Wood grubs and horse riding

Last weekend we went to Farino, about 1.5 hours drive from Noumea, for the wood grub festival..... where fair buxom wenches present your squirming lunch for your enjoyment.

Another grub, guv'nor?

Don't mind if I do!

Actually the truth is a bit more difficult. You have to catch your own grubs (though they are allegedly edible). We looked, and looked, and smashed up bits of wood with other bits of wood, but all we got was an angry centipede and a smashed thumb.

Marc-Andre and Brendan looking for some 'grub'.

After having a massive fail at the Bancoule festival (Wood grub = bancoule in French, which makes it more fancy and therefore less disgusting and more of a delicacy), we went horse riding in the nearby town of Sarramea. This was great. We had an awesome guide who was very patient with us, the horses were patient and nice and didn't try to kill us, nobody fell off, we saw some lovely countryside and we finished our ride just as everyone's bum was really starting to get sore. The company is Sarramea Randonnees and it's 5500XPF for 2 hours. The horses are well cared for and the business is well run. Highly recommended.

Sophie, Eliane, Brendan, Marc-Andre, Kate and our guide

After the horse riding we went to check out a local swimming hole called 'Le Cuve' (The Tank). It's pretty but too cold to swim right now.

Le Cuve

Then we ran into some crazy bush ninjas.

The boys with the 'Chop Chops' they bought from the Bancoule festival

Then we took some pictures of an awesome old haunted looking house.

The End!