The route
The start is the car park of the salle multimédia, rue des Thermes, to the left of the church roundabout in Cilaos. Without a car, Alternéo bus line 60 runs from the Saint-Louis bus station up to the "Cilaos Ville" stop.
Follow the white and red waymarks of the GR R2, which go down a flight of steps to the Sentier des Porteurs. Soon after the start you pass the "Ti Bon Dié" wayside shrine, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Expeditus. The hot springs were found in 1815 by Paulin Técher, a goat hunter. In 1836 the engineer Ferrière began a path to take spa-goers to the baths, and the ravine nearby now bears his name. Until the road opened in 1932, visitors were carried up from Saint-Louis in sedan chairs. The porters then carried them between the village and the old baths until 1965, and one of these chairs is on display at the Maison du tourisme.
The path opens onto the Grand Bénare, at 2,898 m, the Piton de Sucre, the points of the Col du Taïbit and the Nez de Bœuf. In the distance, the Ravine Ferrière waterfall drops about a hundred metres. You cross a footbridge, then follow the road to the left of the old baths. Destroyed several times, notably by the 1948 cyclone, they ran until 1987, when the current spa, Irénée Accot, opened in the village. A sign reads "Cascade du Bras Rouge 45 mn".
The path then crosses several ravines, passes under an arch of boulders fallen from the Piton des Neiges and follows the gorge to the Bras Rouge waterfall. A rock slab on the left gives a view of it. The river owes its name to the rust-coloured deposits of its iron-rich hot springs. The warm pools upstream now lie buried under rockfall. Along the way, the Park points out the bois rouge, a poisonous tree, an orchid, *Cynorkis purpurascens*, and the Réunion Sylvan, an endemic butterfly that is critically endangered. You come back the same way, climbing a little over 300 m to the village.
Good to know
The walk is easy, but it crosses several ravines, and the river rises very fast in the rain: don't set off in the rain, and turn back if it comes. At the waterfall, the rock slabs polished by floods are extremely slippery: stay on the path and keep children close. Swimming is not supervised, and the regional health agency (ARS) warns that fresh water carries a risk of leptospirosis, above all in the rainy season. No drinking water is listed on the way: carry your own. RandoMafate shows ONF closures and the weather for the day before you set off, keeps the map offline at the bottom of the gorge, and the people close to you follow your outing on a simple web page.
Plan this hike in RandoMafate
The trail map offline, elevation to the metre, ONF closures and the weather for the day, and the people close to you told when you set off and when you are back.
RandoMafate
