December: a week in paradise!

Sitting on our little porch alternating between gazing out to sea, watching the insects in the plants and writing, I felt a little like Alfred Russel Wallace and could imagine staying there longer - providing I had someone to bring me cool drinks!  It was a veritable paradise. Tiny palm and papaya flowers, vibrant blowsy hibiscus flowers dotting the ground, ‘sea almond’ and ‘beach apple’ trees (my name for them) spread great branches like giant oak trees shading the fringes of the beach, bananas and papayas hung invitingly just a little beyond reach. Butterflies fluttering constantly around ferns depositing their eggs. With no one to spoil my reverie I daydreamed - what luxury! 

I longed to go swimming but the sea became rough and I was nervous to go in alone because of strong currents and reefs. The black sands were warm under foot from geothermal activity, and at low tide village people clustered around headland rock pools filled with warm freshwater spring water to wash their clothes (we saw these hot springs elsewhere along the coast). Young kids dived for large shellfish and tiny fish then roasted them on small fires under the trees. 

And then the ground shuddered as an earthquake hit sending small tsunamis crashing close to our bungalow. Exciting but a little unnerving. 

It is a place for stillness and solitude - and it’s for sale! If we weren’t so hell bent on travelling to the ends the earth while we can still lug our own bags, I reckon we might have been very tempted. Anyone out there interested can check www.friendlybeachvanuatu.com for the latest.
Thanks as always to our marvellous travel manager, Bev Edwards, who makes everything go so smoothly.

We were staying in the south-east corner not so far from the volcano

The road into our bungalows- Fruendly Beach Bungalows. It was pretty and pretty steep!

Our bungalow tucked into the edge of the jungle.

A very comfy bed with a very effective mozzie curtain. The bungalow was very romantic festooned with flowers and the bathroom built straight onto coral, beach and volcanic stones.

The porch where many hours were idled away.

Our beach

Palm flowers

These kids were digging themselves into the sand to warm up having just harvested a bunch of shellfish off the reef

These little greyband umber butterflies never stopped moving as they deposited their eggs on the hapless tree fern. The lava of course eat most of the leaves before they have a chance but c’est la vie!

Villagers washing in the pools of warm fresh water at low tide



This was another beach further around the coast where the same thing happens at low tide - warm fresh water, bubbles through in to the pools,  hot enough to cook inbut the villagers wash in it.

I collected a handful of tiny lines for our cooks to use in the kitchen

Another strange lime - dozens of seeds but tasted wonderful

Wild cherries with little flavour but the passion fruit were simply scrumptious

December 1-8 Vanuatu: the people

We were fortunate to be able to visit a number of villages and tribes and found that everywhere we went, we were welcomed warmly. The Entani tribe, who protect the volcano, gave us entree to their sacred mountain. A fascinating, albeit a little startling, visit to a tribe not so long separated from their cannibal past where Lindsay met with the chief’s son and was given wise advice on his responsibilities as a man. He showed us, well actually Lindsay (it’s a patriarchal society) how they ‘predicted’ the weather, enforced laws like arranged marriages, how they healed their sick - the Kasdom way. And on our final day on the island we visited the village of the Yakel tribe; this was the village setting for the movie Tanna in 2015, a movie about an ancient culture and its customs. We met some of the people who featured in the movie. This is one of the villages which follows traditional kastoms where modern inventions are restricted - except we saw a couple of small solar panels installed to power lights - and the villagers wear traditional clothes: grass skirts for the girls and penis sheaths for the men and older boys. These warm and gentle people gave us a small window into traditional village life. Each family has its own compound with structures for sleeping, eating and housing animals. 

We were taken to see a Stone Age man-made cave and an ancient footprint embedded in the lava. Once protected from outsiders’ eyes, the local villages which are the custodians of the treasures of Tanna Island, are sharing some of their ancient heritage- and very proudly. All the guides are local and they are passionate about their island. 

There is a simplicity of life and the warmth and humour of the people make this place an idyllic place. I gave me pause for thought at what treasures we are missing out on by not knowing and understanding more about our Australian aborigines. One can always hope! 

The banyan trees are sacred on Tanna. Sadly this huge tree was damaged during Cyclone Pam but it is still a magical entrance to another world. We slipped through the roots and were greeted by screaming terrifying tribes people acting out their cannibal past.

Of course we had to line up for a photo with clubs and spears

This is one of the family houses in the village of Yakel, ‘Wawa’s family. We met her mother and grandfather and Selin her duster - in the movie. It’s fairly rudimentary.

The kids were intrigued watching Lindsay changevthe batteries in his hearing aids. A first for them!

A bought a beautifully polished shell from this beautiful woman. All thevwomen laid out their trinkets to show us (but we had little local money - and customs etc)

The kids were just gorgeous and loved having their pictures taken and being able to see themselves and pix of our great grandson.

These kids were from a village up the hill from where we were staying. Why abd first but the camera or rather the pix made them curious. This village has a home stay.

Our last day on Tanna we wandered around the small market at the main town. Wonderful selection of fresh fruit and vegetables. And lots of curious stares - tourism is pretty slim at the moment and those who come go Tanna go to the main tourist spots.

December 2 - Mt Yasur: a volcanic experience!

