Distance: 12.3 km. Elevation low/high/total: 8/509/673 m.
Difficulty:8.2/10. Scenic: 7.0/10
More than two months have passed since I was on a hike in New Caledonia ... partly because I've been on duty travel a lot and partly because my usual hiking buddy has a bum foot. So, tired of waiting, yet ever aware of the advice against solo hiking, off I went on a beautiful Sunday morning. Some annual event here called "Gigawatt" was going on and I came across several areas with hundreds of parked cars, thousands of people wearing bibs and walking/running the regions around Lake Yate. However, I continued onward to my intended destination,l hike I read about online called "Sur les traces des anciens" (the tracks of the ancients). It took 2+ hours to get to the trailhead due to the events along the way but I was finally on the hike by about 9:15. The hike was tougher than I expected. It was about 1/3rd red dirt/slippery gravel. 1/3rd knee high brush/razor grass that had to be bushwhacked through and 1/3rd "dry rain forest" rather dense but at least flat, unlike the other 2/3rds. According to the online account, there were two watering holes to look forward to. Lack of rain the past two months pretty much eliminated those however ... one was bone dry the other shallow compared to the size of the hole though I jumped in anyway to ease some hiking pains. All in all, not the greatest hike - fell a couple of times, got my legs cut up pretty badly but nothing major and I got back to the car within 5 hours of starting. As the hot/dry season intensifies, looks like it will be back to river hiking.
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| A solo hike at a locale 2+ hours south of Noumea near Yate. Pics are linked above and the gpx track is here |
More than two months have passed since I was on a hike in New Caledonia ... partly because I've been on duty travel a lot and partly because my usual hiking buddy has a bum foot. So, tired of waiting, yet ever aware of the advice against solo hiking, off I went on a beautiful Sunday morning. Some annual event here called "Gigawatt" was going on and I came across several areas with hundreds of parked cars, thousands of people wearing bibs and walking/running the regions around Lake Yate. However, I continued onward to my intended destination,l hike I read about online called "Sur les traces des anciens" (the tracks of the ancients). It took 2+ hours to get to the trailhead due to the events along the way but I was finally on the hike by about 9:15. The hike was tougher than I expected. It was about 1/3rd red dirt/slippery gravel. 1/3rd knee high brush/razor grass that had to be bushwhacked through and 1/3rd "dry rain forest" rather dense but at least flat, unlike the other 2/3rds. According to the online account, there were two watering holes to look forward to. Lack of rain the past two months pretty much eliminated those however ... one was bone dry the other shallow compared to the size of the hole though I jumped in anyway to ease some hiking pains. All in all, not the greatest hike - fell a couple of times, got my legs cut up pretty badly but nothing major and I got back to the car within 5 hours of starting. As the hot/dry season intensifies, looks like it will be back to river hiking.
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