The departure
Foresail
Being gone(taken) up towards Kervéguen
This story arises from a text which I got back on Internet, some months ago, and I did not regrettably keep(guard) the coordinates of the author of this story, nor the address of its site: thanks to that (that) who, by reading this very detailed(retailed) story (that I reproduced textuellement without changing it the slightest comma), can put me in touch with this competitor: I shall hurry then to join him(it) to congratulate him(it) and thank him(it) and... Ask him(her) for his(her) license to keep(preserve) this text on this site...
Before the Departure
We had planned to leave with the bus chartered by the organization, since Saint Denis.
But it had some unpleasant consequences:
One could not offer himself a small sleep before the departure
It was necessary to lower(go down) dices 23 hours from our lodging house in St Denis's suburb (Camellias) to be from the bus fixed at 23. 45 to Barachois, the bus station.
One arrived at Langevin at 2 o'clock in the morning, and it(he) stayed 2 hours in poireauter on the stage(stadium) before the departure fixed at 4 o'clock
We preferred to travel quietly on THURSDAYS MORNINGS, to go to the family to St LEU, make(do) two good substantial meals and eat very early in the evening, prick a good sleep from 19 o'clock till 1 o'clock (or simply to nap), be taken in car for an arrival on the stage(stadium) at about 3 o'clock in the morning.
Noted: At 2 o'clock in the morning, more no concern of corks, that runs(drives) cool!
One parks so in at least 500 m of the Stage(stadium), on the main road, in front of the " balance with sticks ".
It is enough to follow the crowd to succeed at the stage of LANGEVIN, quite close to the sea...
After the formalities of recording (and serious control of the compulsory things, with marking, and YES!) passage in the warm drinks, kind(genre) coffee(cafe) or chocolate (having seen croissants nor a brioche, I can not call it, in good French, a Breakfast!)
Then passage in toilet to free(release) some superfluous grams (one is not the only ones, that crowds a little ). This place being close to the line, quite a lot of people (so we too), take advantage of it to be made an unforgettable photo " WE THE CHAMPIONS In YOUR MARKS(BRANDS), LOANS, please , LEAVE! "
Completion of gourds(clots) (the water is the most precious element of the raider), the last check of the bag and the lamp, everything is OK.
As many of the other lads, one extends over the lawn of the stage(stadium), the eyes in stars, because it is sweet, the time is serene, and one listens or looks at the musical group which drums to whom better better the ségas and maloyas.
Finally, the fateful hour approaches, people get up and begin to agglutinate meadows of the line. The stage(stadium) looks like now an immense funnel.
How our ambitions are modest, we stay very wisely in the last lines, or one still inhales little, without being pressed as tinned sardines!
PIECE ALLOCATES HIM(IT)! We shall never see first ones' hundreds which rush at top speed in the neck of the funnel of the departure, then then in the street from 5 to 8 m of wide.
I believed that one would have needed that the dozens minutes to sell the 1800 participants (+ those of the MINI-RAID which are with a blue shirt), and that one would walk(work) on feet for a long time.
But not, the crowd of the runners passes very fast by, our row moves off one or two minutes later, we scroll(march past) between the hedges of supporters(supports).
Each follows close of the shadow which precedes him(it). We walk in very deep speed(look), can be 6 km / hour.
The road leaves the city, winds through the fields of sticks, and very sweet sloping horsemanship. It is still dark, but the dawn clocks(points,sticks) its nose; useless to light(switch on) the lamp permanently, the lamp of the neighbour is enough to mark out the road (EDITOR'S NOTE: but if everybody says himself the same thing(matter)?).
Certain, rather numerous in the final, confide a big or small need, we double shadows which amuse themselves to the right or to the left and spray one foot of stick.
The others feel wings and double us in the trot.
2 hours later, us Here we are, in the small ball(groupe) of tail, at the school PAYET towards 648m of height. The water pours in profusion, no problems to fill up of running. There are some bars of cereal to be nibbled, but the mass of the first ones has already swiped the best.
This will be moreover a general observation; either the organization did not foresee in sufficiency, either the first ones ransack completely stands in ALL the posts of provisioning; but I notice that almost everywhere, when one is in the last quarter of the small ball(groupe), there is not more than raisins (mixture typifies aperitif with slices of dry bananas) to put itself under the tooth; but in March, either Nuts or the others, I have never seen it.
To there, we teamed up with my son. But it(he) takes its(his) flight, and it(he) will take gradually a more and more important advance on me.
