After a restful night in Noumea, I was quite excited to get outside the metropolitan area and noumea and discover "La brousse" (you could translate this as "the outback").
I packed a few supplies for the road headed towards my next stop, Koné, the biggest city of the Northern province and second biggest city of the island, with multiple stops on my way.
One of the reasons I wanted to go over there is to see the "Coeur de Voh" (Voh's heart) located in the town of the same name. This natural curiosity was made famous in 1999 when the French photo-reporter Yann Arthus-Bertrand took it in picture for the first time, from a microlight aircraft and consists into a salty field made in the middle of the mangrove. I was hoping to see this from my eyes... but more on that later...


Coeur de Voh, taken by Yann Arthus Bertrand


Ready to drive in the New Caledonian "Outback"

While driving on the main road towards the North I went through the town of Bouloupari, where I felt in the middle of Texas for a minute, and you could feel that the cattle industry is quite big in this region.

Past Bouloupari, I made my first stop along the sea in the Presqu'ile d'Ouano where I played a bit with the drone... It was already 35 degC at 11 am, but the sea breeze made the discovery enjoyable...






Presqu'ile d'Ouano









New Caledonia has in total about 200 km2 of dense mangrove, mostly on the main island.

I continued my drive towards the north and stopped again near Bourail, in the bay of Gouaro...





Gouaro bay







From above...

And then went on the other side of the bay where I enjoyed the scenery even more. The fact this was a week day, not the peak touristic season and that I was almost alone made the visit of the area very enjoyable and a nice place to stop for a picnic...



Countryside...

Cattle swimming pool

I was over there 30 min before





Notre dame des flots

The windy conditions that day made me stay at a relatively low altitude...



Former Gouaro light house


Panoramic view on the Gouaro bay


Roche percée








View on Baie des Tortues (Turtle bay)

It was already 4.30 pm when I decided to hit back the road as I wanted to arrive in Koné before sunset - which I (almost) did...
As I was driving north there was more distance between towns and I am glad I did not have to drive by night.












Poya

I stayed one night at the Hotel La Néa in Koné, and I would highly recommend this hotel. As I was feeling a bit tired and was not sure where to go to eat in Koné, I stayed at the hotel for dinner and enjoyed an excellent dinner with very good and fresh fish.






I checked out the next morning and headed north towards the small town of Voh. Once there, I had to stop at the local post office to (1) send some postcards and (2) ask my way on where to find a good view point to see the Coeur de Voh, as my guide book was not really helpful on how to get there, and indicating the touristic attractions is certainly not the islands forte... The lady at the post office was very helpful, although a bit curious about why I wanted to see that and indicated me where to park, with a nice "good luck". I understood why later, but eventually, I parked at the end of a residential area and started to climb the mountain, by 40c and without a single piece of shade on my way... (hence the "good luck" I guess...)





Ouch... not even 11 am, and already 39 degC... not even to mention the humidity levels...

so.. "good luck" !

Fortunately, I met at some point a couple of young tourists orignally from the "mainland" but having a multi-year assignment in the French administration in the Loyalty islands nearby (She was a nurse, he was a teacher) also trying to locate the famous heart. So we hiked together on our way up the hill... But at some point, we started to realize the hard truth : The heart was no where to be seen...
But one little ounce of hope remained as I decided to carry my drone with me, hoping that 100 meters here could make us distiguish our goal...


Still no heart to be seen...




But you could distinguish one of the many Nickel extracting / processing plants on the island


I may look smart with my hat, but believe me, the sun does not make jokes over there !

And no more luck with the drone, unfortunately...



Nope... nothing in sight !




Well, at least I did my physical exercise for the day !
After all, it appears that the Coeur de Voh cannot be observed all year long, and mostly only from a small plane or a microlight aircraft. Unfortunately, all companies offering this possibility were closed that day (it was a weekday, and not during peak season as I understand). Maybe for next time...

I drove back towards Noumea and stopped again on the way near Bourail like the day before to spend some more time in this place I really liked. The weather was much more pleasant in the afternoon and I got to spend some extra time at the baie des Tortues and in the area of the Roche Percée. On my way, at the exit of Koné, I encountered a couple of hitchhikers who needed to get to Bourail and since I was feeling a bit sleepy and did not want to repeat my unfortunate experience in New Zealand, I drove them to their destination and enjoyed their discussions on the way...


Voh township


The Caledonian society is definitely bipolarized, between the ones who want to remain part of France and the ones who want independance...


Conveyor belts going across the island to transport the nickel ore from the underground to the processing plants...


New-Caledonian landscapes


Poé beach, under light, refreshing rain...


Baie des tortues






Baie des tortues beach and Roche percée


Above Foé beach





From Baie des tortues

I got back in Nouméa around 7 pm and for my last night in New Caledonia, I had reserved the day before a spot in a local well known restaurant called "La Perle d'Eram" to taste one of the local specialties which I could not miss : A fish bougna. Although the pictures do not speak too much for themselves, it was delicious and the staff was very friendly. A place to recommend !


La Perle d'Eram in Nouméa is one of the best places in the city to eat a Bougna (local dish made in the oven with fish or meat and a whole bunch of local herbs and vegetables).


Dinner for one. Was stuffed afterwards !

Sorry buddy...

Downtown Nouméa was completely desert on this friday evening at 8pm, and I understood later on that most of the night attractions were actually located near my hotel located baie des Citrons and also near the Anse Vata. but since I had to wake up quite early the next day and was started to feel fatigued, I went back to my hotel after dinner. The next day, I was supposed to take a flight I could not miss, as there is only one weekly - Mising this flight would have ruined my plans for the rest of this round the world trip completely !

As a short conclusion to those few days in New Caledonia, I have to say that it was pleasant and most of the people I met were friendly, I am glad I was able to stop there during this journey. However, political views aside, I think this territory could really benefit from a quality tourism if more was done on the touristic infrastructures and signage for instance. Maybe I was not fully prepared for this part of the trip and got comfortable thinking that it was "like mainland", and just a small guide book and tripadvisor will suffice, I was obviously wrong, and I perhaps also got surprisingly too much used to finding last minute things to visit in a group and rely on this. But the reality is that most people visiting this territory are already knowing someone living there, or part of an organized tour and it seems that individual tourism is not that developed. If there is a next time on this island, I would certainly do a better homework to organize my trip there.

Next stop : A (domestic) flight back to the future !