Daybreak reveals an otherworldly landscape. Stretching ahead is a rocky floor broken with small cones and craters. Along the path, steam rises from the sites of previous eruptions. My friend tells me that it's only pools of rainwater evaporating from the heat of cooling lava, but I'm not comforted. Hikers are the only living things visible on this rocky tableau.
Eruptions come every few months .
Lava usually spouts for a few days from a vent on the volcano's side. The ground slopes slightly to the east, so the lava oozes for hundreds of yards. If the eruption is large enough, it reaches a steep slope and marches several miles to the shore, where it sizzles into the sea. This was how Reunion was born 5 million years ago, and this is how it continues to grow.