Being gone(taken) up towards Foresail Foresail 
The road starts dry in ascent, then the hillside becomes quieter. No grand sight, the road is set between tight rows of guavas hanging several kilometres; no fruit at this time of year, but if we were in June, which delight it would be! One begins to cross people sat(based) at the edge of the path, those that started too fast and that have a blow of pump. The others double you, in particular the expresses of the Mini Raid
I catch not being tired, while the height increases, on 1500 m, then 2000 m, the landscape changes, the famous " shake heights " less and less high surround us.
Watch the consumption of water, not to exhaust its too fast reserve.
I had been prevented(warned) by a person met in the, Written Cliff three in the daytime previously, when this stage of 12 km and 1600 m of ascent, without provisioning, was painful for the drink; so, besides my gourd(clot) of 1 liter, I had in supplement a plastic bottle of ½ liter.
The sun begins to type hardly.
Finally me post(post office) N 3 of the waybill here is at about 10. 30 in FORESAIL - FORESAIL: 6. 30 of walking for 20 KM and on 2200 M of ascent.
The same tune for the food, fortunately as I have my small personal stock of bars of cereal, dried fruits and fruit jellies in my rucksack, to vary the common of the organization.
But big problem: MORE water with FORESAIL - FORESAIL; one waits for the 4x4! Some wait for more than 15 minutes; I I would have only 10 mn of wait(expectation).
I take advantage of it to go to lengthen(stretch out) me aside, by trying to put my emptied head (and yes, have him(it) to you I said? I am one certain age old, and in more than 50 years, the old skull looks like a quite new egg) in the shadow; I like my ease and I put as well my petons small in the air(sight), that(as) it is pleasant to relax the feet by airing them in the sun, with the head in the shadow under a shrub!
Here is the 4x4 which(who) arrives, 50 persons rush to obtain a glass of water, then to fill(perform) its bowl.
After some minutes of tail, me here is left, in the hot heat of the edge of the Volcano
At about 12 o'clock, here is finally the immense camp of reception of the Volcano, with computer control, the heaps of cars, the supporters(supports) (or supplementary assistance(audience) for the big heads).
Luckily, the masseurs are not extended beyond any more, and I find a free of it which is going to mass(massage) me friendly the left(awkward) calf, or I felt a light contraction.
I would stay there only big half an hour, the corner(place) has nothing to hold(retain) the lazy person who slumbers in us.
Here the water sets itself in the "barrel", namely in the bottom of a big lorry cistern of fire brigades. As she(it) pours easily, some the head, the arms or the legs wastes her(it) to drink.
Of the plain of Sands with Puddle with mud
Departure right in the sun of noon, for a new stage through the Plain of Sands; many have of to run(roam) on these practically flat and sandy 2 or 3 km. I walking I learnt(taught), by a conversation with another walker (at the end of the raid), that one of its friends, very sports, who had left for making(doing) the raid in 25 hours, had even crashed down here, by running(roaming) it(he) was made silly one hooks paws, fell, injured itself the knee, and it(he) abandoned towards the Hook TEXTOR with a swelled big knee as "that"!
In this long straight(right) line, one tries to fix far off those that rise in the wall, and one looks from time to time behind to see some last ones who follow you.
I reaches(affects) the highlight of the raid, the Oratory saint - Thérèse (2411m) at about 13 o'clock
As every after noon, the sky covers itself gradually; it is already grey completely in the Hook Textor; the mist rises at top speed of the fault of the river Langevin. It is the striking spectacle, for me who am used to this vision.
Then, it is the cool descent by a wide path that crosses the meadows of the Plain of cafres; there are numerous passages of scales(ladders) in every clearing of a fence(close). I had succeeded a group rhythm of which was convenient for me, but I went away from it, on one hand because of the dust of the road (it is funny quant I made(did) him(it) 10 years ago the other way around with my wife, it was quite muddy!) and because these scales(ladders) generate mini corks, useless to agglutinate in some at feet of these scales(ladders).
The dirt track becomes then, as it is often regrettably the case in our plains of Picardy, a tarred road of farm, on more than 4 km, what I appreciate in no way. I hate walking(working) on some tar with my shoes of drive(ride) (rising SALOMON X-trick, no ADVERTISEMENT PLEASE); this tar continues up to the control point of PUDDLE In MUD.
At the present time, very few spectators along the main road, they all left, the champions are past there is indeed for a long time. Moreover, in my small head, I calculate that they are probably in the top of the WRITTEN CLIFF, it is there not incredible?
