Cirque de Mafate One-Day Hike (La Nouvelle)

The Cirque de Mafate one-day hike to La Nouvelle is a full-day trek into the only cirque on Réunion, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, with no road access at all. Everything and everyone moves in on foot or by helicopter. The trailhead is at Col des Bœufs, about 60 km from Saint-Denis, roughly 1 hour by car via the RN3 to La Plaine des Palmistes and then the D55. There is no public bus to the trailhead, and the car park there is free, so most visitors depart Saint-Denis by about 06:00. From the pass, the descending trail into Mafate takes roughly 2.5 hours to reach La Nouvelle, the most-visited hamlet in the cirque, a cluster of houses with no road connection. The village gîtes, small guesthouses that serve meals, are the only place to eat or rest before the climb back, and a simple lunch costs approximately €15 to €25. The return is the demanding part of the day: the climb back up to Col des Bœufs takes noticeably longer than the descent and has caught out hikers who started back too late, so the walk should begin its return in the early afternoon with the aim of being back at the trailhead well before dark. Because the outing combines several hours of sustained walking, a steep climb, remote terrain and no vehicle option if a walker tires, it is classed as hard. A less strenuous variant is the one-way helicopter flight from Saint-Pierre aerodrome to La Nouvelle with Héli Réunion, at about €120 per person, followed by the hike out via Col des Bœufs. The best season is May to October, when trails are drier and cloud is less likely to obscure the views. There is no entrance fee to the trail, so the costs are fuel to the trailhead and the lunch at a gîte. Water and snacks should be carried for the whole route, along with rain protection and a head torch as a precaution.