of the waves and the rustling of the coconut palms kind of made up for that.