North New Caledonia - La Foa, Bourail, Poindimie, Heinghene, and Kone - Part 2

So after visiting Teremba, the old prison, we went to Bourail, a small town a bit north from there. We decided to have lunch there on a parking lot, and Rony decided that it will be a good place to start to learn driving a stick shift. Talia was all "What!? Here?! Are you sure?!"

Rony: Yes! This is a great place, big parking lot!
Talia: Did I ever tell you how I fired my Mom when she taught me how to drive and swore I wouldn't drive until I was 56?

For someone who never drove a stick shift, it's a bit like learning to drive for the first time: You have to learn to use your left leg and your right hand, you feel all clumsy and it's very frustrating because you know you know how to drive, but you still feel like it's your first lesson...

Emotionally it was hard for Talia, especially that there were some kanaks (locals) watching us and some of them were laughing. The first step is always hard.

After a 30-minute lesson (no charge) Rony took back the wheel and we drove to the other side of the island, on the east coast. We passed beautiful scenery while we were driving up the hills and when we finally got to the coast it was wonderful.

We passed Houailou (pronounced Lulululu by Talia), a nice little town on the east coast, and went to our first night stop in Poindimie, a place called Chez Simone. We rented a bungalow there, in the back yard of the house. The place is in a tribe up the hills, in the tropical nature of that island. So we had a few "visitors" and "roommates" during the night: Spiders, bugs, mosquitoes, and some unknown animal that Rony thought was a squirrel, although apparently there are none in New Caledonia, and Talia thought was a rat. The mystery will remain forever...

After all the night adventures, we went on up north. We went to Hienghene (pronounced "hygiene" by Talia), where Nature offered us the beautiful view of "La poule de Hienghene" (the chicken of Hienghene) and the sphinx, 2 beautiful rocks on the coast.

La Poule de Hienghene

Then we went further north to see Tao waterfall. For that you have to pass with your car over a river on a ferry boat. It is called "bac" in French. The bac of Ouieme. It's quite fun and we had time to see the beautiful surroundings and take more pictures. :)

After that, it was a bit harder to find our goal, Tao waterfall. Apparently we passed it and arrived in another waterfall, Colnett (which we were going to see anyway). There we saw many local children jumping in the water from a big tree. It could be a commercial for New Caledonia, that wouldn't surprise us. Everything there seems like tit was taken from a travel agent commercial or Photoshop.

Tao waterfall

On our way to find Tao again, we took a local kanak that was hitchhiking to go home. He was a bit drunk, but he told us a few facts on the region: The small bridges on the road were built by the Americans during WWII, when New Caledonia was a base for American troops in the Pacific. And the river on which we took the ferry is "tabou", meaning that the place is sacred and no bridge should be built there. In New Caledonia, there are many sacred places ("tabou") that are important for the locals. So that was one of them.

Anyway, we drove him home but it was a bit late for Tao waterfall, so we took a couple of pictures from the road and when on to Kone. Rony decided that we should sleep in Kone because it's closer to the places we wanted to see at the end of our tour. And there was also a friend of Justine's who lives there, a french Canadian named Genevieve. We met her 2 days earlier at Justine's house and she was very nice and gave us her phone number in case we were around Kone.

The original plan was to pass through Kone and not stop there, but since she was there, we thought "why not have coffee or diner with Genevieve." Well, it went beyond our expectations: She invited us for dinner and champagne and beer, and to stay overnight and camp in her backyard. She lives with a roommate from work who is a great cook and she prepared us a fish tajine. It was the best meal we had in New Caledonia. It was delicious! So when we get back from our trip, we will ask her for the recipe and make it ourselves :) We had a lovely evening with them, and in the morning they left us their key so we could shower and they set the table for breakfast. Best B&B we were in :)

The next day we went all the way back to Bourail, where Talia could have her second driving lesson. In the same parking lot. But different people were watching. And they had nothing to laugh about. This time Talia nailed the stick shift driving. Level 1 passed.

We also saw the wonders around: Turtles Bay, La Roche Persee (Pierced Rock), and Le Bonhomme.

Bourail: La roche persee and Le Bonhomme

Now we could go on and see the wonders around La Foa, Sarramea and the surroundings. We camped one more time in a farm near La Foa and when to the Parc des Grandes Fougeres so see a bit of nature and hike. There we saw a cagou, the national symbol of New Caledonia. It's a bird that can not fly and exists only on this island.

Wild Cagou

After that we went back to Justine's, where we just crashed on the couch and got prepared for our next trip: Iles des Pins (Isle of Pines.

Pics (same album as the last post):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=576716&id=906005363&l=70fc839448