France Damien Boilley · CC BY 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 2,247 m.
The real relief above Mussard cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
2,247m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
11°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
282m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
11 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 11 °C here, in January and in August.
- 15°11°Jan
- 15°12°Feb
- 15°11°Mar
- 14°10°Apr
- 12°9°May
- 10°7°Jun
- 9°6°Jul
- 9°6°Aug
- 10°6°Sep
- 12°7°Oct
- 14°9°Nov
- 15°10°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Mountain cave on the island of Réunion
Mussard cave is a cave in France. The entrance is at 2,247 m. It has the shape of a lava tube. It lies within Réunion National Park.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Cilaosnearest town · 5.8 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.5 km from the entrance
- Roland Garros Airport (RUN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 23 km in a straight lineCar hire at RUN airport (Sainte-Marie)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 2other cave entrances within 3 kmCaverne Dufour, Caverne Mussard
- 2springs within 2 km
- 16viewpoints within 3 kmBelvédère de Terre Plate and 15 more
- 6marked hiking routes within 3 kmGR R1, GR R2, Sentier du Piton des Neiges and 3 more
- 1named waterfalls within 4 kmBassin Bleu
- 3information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 25campsites within 8 kmCamping Chez Julien, camping sauvage, Camping des 3 Salazes and 22 more
- 113hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHôtel des Neiges, Le Vieux Cep, Gîte Ti Case Lontan and 110 more
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- car parks within 2 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Cilaos5.8 km in a straight line
- Salazie8.4 km in a straight line
- La Plaine-des-Palmistes13 km in a straight line
- Entre-Deux16 km in a straight line
- Le Tampon20 km in a straight line
- Bras-Panon21 km in a straight line
- Saint-André21 km in a straight line
- L'Étang-Salé21 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Mussard cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Cascadyas1 waterfalls within 5 km
Peakyas50 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 15 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 |
| Afternoon | 15 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 |
| Night | 11 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 10 |
| Rain (mm) | 140 | 114 | 143 | 76 | 53 | 37 | 31 | 31 | 33 | 34 | 46 | 55 |
| Rainy days | 19 | 18 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 8.7 | 8.8 | 8.3 | 8.3 | 7.8 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 8.6 | 9.4 | 9.8 | 10.1 | 10.1 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 15 | 15 | 11 | 140 | 8.7 |
| Feb | 15 | 15 | 12 | 114 | 8.8 |
| Mar | 15 | 15 | 11 | 143 | 8.3 |
| Apr | 14 | 14 | 10 | 76 | 8.3 |
| May | 12 | 12 | 9 | 53 | 7.8 |
| Jun | 10 | 10 | 7 | 37 | 7.6 |
| Jul | 9 | 9 | 6 | 31 | 7.8 |
| Aug | 9 | 9 | 6 | 31 | 8.6 |
| Sep | 10 | 10 | 6 | 33 | 9.4 |
| Oct | 12 | 12 | 7 | 34 | 9.8 |
| Nov | 14 | 14 | 9 | 46 | 10.1 |
| Dec | 15 | 15 | 10 | 55 | 10.1 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (2,247 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 211% | 53% | 165% | 54% | 55% | 98% | 139% | 68% | 84% | 127% | 29% | 57% |
| 2021 | 28% | 40% | 93% | 425% | 63% | 159% | 97% | 112% | 57% | 145% | 26% | 116% |
| 2022 | 135% | 151% | 69% | 142% | 42% | 103% | 111% | 96% | 65% | 44% | 27% | 38% |
| 2023 | 129% | 36% | 64% | 136% | 78% | 111% | 75% | 125% | 24% | 31% | 159% | 91% |
| 2024 | 199% | 67% | 89% | 160% | 75% | 184% | 36% | 77% | 79% | 80% | 60% | 36% |
| 2025 | 25% | 165% | 98% | 99% | 82% | 45% | 94% | 108% | 80% | 55% | 134% | 284% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q2943281) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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