Picture - at the top of Piton de la Fournaise, just after the cloud came back. We got up early in the morning to drive down to the south of the island to climb the volcano. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world so was promising to be spectacular. As we were driving up, the usual cloud come over and covered the top of the volcano. I thought that maybe we wouldn’t get to see much but we kept driving. As we neared the top and drove through some of the older calderas, it was like driving across mars. At least some of the potholes on the road were Mars sized craters. Paul didn’t come on the hike as he was recovering from the flu so I went off on my own. The trail is well marked with white painted rocks about 3 – 5 meters apart. When the fog rolls in, you just have to sight the next piece of white before you move on. As I was walking, it was at times difficult to differentiate between the white painted rocks and the white wads of toilet paper that had been left scattered on the sides of the mountain. Surprisingly, this was the only significant trash on the side of the mountain. The walk started out with very steep steps down the side of the caldera, across the caldera bottom, before starting up the side of the main crater. The landscape was incredible rock formations, solid lava flows, dotted with lava tubes and other geography that only a fresh volcano can produce. The mist came and went and when I was about 5 minutes from the top, it slowly cleared. I ran the last little bit and was there long enough to see into the crater and across the other side. This lasted for about 10 minutes and then the clouds came back with rain so that was it for the day. I felt fortunate that I was able to see what I did as so many climb up here and see only cloud and rain. With the rain, it also got very cold, I had pulled out my merino under layers for this and was very thankful I did. I saw many walking up in basic beachwear and looking decidedly miserable. It is easy to fall into some complacency when you are hanging out at the beach for the day, ensconced on a tropical island paradise, and then decide to take a stroll in the mountains. At over 9000 ft., this mountain is truly a mountain with all the weather that mountains have (except snow). Getting down the mountain was a little hard on the knees, but I made it back in good time. After a short stop at the Volcano Museum, we made it back to the boat in good time. It was certainly nice to get out and about in the mountains and exercise. If course, having sea legs, I knew I would pay for it the next day.