So, it is more than 16 o'clock when I arrive at MARE-A-BOUE's camp, and I here is reached in 1/3 of the route(course) (in distance)
Although it is 16 o'clock, you will not believe him(it), one gargantuan spectacle offers itself to me: I confide a good small raging hunger, instigated by the vision of two magnificent barbecues where roast beautiful thighs of chicken.
It is the only place or I would eat a true and good meal, tasty, with very warm rice and meat, with TWO magnificent well roasted thighs of chicken!.
And as about fifteen peaceful walkers and mentally retarded children as me in this place, we eat spread(widened) in the green herb of the prairie, dreaming beyond the grey clouds, to the beaches which wait for us next week.
Being gone(taken) up towards Kervéguen
This finished complete meal, more these some minutes of rest lengthened(stretched out) in the herb, then the pointing in the exit(release), I here is left(restarted) on a pleasant road in sweet ascent.
Considering the hour, and of the fear of finding me alone in the Thin Hillside, I get closer to a first walker, with whom I would make(do) common road only the small hour, because after a departure on a steady rhythm, she(it) slows down strongly, while I keep(preserve) a correct cadence.
The night falls in a rough way in the MEETING, there is no long twilight as in France: dices the disappearance of the sun behind the ocean, the luminosity falls, from 18. 15. Then abruptly from 18. 30 till 18. 45, it makes(does) very dark, then at black night (no star this day there, the sky was covered).
So, little before the Thin Hillside, I make friends with another walker crossed on the edge of the road, more a little farther with lad. This lady, who should have the number N 441 and be called Marianne SALLIER (if my recollections are exact, because I reconstituted it afterward according to different indications, as a good cop) will recognize if I have the luck(chance) that she consults Internet; it is about a Parisian, come with her husband (Prof. of gym I believe) and some friends to make(do) the raid.
The raid is the occasion of meetings of fate, useful to furnish the solitude and especially for enter to help and to support itself in the difficulty, the delicate passages, the moments of weakness.
So, for three, we crossed(spent) the first real difficulty: the THIN HILLSIDE, by the cause of several elements: it's dark black and we walk(work) in the lamp; it(he) falls a drizzle which obliges us to take out Kway (and especially, for me who am nearsighted, who wet my glasses and blur me the sight), the path covers itself with stones and with muddled roots (so wet, so slippery!) it(he) plays not bad roller coasters, and finally there are the famous "SCALES("LADDERS") (I do not remember any more how much, between 5 and 10 I overestimate). Being most by going down(falling), and to lower(go down) one scale(ladder) in the night, it is bigrement more annoying than to rise it of day. We result finally in the tray(plateau), and some(however) minutes later, us here is finally, with a big sigh of satisfaction, in the camp of the HILLSIDE KERVEGUEN.
It is 20 o'clock, the reception is there warm, and warm, a beautiful campfire allows us to resume life and to dream some minutes with a cup of warm liquid in hand (chocolate or soup?). I discovered(found) that the soup, the kind(genre) ROYCO in vermicelli, was the mostly available flat(dish) in the raid, and the easiest(most well-to-do) to gulp down, while being indeed reconstituting (but naturally, the n-iéme time, it will become boring and one would like the other variety show(varieties) and the other savours of boiling soup)
In some metres, under a cover of fortune, six walkers are spread(widened) on campbeds, under a coverage, and seem to sleep. It amazes me. I believe to understand(include) that it is about exhausted people, or having a muscular problem.
A wet drizzle continues to fall, and dices that one deviates from the fire, a small shudder takes you.
Useless to be lying about(dawdle) and too much to cool here. I make(do) a sign to my accomplice of moment, n°441; she(it) is OK and we leave with a couple which joins us just from the descent of the wall.
800 metres of abrupt(steep) descent which we shall make(do) in 2. 20, of night naturally, and always with a drizzle which falls by jerks. We are very careful, seen stones and cliffs, scales(ladders), and abrupt(steep) space which one guesses everywhere.
At the moment, Marianne crosses(spends) the foot in a hole just before a scale(ladder), and it is luck(chance) that she gets out of it without troubles, because she would have been able to break himself the leg, or to have bruises.
By the middle of the wall, what is not our surprise to cross 4 persons who go(take) up the path! Some words were exchanged, it is about rescuers which rise with a stretcher under the arm, to get back a walker who would have injured himself higher. As we saw nobody across the road, we think that it is about a walker left after us. But the most extraordinary is to learn that they are going to lower(go down) the wounded person below, and not to go back up(raise) him(it), and to imagine the exploit that it represents, considering the nature of the road, the risks of fall, the hillside, scales(ladders) to be crossed(spent), and of the night!
