“Cap Jaune”
The Golden Cliff of the Wild South
More than 4,000 years ago, a lava flow raced down the slopes of Piton Vincendo and poured into the ocean. The impact between the molten rock and the water instantly vitrified the magma, ejecting a mass of debris that solidified on the spot.
Marine erosion did the rest, resulting today in a fifty-meter-high hyaloclastite cliff, an almost golden ochre color, standing out against an entirely black coastline. It is one of the island’s strangest sites—and one of the least visited.
It’s accessible via a coastal trail starting from the Marine de Vincendo parking lot in the “Sud Sauvage” region; allow about 1 hour and 25 minutes by car from the residence. The path is flat and easy, suitable for families: a thirty-minute walk one way, one hour round trip.
It begins beneath the vacoa trees, then opens onto ancient basalt flows that the waves crash against below, with white-tailed tropicbirds circling above the cliffs. The trailhead is inconspicuous and poorly marked: when facing the ocean from the parking lot, the trail branches off to your right. White dots painted on the rocks then serve as markers.