The scenery in Baie de Prony on the mainland is vastly different from the outer islands we have visited so far. Gone are the white sandy beaches and turquoise water and in their place are beaches of red sand, rich in iron and rolling hills covered in scrub interspersed with large areas of scarring from the nickel and iron mining that has gone on in the past, and the natural erosion of the very porous soil. It feels like a very special place with lots of different anchorages to choose from and many walks to do. The red soil reminded me of the outback of Northern Australia. Unfortunately the red soil, whilst it is stunning to look at, stains everything it touches - shoes, skin, the bottom of the dinghy and the transom steps on the boat, so there was some scrubbing to be done when we got to Noumea!
We spent 5 days exploring various anchorages, our favourite being Baie de Carinage where there is a walk to some "hot pools" - which are actually decided tepid rather than hot and a lovely walk that criss crosses the river for miles. Our other favourite spot was Anse Majic where there is a great walk up to a tiny lighthouse (see main photo).
Just before leaving Baie de Prony we stopped off at Ilot Casy where the caretaker of the island is a dog! There used to be a resort on the island but it closed down a number years ago. The story goes that the dog was living there and refused to leave the island, so the locals left him there and go out every so often to feed him and give him fresh water. In the meantime, this dog has learnt to fish, so he doesn't go hungry! He also gets fed by all the cruisers who pass by because they know about him by word of mouth. If you feed him, he apparently then takes you on a tour of the island! Unfortunately for us, we arrived on the Monday after a long holiday weekend and he had obviously had tons of food to eat from the various visitors and was completely exhausted because, when he saw us (armed with a tin of corned beef for him!), he simply lumbered off under the shade of the wooden pier, dug himself a nice cool hole and flopped down for a rest. He was still there when we came back from our walk around the island!
From there, we sailed round towards Noumea, stopping at Amédée Island on the way. Amédée is beautiful with more white sandy beaches and a massive, beautifully restored, caste iron lighthouse, dating back to the days of Napoleon. Unfortunately the lighthouse wasn't open - we would love to have seen the view from the top. It was another scorching hot day so we decided to go for a quick snorkel. The snorkelling was a bit dull with slightly murky water and very few fish so we were just heading back to the dinghy when we suddenly came across a turtle nursery! Lots of small turtles were gently swimming around with feeder fish attached to them, chomping away on sea grass. They weren't remotely fazed by us and even allowed us to touch them. A very special moment!
Noumea and the supermarket was calling us as we hadn't seen a shop for 10 days and were down to one lemon as our only fresh item of food! So we are now berthed in Noumea marina and plan to be here for a few days so that we can do some land based activities, whilst we wait for our crew, Raewyn and Simon to join us on Wednesday. Then we can set off again for some more fun sailing adventures. (New photo album under 'Photo Gallery' entitled Baie de Prony.)