The route
Drive up to the Maïdo on the forest road from Le Guillaume, above Saint-Paul, towards Petite France. The trail leaves from the roadside, at the start of the Roche Plate path, a little before the viewpoint car park. The National Park lists a Kar'Ouest bus line to the "Sentier du Maïdo" terminus, but no bus goes up early enough for the sunrise.
A first stretch leads to Ti Col, on the edge of the rampart. There, leave the descent towards La Brèche and Roche Plate on your right and take the Sentier du Rempart de Mafate on the left. It goes down a few steps of earth and planks, then runs almost flat through the heath, as close to the edge as it gets. It crosses bare patches used as take-off areas by paragliders, and a mountain-bike track runs alongside in places: stay on the waymarked path. The ups and downs are never steep.
The view takes in almost the whole cirque: the Calumets ridge, Roche Plate, La Nouvelle, Marla and the Grand Bénare at the back, and, straight below, the three parts of Îlet des Orangers. To the west you see the coast and the town of Le Port. The Piton des Orangers itself barely stands out from the rampart, except for the ridge that drops towards the Orangers. A path forks right after the summit, towards a prayer cave and the hamlet: it is acrobatic and not recommended. You come back the same way.
The plants tell of the altitude and of the fires. The small tamarin des Hauts gives way to green and white heather, a high-altitude heath the Park calls "ericoid". "Maïdo" is said to come from Malagasy and to mean "burnt land". The great fires of 2010, of 2011, which swept over more than 2,600 ha from 25 October, and of November 2020 left the ground to European gorse, an invasive plant the Park has been pulling up since 2024 in a restoration project. On the cliffs between the Maïdo and the Grand Bénare lives the Réunion green day gecko, an endangered species.
Good to know
The Park advises setting off very early, around 6 am: clouds take the rampart from late morning, above all in the rainy season, and in the dry season the Maïdo often floats above a sea of clouds. At sunrise it is cold above 2,000 m: bring a warm layer. The sun is intense even under cloud, there is no shade and no water, and the wind shifts fast on the ridge. The trail is in the core of the National Park: no fires, and don't build or add to cairns. The Maïdo road closes from time to time, notably during the Grand Raid in mid-October. RandoMafate shows ONF closures and the weather for the day before you drive up to the Maïdo, keeps the map offline when the fog swallows the edge, 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