We finally made it up to the crater of the worlds longest, continuously erupting volcano .... hooray!  A bit of a hard climb for me, but I made it. That was after an extremely rough, bone-shaking drive through the jungle - in the  back of a 4x4 cab ute, and back again!  Let me tell you that by the time we got back to our bungalow some 6-7 hours later, we ached in places we didn't recognise. We banged along volcanic ash roads damaged by rain leaving wash-aways, detouring around even rougher spots disappearing into deep gullies and along simple wheel ruts. Between partially vegetated black ash dunes and across a vast moonscape of ash plains, we clung to the car frame until ........ there it was - Mt Yasur!

We were dumbstruck! It is simply awe inspiring. 

To the Entani tribe, who protect this mountain, it is sacred: the name Yasur means ‘god’. But before we could approach the mountain, a special ceremony was performed by the villagers to seek blessing and permission. We also had to get the green light from the Bureau of Meteorology who continuously monitor the volcano's ferocity from up near the crater.  The volcanic activity is reported as Volcanic Alert levels from 1 to 5 - if it reaches Alert Level 5 the entire island is evacuated.  On the day we visited, Mt Yasur was relatively 'quiet' at Level 2, but four days later (after the earthquake strangely enough - a connection there you reckon!!) it had gone to over Level 3 and the area was off limits to visitors, way too dangerous.  Our visit was obviously meant to be! 

What an amazing adventure our short stay was! From the day we arrived until leaving the island five days later, not only had we gazed into the fiery maw of a very volatile volcano, we experienced a series of shocks from a magnitude 7.5 earthquake off the coast, and small tsunamis smashing well beyond the high tide line just in front of our bungalow. That night and the following there were storms and torrential rain we only got one of two drops through the roof. It was a little exciting to say the least! 

But back at the volcano, it was spectacular, awesome, overwhelming, mighty, mesmerising - and very hard to tear yourself away from. Billowing smoke, gas and ash, molten fragments of the earth's innards some huge burning shapes shooting high into the sky only to tumble back in to the hellish vents from where they had been spat out - fiery offerings to the dying sun. After a few hours riveted to the spot at the crater's edge peering into not one but two vents, our joints had seized up and reluctantly we all trooped (me stumbling!) back down to the 4x4s - in the dark.

Remember the movie ‘Tanna’ well this is where the two lovers died. The Yakel tribe who played in the movie still live on the eastern side of the island - we visited them later in the week and met some of the stars of the movie. More anon. .....

We were treated to a couple ceremonial dances by the Entanai tribe. Once these were performed only by men but today everyone joins in. Light level low hence poor resolution. 

Mt Yasur quietly smoking. 

The ash plains are a panoramic moonscape. Fascinating!

The mostly blackish ash is broken by swathes of pinkish and yellow harden lava and on the fringes the jungle ever so slowly creeps in. 

The rock is a strange consistency and the colours interesting- all comes from the belly of the earth. 

Behind this massive ash dune is the crater. The slopes attract a few dare devils including Jacky Chan. 

Are finally the crater was in sight. One final, we’ll almost, climb to peer into the maws of this fiery giant. 

I struggled a bit getting up the slope but Lindsay was there encouraging and behind was Daniel one of the village guides just making sure I was OK. What a wimp - but I did it!

Close to the rim - all smiles. 

This is to show you the safety railing around the crater!! Thin bamboo sticks nailed together and painted white. Hmmmm .....

And this shows how steeply the ground fell away from the ‘guard rail’. If you went over that would be the end as it’s a slippery slope straight into the vents. Needless to say we didn’t lean on the rails!

A bit of a panorama shot

The entire time we were there the volcano huffed and puffed, groaned, cracked and roared. Quite terrifying yet mesmerising. 

December 1-8 Vanuatu

Who would have imagined that we would visit all the Hebridean archipelagos this year? It wasn't planned that way, but we got to visit the Inner and Outer Herbides in Scotland in June and finished the year visiting the New Hebrides - Vanuatu! The archipeligo is a smattering of 100 odd islands (80 inhabited) located on the Pacific Ring of Fire where the Pacific tectonic plate subducts below the Indo-Australian plate.  Not surprising then that some of the islands have active volcanos. The islands appear like a densely forested, wonky mountainous skeleton running north-southish. 

Like their northern hemisphere namesakes, the islands of Vanuatu were inhabited for thousands of years before the first Europeans, Spanish explorers, arrived around 1600. Not long afterwards, and shortly after Captain James Cook visited, the islands were colonised by both the British and French - to teach the ‘natives’ how to live a better life! Familiar story. However .... in 1980, the New Hebrides gained their independence as the Republic of Vanuatu. Even so remnants of colonialism remain in the language. Both English and French are still fairly widely spoken and one or other is taught at school. While some have been lost, there are over 100 dialects thoroughout the islands, but communication between language groups is usually in Bislama (pidgin), a type of creole language. 

The economy is poor and education beyond primary school a luxury the majority can’t afford. Many of the men come to Australia to pick fruit and vegetables as a way of earning more money. The dream of many both men and women is to work in tourism either as guides or owner-drivers. The majority of the businesses are island owned which is encouraging. 

Beautiful people. 

Boarding the plane for the half hour flight to Tanna Island from Port Vila. We were surrounded by jungle mountain peaks. 



Port Resolution named by Capt Cook in 1700s. He wrote about the smoke and ash from the volcano Mt Yasur, which is located in the southern part of Tanna. 

We were treated to a feast of local vegetables and eggs by one of local village families. This shelter is a place for special occasions, feasts, holidays - and for feeding tourists. The people are very generous sharing their food. The little tyke atbthe sidd was very wary of we white folk but got lured out by pix of our great grandson. Unlike further east, the sand here was white and the water pale. Where we were thevsand was back andvthe water slatey blue. 

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