Riikka maailmalla: Cross Island Walk (how to get lost in the jungle)

The Cross Island Walk is a somewhat popular hike leading all the way across the island. The other end starts conveniently quite close to my accommodation, about an hour walk away from here, and ends to the other side of the island, between villages Rutaki and Vaimaanga. Since it didn't rain much last weekend, it was decided that it was time to check the walk off from the to do -list.

We started early (ish) on Sunday morning with backpacks full of food, especially me: sandwiches, bananas, star fruits, sweets, popcorn and papaya scones. It was a cloudy day, which I've really learned to appreciate in this climate. The walk to the beginning of the track was easy and nice and took us less than an hour. As we entered the jungle, we had covered ourselves with mosquitoe repellant and sweat. The beginning of the track is dense with small, fallen trees but it soon clears out as the uphill begins. Out of breath, and concentrated on the climb, we quickly fell silent as we worked our way up to the top. It took us less than an hour to reach Te Rua Manga, also known as the Needle, in 413 meters. The view was outstanding: you could see the harbour in town, Avarua, and the shore on the opposite side of the island, and jungle covered mountains and valleys in between. There are ropes and chains assisting the most adventurous minded hikers climb up the Needle on the North side, but having awful fear of heights and a big appreciation for being alive and in one piece, I was very happy just to sit down at the base of the big rock and have a picnic with the best view ever listening to the sounds of the very peculiar island birds (like seagulls but with larger peaks and long, red tails). For whatever reason I don't understand, there also was a rooster hiking up the rocks after us, probably begging for food.

Agility track.

Much of the track is dependant on tree roots and trunks.

Charlotte showing off her climbing skills.

The Needle.

We are coming, beach!

Sign at the Needle.

Beautiful views from up top.

Happy climbers. All three of us.

Rooster on the top of the world!

After our well spent break, we decided to start the descend, the easier part of the hike. Or so we thought. We stood at a crossroads, reading a sign, deciding which track to take. One of them came where we had come from, one from the Needle, leaving two tracks to decide for. Somehow, not checking before hand which track to take, we decided to take the one that was going straight towards the other side of the island, and now I am pretty sure there wad not even an arrow pointing that way. We were amused by the rooster, who kept following us and crowing after us some meters on the track. We joked it was lonely and asking us to stay with him, but now i am convinced it was trying to warn us. We were on the wrong track!

The track soon changed in to the most difficult hike I've done (including Kilimanjaro). We were climbing up and down on steep and narrow hills and slopes, sometimes only holding on to tree branches or roots. After 30 minutes of hiking, I started wondering if this was really the right track, and Charlotte started wondering if the track had actually changed so much since her last hike (a year ago, so we decided that jungles just grow and change fast). Soon after that we were crossing diagonally a very steep hill, when suddenly the earth under my shoe slid, and so did I, forcing Charlotte grab a hold of me so I wouldn't slide any further. Luckily there was a lot of vegetation, so I wouldn't have slid too far away even without the quick action of my friend. After that I almost slid off again, grabbing a hold of a dead branch that came off on my pull and as I was just saying: "I'm not gonna do that again. 'Famous last words'". I learned my lesson for sure and started double checking every branch, root, step and stone.

"Is this the right track?"
Sure, just follow the pipe and go up, up the hill.

See a track?

After going uphill for a while, the track led to a deep descend all the way to the bottom of the valley. Grabbing hold of the vegetation, giant ferns and roots for example, we slid our way (sometimes on our bums) carefully on the slopes of the crasiest, and what seemed like the longest, hill ever finally reaching the end of the descend and a stream. By that time, we had lost the track and had no other choice than to walk in the stream, empowered by the fact that it had started to rain and that we had seen bird bones on the ground (spooky). After only a short walk in the stream, we magically spotted the original right track, which was easy to follow and walk on, despite some loose earth and slipperiness. We met another hiker and quickly realised where we gad gone wrong. Relieved, muddy and tired we reached the end of the track: Wigmore's Waterfall (Papua) and had a refreshing swim in the cold water before walking to thd nearest shop to have icecream and a well deserved swim and rest at the beach.

The end. (Don't tell my mom.)