Let's Go Koghis!

Last Sunday, I went with our friends Joe and Eleanor on an afternoon hike in the Koghi Mountains. This is a fairly big mountain range about a half-hour outside of Nouméa. There's a restaurant and inn about halfway up, which supposedly has great fondue.

To get there, you have to drive up a steep, windy road, but the view is pretty great (see above).

The Koghis are located near a town called Dumbea, which makes me laugh every time I hear it. I feel like it's like Noumea's slightly slow cousin. (No offense meant to the residents of Dumbea, who I'm sure are very smart. But the name of your town sounds like it rides the short bus.)

On the way to the hiking trail, we saw a Dumbea garbage bin. Apparently Dumbea's contributions to New Caledonian culture include the sun, golf, corn, and fancy keys.

The hike wasn't long, but the views were great. There were several areas where rain had completely washed out parts of the trail, forcing us to grab on to plants for support. On the way back, it rained, so we got to enjoy the trail at its finest.

At the end of the trail we came to a great little waterfall, where we swam around for a bit. From this picture, you might think I'm naked, but I'm not. (I'm wearing ripped-up, ink-stained, highly indecent boxers.)

On the way back, we passed through a roosting area of New Caledonian Imperial Pigeons (scientific name Ducula Goliath, which is awesome). They are the biggest pigeons in the world, about the size of large chickens. They hang out in the trees and make creepy hooting noises. Check it out.

We never actually got the bird on film, but you can sort of see what it looked like in this photo. That big brown blob is it.

All in all, a pretty great afternoon. Big thanks to Joe and Eleanor for the trip. The rest of the week was spent holed up in the apartment and writing, which doesn't make for nearly as exciting blog posts.