Sunday, February 7, 2016

Cascade de Tao

Distance: 2.0 km.  Elevation low/high/total: 10/123/130 m.
Difficulty:2.6/10.  Scenic: 9.0/10
North of Hienghene lovely waterfall is just a 2 km round trip.  Geotrack is here, album of pics is here.
The entire region surrounding Hienghene is beautiful and less visited by non-residents than most of the rest of Grand Terre simply because of the distance and relative lack of "nice" facilities.  No worries there - we camped just outside of Hienghene and this lovely waterfall is about a half hour drive (and includes a cable ferry river crossing!) north of Hienghene.  The hike is pretty much exactly 1 km to the falls (the path is a little tough to follow at the 3/4 point but persist) and there are several places to stop and swim along the way.  And many folks were swimming at various pools and riffles.  However, at the top, at the biggest pool where the falls end their drop ... there was only us!  It did start raining almost as soon as we arrived but the warm drizzle just added to the warm wet experience.  Very highly recommended as a hike - for the young or old!