A Hiking we will go!
The two months home for our never-to-be-missed summer in the mountains went by so very fast. Two months is much too short a time to soak up all the thoughts, feelings and doings of being home, and with a plethora of activities added in, it whizzed by even faster.
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As if he had not had enough of oceans, The Captain headed off to Iceland and Greenland for a much anticipated fly fishing trip with Telluride friend, Bob Trenary. The only difference for him was that the water there was a bit colder. So was the air! Still the two guys had a great time fishing and exploring two new countries.
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Grandson Henry arrived for a visit bringing his father David and his Uncle Eric along. How enthusiastically helpful a 3-year old can be! Note the expression on both faces. Priceless!
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Our little guy is also proving to be an eager hiker, though this year’s over-growth of vegetation proved an eye-poking irritation until Nana showed him how to “swim” through it all.
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Happy Son — Proud Dad! We could not be happier watching all this.
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Tuesday, October 1st – In between fishing trips, grandparent fixes and lots of the usual entertaining going back and forth, the time flew. We returned to New Caledonia today. All 33 hours of flight and layover time went well, but there’s no way to cut it — it’s a grueling ordeal. Landing in the morning on Thursday, we push ourselves through the day, stowing all we brought, and heading out to the market on the first of several trips to provision the boat. By 8:30 that evening, we are gratefully in bed. Cruiser’s Bedtime it is called, and for us, there was no complaint!
Saturday, October 3rd – This has to be a first for us. After only 1½ days back in the marina, we are all systems go. Avante has been washed down and provisioned, and we are heading out. Our destination is Isle des Pins, but as it is too far to go in one day, we plan to stop at Bonne Anse, a favorite anchorage of ours at the entrance to Baie de Prony.
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We don’t bother to raise our sails today, for the prevailing wind is right on the nose at 15 knots from SE for the entire trip. Easiest way to get there is to just motor. By early afternoon, we are through Canal Woodin and directly ahead, across the wide entrance to Baie de Prony, is our anchorage. We anchor with no other boat in sight.
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Sunday, October 4th – When here last July, The First Mate had seen a person from a nearby boat walking along the shoreline. She had wanted to get out to explore, but we were on a mission then to return to Nouméa for fuel and to restock a dwindling larder. Now with time to spare, we are going to get ourselves ashore for some hiking. The Captain says that there is a trail accessed from further down the bay that leads up to the Cap N’dor Lighthouse which we have often seen from the water. The First Mate wonders if there could possibly be a spur of that trail leading to the lighthouse from here. As they walk along the beach where parts are pleasantly shaded with trees, she is looking for this imagined trail.
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It is The Captain who finds a faint trail leading upward. That’s a good sign, for upward we need to go. Following it, we reach an overlook with an impressive view of our anchorage bay and out toward the round, white cement light marking the tip of Recif de Prony, a reef at the entrance to Baie de Prony.
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In the opposite direction, a grand vista stretches across the hills in the general direction of the Cap N’dor lighthouse. The First Mate remains determined to see if there is not a rough trail leading to it from where we now are. Scrambling through the brush with The Captain reluctantly following and complaining about scratches to his legs, she does find a narrow path. In Colorado, it would be described as nothing more than an animal track, but undeterred, she marches on across a hard-scrabble terrain.
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Seeing that this really is a trail of sorts, The Captain takes the lead, carefully watching where he puts his feet on the loose rock.
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At the top of one rise, a commanding view shows us the extent of the Recif de Prony and the light that marks its limits at the entrance to the bay.
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Soon, our trail dwindles away into the brush. Across on the next ridge, The First Mate thinks she can faintly see where a trail picks up and continues, but there just does not appear to be a good way to get there. We try one direction and then another but are rewarded with only more scratches to our legs from the scrubby vegetation.
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Flummoxed and stymied, The First Mate gives into The Captain’s increasingly forceful suggestions to stop, return the way we came (if we can even find it now from amongst this scrub), and motor the dinghy to the end of the bay where the advertised trail to the lighthouse is located. Even though she did not find a trail out to the lighthouse, she is pleased with what we did and what we saw. It was a fun hike — a scrambling hike, and those are the kind she likes best.
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At the head of a small bay called Anse Majic, we find the real trail. It looks more like an old road, for it is wide and clear of vegetation. A fairly new board at the trailhead describes the life of the early people here. To The First Mate’s delight, a photo of a man spear fishing like she had seen in Baie de Pain last July is shown. “La Lance or Sagaïe de Pêche, as the locals call it, is an ancient technique that is still used today though never by the women.” That, of course, peaks her feminine ire. She bets that if women had been allowed to practice this particular art of putting food on the table, with their infinite patience and finer dexterity, a far greater amount of fish would have graced said tables. On second thought, she thinks that having found a way to keep the men occupied and out of the way, the women probably put more food on the table in the same amount of time by grubbing along the muddy shallows for snails and other shelled sea life.
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The official trail to the Cap N’dor Lighthouse is well-marked, civilized and no where near as interesting as the one she had us on earlier, but it does get us to the lighthouse. As one would expect from any lighthouse, the view spans across the water in all directions.
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A sheltered platform is located below the lighthouse and specifically set up to watch the whales as they make their annual migratory passage though these waters. The bright roof of this platform can be seen from the waters below. The structure had not been there when we first visited New Caledonia several years ago, and sailing by it since then, we had spotted it and wondered what it was. Now we know!
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Unfortunately, we are too late in the season to see any whales, but we still scan the waters in hopes of seeing a slowpoke out there. No luck, but what a fantastic view spreads before our eyes across the Recif de Prony to the distant Canal Woodin. This route is used often by freighters and other large ships. Looking at the extent of that shallow reef, there is no question that the light marking the end of the reef has been been well placed.
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A large map shows the Canal Woodin and the Baie de Prony. Bonne Anse, where we are now anchored, is clearly marked. We read on another board that the locals of nearby Isle Ouen, that island on the left of Canal Woodin, traditionally plant their taro fields when the whales start to arrive on their annual migration south to cooler waters. How much more fun to mark the time of planting with the return of those wonderful whales than it is to base the same thing on a guesstimate of the last hoary frost of the winter as is done in the colder sections of the US!
After our two interesting hikes, we return to Avante and spend a quiet afternoon and evening, for tomorrow we will be underway early for the final leg of our trip to Isle des Pins.
Comment (1)
Georgiann Carroll
What breed of fish are the men looking for in Iceland?? Henry is absolutely adorable.
Sorry we did not have more time together while you were in Colorado.
I am very envious of your beautiful hikes and view.
Much Love,GAnn