| Distance: 13.9 km. Elevation low/high/total: 155/206/352 m. Difficulty: 4.5/10. Scenic: 4.5/10  |
| Filling in the missing segment, we completed our quest to hike the length of the GR1. This particular segment, admittedly the easiest and serving as our GR1 coda, was 14 km long. Click pic for photo album. The geotrack for the hike is here: (gpx) (kml) |
We did it! Five different outings, some wild experiences, nearly 100 km total trekking through all manner of mountain/mud/brush/river/desert and Kincso and I can say that we have hiked the length of the Grande Randonée Nouvelle Calédonie 1 (GR NC1, usually just abbreviated as the GR1). This particular section, Stage 4B, is the missing link between the end of Stage 3, which we completed at the beginning of April and Stages 6/7 which we completed during Tropical Cyclone Solo a couple of weeks ago. Stage 4B is actually a shortcut for Stages 4 and 5 but time was running out and those shall await another time.
For this particular stage, we were joined by Ildiko and my friend Paul, with whom we've done a few other hikes. Technically, this is the simplest of the Stages as most of it takes place along a level red dirt road. The high hope we had was to see, in the wild, the national bird and symbol of New Caledonia - a Cagou, as seen above. And we did! We even got to spend some time close enough to one that it was hissing at us, a noise I had trouble believing at first could be made by such a beautiful bird. We also placed, as we did on every Stage, a geocache along the way (linked here). As of today, NONE of the caches has yet been found/logged - likely the result of so little trail traffic, as discussed below.
A couple of final comments on hiking this quite impressive trail. The GR1 presents one with a nicely varied set of experiences. The length and vertical range present varying levels of challenge and I would rate the whole thing as quite difficult. The trail is very well maintained and marked, with one notable exception: there needs to be more distance markers. Most stages are only marked at the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 points but those are 4-6 km apart and it can be hours getting between them. Many markers are placed all along the trail - to prevent getting lost - it would not be a chore to add a clip on distance marker at every 500 m point. the other amazing thing we noticed was how utterly unoccupied we found the trail. I think we passed one other set of hikers over the six stages we did. Not sure why that is given the overall general healthy nature of folks here but a great deal of time and money went into creation of this national treasure and it seems a pity it's so underutilized.
Miss K (Kincso) heads off to Europe and then U Cal Berkeley in a couple of weeks, so I'll be losing a hiking buddy. I think she gained a lot of self confidence and learned that persistence is one of her innate strengths - she's gonna be a great college student! May these pages provide her with a reminder of time we spent together that will always rank among my favorite outdoor adventures.
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