On the road to the Northern Province

Distance: ~1500 km.  Elevation low/high/total: 0/588/5610 m.

Difficulty: 7.8/10.  Scenic: 9.1/10

Everyone else had enjoyed a nice vacation recently but it had been nearly a year since i got away so ... I got away. Picture album by clicking on the Frog above, geotrack here

I've been living in New Caledonia for about 16 months now.  And, while I've done a goodly amount of hiking and exploring, the northern half of this country - of Grand Terre - was Terra Incognito (Unexplored) to me.  So I carved out a week, prepped the Land Rover ("Frog"), gathered my camping gear, did some research and early on a July 2015 Sunday morning set out for parts unknown.

The trip was great and just what the doctor ordered.  I saw new things, went places few have ever been and got to camp out for a week, an activity I love.  That all said, man ... the freakin' rain ... basically 5 of 7 days I had to take shelter from the storm(s).  Thus my pictures are mostly gray.  That hardly mattered when I was cave explorin' but it seriously cut down on hikin'/fishin'/beachcombin'.

I took five cameras (three dedicated, 2 on cell phones) and amazingly they all survived.  Maybe next year I can rally a couple of fellow explorers and we can check out places I never got to, or would like to see again.

I managed three hikes on the trip:

Les Grottes de Koumac (Caves of Koumac)
Sentier de Marais Sainat
Col de Wivaek/Roches de Linderalique