Tanna Island and Mt Yasur Volcano

  Tanna, Vanuatu Sunday, January 25, 2015

We arrived at the airport way too early but we were both excited about going so we didn't mind the 3 hour wait!!! The lovely Korin and her husband met us at the airport and brought our tickets and very kindly took our big bags away with them to store until we returned tomorrow. This was we could travel very light with just a back pack which was ideal for a one night away trip. The plane which took us to Tanna was tiny - just 15 seats. It didn't even have a cockpit door so if we stood up we could see out of the cockpit window - cool! No food or trolley dolly service though as we were only in the air for 45 minutes. We were met at the airport by Charlie and joined by an Italian couple, we made the short journey to Evergreen resort. Now we hadn't booked our own accommodation here, it was included in the trip. So we had no idea what it was going to be like. Our motto is expect the worst but hope for the best. Hope won out here and we were shown to our beautiful room overlooking the sea. After our large but very dated room at Tara Beach this was 5 star all around. The views were beautiful and we had a good shower - whit hot water!!! Wow! To top that, the bed was so so comfy too we wished we were staying more than one night. (hold that thought) We had a bit of time to kill so walked to "the Blue Hole" for some snorkelling. We were a bit disappointed as it seemed to be the name of the local bay rather than a real blue hole but Bryan got in and made the most of it anyway. At 3:30pm we jumped in the car with Charlie again and joined also by the Italian couple again. They were also travelling the world for 3 months so we had a bit in common and we managed to find plenty to chat about as we made our way across the island towards the volcano. Now you might wonder if we are getting a bit volcano obsessed, this our 2nd volcano in as many weeks. But it's just the way it turned out. However this one was active and we were promised activity with lava, ash, gases and everything! How exciting. Charlie stopped at the viewpoint on the way and we saw Mt Yasur for the first time. It had ash spewing out he top but it looked really impressive. The second half of the journey there was very slow going. The roads on the first half had been bad as there are no tarmac roads on Tanna but the last leg, well it was like going off road. We both said it reminded us of Mongolia when we took the 4x4 across the country. Charlie stopped at the foot of the volcano and we all got out. As we stood at the base of the volcano covered in thick ash deposits, we heard a loud GGGRRRRR!!!!We all looked at each other as the volcano was rumbling away, and wondered if it was safe to be there. Charlie just looked bemused. He probably sees this reaction from everyone he takes there as he says it does this all day long, every day. Reassured we took a bit longer to explore. Charlie pointed out the rocks that had been fired out in the last wave of more volatile activity and then Jody found a coconut. OK Charlie, is Yasur spitting out coconuts too she asked. We continued in the car a bit further and eventually came to the end of the road. The last bit was on foot. There was a guide - Nancy, waiting for us and Charlie gave us torches to get back down again. Right at the bottom of the slope was the world's only volcano post box. Bugger! we had forgotten to bring our postcards. Actually we had forgotten to buy them. Never mind - we could sort that out later.We followed Nancy up the track which was incredibly steep. As the steep pathway levelled off slightly, it became ash and rocks making it more hard work to climb but it wasn't long before we were at the top. As it was still light we could see the huge crater below us which was churning out gases. We walked along the rim to the highest point and we could see the lava churning below. Then every 5 -10 minutes Yasur gave a big GGGRRRRR! and a whoosh of ash would shoot up into the sky. Then every other rumble was much bigger and accompanied by a jet of lava sent shooting out too. It was incredible to watch. Then the common sense side of us kicked in a bit and we were torn between worrying about the crater caving in and us tumbling into the centre, and marvelling at the amazing sight in front of us - something we knew could not be witnessed by the public in many places on earth. Our amazement won out and we stayed until dark to marvel at it all a bit longer. It seemed as if the darker it got, the louder Yasur rumbled. And the darker it got, the more impressive this natural firework display became. The sparks seemed to shoot higher and brighter. We spent about 2 hours altogether on the crater and eventually made our way down in pitch blackness to Charlie waiting in the car for us. Thank goodness for our guide Nancy and the torches Charlie gave us otherwise they would have had to wait for morning for us to get down! Charlie seemed to make it back to Evergreen in super quick time earning him the name Charlie Ferrari. He got us back in an hour where we washed up and settled down for a delicious dinner. What an incredible day! If you want to see some video of the volcano you can watch it here The following day we had a wonderful breakfast as we sat looking out to sea. What a shame we had to leave.... Charlie drove us to the airport and we checked in for our return to Port Vila on Efate Island. We waited in the big room for departures and casually remarked that we hadn't seen a plane come in and that we were expecting a bigger one this time as there were so many more people waiting this time. As the time came around that we were due to take off, we were all asked to leave departures and see the man outside. Uh Oh - what's going on??? Nothing is going on apparently! No flights today due to a mechanical fault they couldn't fix in time. Charlie had reappeared and we were asked to go back to Evergreen to await more news. We queued at the desk for more info and at this point you really have to understand that this airport is more like a barn, the staff write boarding passes out by hand, there are no computers and a very ordinary scale for weighing luggage. Many customers are checking in their chickens in cardboard boxes. Absolutely no modern equipment here at all and it is so disorganised - nothing like a regular airport. So trying to get any information out of them was impossible as they didn't even appear to have a phone so they probably had no clue themselves. However, we were not stressed by this. We got our names down in the book and with the promise that our accommodation and meals today were courtesy of Air Vanuatu, we headed over to Charlie's truck and back to Evergreen. We were even given the same room so back to our beautiful room overlooking the sea. Result! We managed to contact Korin in Port Vila and let her know what had happened and settled back to enjoy another beautiful evening, another fabulous evening meal and another wonderful nights' sleep. We even raised a glass to Air Vanuatu that night. The following day we were not so lucky and the flights had resumed. We had a wonderful extended stay on Tanna. It is a beautiful island with lovely people. The volcano was incredible and once again, we are left with a life lasting memory. We are two of the luckiest people we know. 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