It makes us double caution, because one would not especially like remained stuck in this cliff!
It is more than 22. 30 when we reach(affect) the PUDDLE To JOSEPH. We part from the couple (which(who) seems to want to drag some moments in this post installed(settled) in border of forest), and let us begin(affect) at once the tarred road which winds through the forest until CILAOS. The time became again clement, it makes(does) freshly without more. We cross some cars at the present time late. It would be always possible to cheat, to make(do) of Stop? But the temptation does not touch us even!
We find the other walkers in the entrance(entry) of the city, and follow them not to risk to lose us in the last laces and the streets. Surprised, a young walker with whom I had exchanged some words I do not know any more or, goes back up(raises) the street with her pack; the surprise was crossed(spent), we understand that it is going to live softly in the Hotel of Thermes! (Noted: unless she(it) abandoned, it is going to make(do) expensively of the hour of sleep!)
Three hundred metres farther, we approach the central, quite illuminated camp, which settled down in a grande école (or school?)
A plan of Cilaos's school, placed in the entrance(entry) of places, would have been very useful, because at the present time late (it's midnight', it is necessary to question several persons, to discover where are: the personal bags, the W-C, the dormitories, the showers, the restaurant, etc.
From my point of view (we are among the last new-comers), CILAOS is the worst "POST" of the raid:il is very vast, fragmented, and so impersonal
What one is of use to me to the restaurant is insipid, the thigh of chicken is pallid, it is almost cold as well as the rice.
The HORROR of Showers and toilet: everything is invaded by water, there is an immense puddle of more than 50 m2 on 2 in 3 cms in thickness. Besides this swamp overflows to the dormitory of in quoted(esteemed), which is that of the girls; I pity them, these persons of the opposite sex! Impossible to end in showers or WC without getting wet feet. I tempt an excursion up to the common showers, the puddle floods the feet of benches; it is necessary to put down(deposit) its clothes (the nasty and the new appropriate(clean)) there above, with the risk which that slides in earth(ground), and so that everything is completely dipped! I am going to feel(sound out) the shower; neither(either) warm water, nor tepid, everything is cold, and at midnight, everything seems icy. I abandon the idea to give a shower me, and I admire the rash 2 which had just just gone out of the shower! (They are probably the last ones to dare!)
5 toilet are filled(blocked) in a inconceivable way! Certain washbasins were filled(performed) with any sort of paper, until ¾! Oh, I pity the persons who should clean all this muck-up tomorrow and to return premises appropriate(clean) for the director of the school! How he can there have raiders so numerous and disgusting to put places in this state!?
In that case, I am also scandalized by the number of raiders which shell during the path their garbage: mainly plastic bottles, and all the wrapping paper of food. Now, it would cost to them nothing to keep(preserve) some grams of this waste in the bag or the pocket, and put down(deposit) them in the next checkpoint! This too frequent dirt makes me sick, the raider does not regrettably seem soaked(filled) as much as the classic walker, the respect absolved from the nature. The one that looks too much at his stopwatch does not seem to know how to admire the beauty of the nature, because otherwise, he would avoid soiling her(it).
Considering my fatigue, I wanted be massed(massaged), but all the masseurs were busy and there was a too long line in my taste.
In spite of "very black" testimonies on dormitories, I decide to try to rest(base) me one or two hours, and I enter, at random , with the maximum of discretion, in one of 4 dormitories, the N°3.. There is a diffuse light which allows to discover places: an immense dormitory, with at least 50 beds. I discover some glance to most 2 or 3 empty beds, among which some in a state hardly useful (very destroyed if you want). Luckily, there is a which(who) is convenient for me. I spreads(widens) me there, without using the coverage because I consider that it is enough warm there inside! Contrary to the gossip, it is rather silent, there is no noisy, of conversationalists, only a small snorer (2 on 8 in the scale(ladder) Richter).
I shall stay there only 1h1 / 2, without sleeping really , because legs itch me, and the campbed is not very comfortable (it is always hollow these tricks(things) there). And my marching rhythm forbids me to hold me here, if I want to have a small luck(chance) to arrive for the periods(delays), it is necessary me to resume the bit as long as I am capable of it.
I spring so, collect my business(cases), me rhabille, and be going to put down(deposit) my intermediate bag (which was common with my son Matthieu) on the heap of exit(release).
