Choungui

Choungui is the village beneath Mount Choungui, the sharp cone in Mayotte's south that stands apart from the rest of the island's hills and is visible from most of the lagoon. The path to the top is short and very steep, part of it a scramble on roots, and it opens onto a view of the whole southern lagoon and the reef beyond. Baobabs stand in the fields around the village. The climb is done early, before the heat. Below it the south of the island is farmland and dry forest, quieter than the coast.