I notice that the masseurs are now free, less half have the "customer", the others sing bawdy songs in kept silent head.
I hurry to turn up under their tent, I ask politely to be looked, and FINALLY HERE IS THE MOST DELICIOUS MOMENT, which makes forget all the CILAOS's blackheads.
Rather young and good-looking one "half-blood", with a beautiful black mat, takes me in hands: during more than half an hour, she(it) is going to mass(massage) with an infinite patience, at first my right(straight) calf, then my left-handler, then my thighs.
I believed that one had obliged us to take some cream (kind(genre) ALGIPAN) exactly to be consumed here; but not, that is of use to nothing, the masseurs use only some OIL which they have with them.
And while she(it) masses(massages), she(it) talks, she(it) talks.; I learn that most of the masseurs, as it, are not professional masseurs; but, or ancillary medical occupations (I believe that she said me that she was a nurse), or pupils or trainees kiné, etc. . And last year she(it) had made(done) the Big Raid, and had ended honorably.
How says the proverb, the best moments always have the end!
It is about 2. 30 when I clock(point,stick) in the exit, and surprised, my co-team member takes out of her dormitory 10 metres behind, without that one consulted!
And so, we here is left(restarted) together for a new part(party) of the test.
It is the fatigue, or the night, but the first 500 metres through CILAOS seem to me very badly marked out, and I believe to get lost in every bend. Fortunately, a group of 3 walkers which we follow by meadows is surer of them same, and in the final we here is on a road very below, while I believed her(it) more in height!
One or two km farther, one abandons this tarred road, under a banner (it(he) seems to have there farther under a tree a "controller" who watches the sponges), one dives to the left into the hillside which seems to me endless towards the POND FOUQUET.
Here, a mini-camp with control of passage, on the flat cliffs which line the river which one crosses in ford. The 2 volunteers who are there are probably the bravest, because it is the most inaccessible camp, and everything should have gone down(fallen) in man's back. (EDITOR'S NOTE: that of Kervéguen is not bad, either).
Two or three minutes to mass(massage) feet, then here is ascent on the opposite hillside, to join the other established control point directly on the road leading to Ilet with Ropes. We eat even there a soup of vermicelli, still one! We cross(spend) some moments meadows of the brasero which grows red by the roadside. Here also, a small tent shelters some raiders in the grip of the exhaustion. My colleague who begins to be tired, lingers too much and I should her(it) force to leave(restart).
We begin(affect) now the ascent of the Collar of the TAÏBIT, which in posteriori appears to me as the most testing: there has 1060 M to rise, taut, since the river.
We shall put about 3 hours, with some mini stops(rulings), the dawn begins to clock(point,stick), the twilight cleared up and very fast the lamp can be saved.
My colleague walks(works) more and more slowly (what does not prevent him(it) from talking! OH the women): in this rhythm, I say myself in my very internal, we shall never arrive in time at Grand Ilet, to begin(affect) the famous ascent of the CLIFF WRITTEN before the nightfall! (And this ascent is my obsession!). So, in the two thirds of the ascent, I decide to abandon him(it) (at least temporarily) and he said hypocritically that I set of the advance to be able to rest(base) more for a long time to MARLA, or we can meet ourselves.
The sun already licks Cilaos when I cross(exceed) the collar; I stay there only some seconds to contemplate the panorama, because it is for it chilly at the present time morning, and nasty one wind blows there. Of the other one quoted(esteemed), the sight on MARLA is magnificent, but the road is a hideous pack of grits, very testing for feet. Less than one hour later, the arrival in the MARLA's beautiful corner(place) is a reassurance. Always the same food, useless to call back(remind) you the composition of it, regrettably; fast gulped down. J ' have a small doubt, I believe to remember that I found there there FINALLY my first one ROUGAIL SAUCISSE; yes, I am almost on of that, it(he) was moreover rather good; but what, a rougail by way of Breakfast, at 7. 30 of the morning, needs to be A MADMAN, no? And indeed , please , know that I was not the only one regrettably, because when I wanted to set of the rab, there was no more of it, and some persons sampled the last sausages sat(based) on benches.
As the sun caressed(cherished) us charmingly, the place being rather green, one envy(urge) for idleness took me then (and a feeling of indispensable digestion)
I grew so longer under the big tent, big opened by a size for at least roupilleurs forty; it(he) it of four or five slept under coverages had there.
A coverage by bottom to make cosier my sleeping around, the other one by top, and me here is left for a slumber of one hour(o'clock).
