Day 182: Fiji to Vanuatu – 07/07/10

Having failed to fall asleep quickly, I am like a little dead thing when Mike wakes me at the end of his watch.  I have a permanent, low grade headache, caused by lack of quality sleep.  I am not a girl who likes to cat nap or who is sustained by broken sleep.  I need a good, solid, unbroken eight hours most of the time to get by.

I manage to keep awake by watching TV and we trundle along with no sails, motoring at just over 3 knots an hour to time our arrival with daylight.  The sea is now producing quite a large swell rather than lumpy waves which can still unbalance you if you are not careful.

I am only one and a half hours into my second sleep period of the night when Mike calls me to say we have arrived and I will need to put some warm clothes on to put the anchor down.  I pooh pooh the idea and venture out only to scuttle back immediately and put on long trousers and a thick tee-shirt.  He’s right.  It’s bloody cold. 

Photo:  Arriving at Port Resolution, Tanna, Vanuatu

We call rally control on the VHF only to discover that customs and immigration are no longer offering their services here and that we have to jump in a car and drive to Lenakel, the main town, in order to complete the formalities.

After a quick shower and a cup of tea, we are ready to go.  I decide to don my anti malaria-carrying-mosquito outfit – long cotton trousers and a long sleeved shirt, and cover all exposed parts in repellent.  I am taking no chances!!  On shore, it’s good to see Andrew, Paul and Nick from WCC.  Although Paul has been with us at most points so far, we haven’t seen Nick since Ecuador.  We have a lovely view from the Yacht Club at the top of the hill.

Photo:  The anchorage at Port Resolution with Mount Loanialu in the background

We share the taxi with Reiner from Sunrise and Daniel, the new crew member on A Lady.

Tanna is just one of the 83 islands that makes up the archipelago of Vanuatu.  During World War II some of the islands were used by the allied military forces and this was the first contact that the islanders had with our ‘developed world’.  Apparently James Michener’s experiences here during that time gave him the material to write ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ which later was filmed as the musical ‘South Pacific’.  Tanna is almost completely covered in jungle, and it creeps forward on every side.  The roads are treacherous; huge jagged gullies have been formed recently by rainfall and are waiting for a couple of dry weeks before they are filled, and the fallen trees, roots and rocks can be removed.  In the meantime, everyone is glad that the only cars around seem to be 4-wheel drives.

Photo:  Rainfall damaged road

All of a sudden we emerge from the jungle the road disappears completely and we are faced with a lunar landscape formed by the volcano’s ash and rock.  Yasur, known as the world’s most accessible volcano, is still very much alive and kicking and as we get out of the car to look around, we hear an ominous rumble, the earth moves (and Mike is nowhere near me) and a huge plume of ash erupts from behind us.  We start to feel grit landing on us and dive back into the car.  The driver floors the accelerator and we shoot out of the cloud and across the ash field.

   Photos:  Volcano and lunar landscape, Tanna has it all!

We drive across a river, only a foot or so deep at the moment, but the channel that has been cut through the ash looks about 30 feet high.  An incredible sight to be sure.

The jungle returns once more as we leave this strange, grey landscape and the roads return, pitted and falling away as before.  We do hit one patch of concrete road as we head up a mountain on its hairpin bends.

Photo:  Hairpin bend with Yasur still spitting in the background

The journey takes about two hours, even though it is only about 60 kms, such is the state of the roads.  As we drive along, people wave, but don’t smile until we do, then their genuine smiles spread wide across their faces.  They are a very friendly people who gave up eating their enemies some hundreds of years ago.  These Melanesians are physically different to the majority of Polynesians and are believed to have migrated from Papua New Guinea some 3000 years ago.

Eventually we arrive at Lenakel and go to complete the formalities at the customs and immigration offices.  Again, the officers are all very friendly, although the customs officer is wearing a Manchester United baseball cap which earns him minus brownie points.  I am intrigued by a sign on the door, explaining that fax and photocopying facilities can be found there.   I can’t understand the rest of the notice.  The language on Tanna is a kind of pidgin English with a bit of French and Spanish thrown in but sounds like nothing I have ever heard.  I learn later that there are 26 different local languages spoken here, and the children are also taught English and French at school, although I don’t think our driver learned any of them!

Photo:  Interesting language – pidgin English

While we are doing this, Daniel goes off to find the internet but the person in charge is not there do he does his shopping.  After a trip to the bank (no ATM, just a massive queue to change money) we drop Daniel at the internet cafe again and go to find the quarantine office.  The communication problems with our driver mean that we have to drag him back to the customs office so that the official there can explain exactly where the quarantine office is.  Once the penny has dropped, Ruben takes us straight there and Mike completes the remaining formalities.  The quarantine office (which incidentally looks likes someone’s house) has more mosquitoes than I would care to mention and I decide to wait outside while Mike fills out the forms.

Photo:  Mike doing the paperwork – again

When we return to pick Daniel up from the internet cafe, he hasn’t managed to get on line because the system is down, something they forgot to tell him when he was there before, so we go to a resort, the only other place where it is available, and have a drink and a wander around until he is finished.

Photo:  Pretty resort with volcanic sand beach

Photo:  Mike and Reiner enjoying a beer

We start the journey back, our driver stopping every now and then to pick up additional passengers who hop into the back of the pick up, then jump out to do their shopping or deliver stuff as we return.

Photo:  Shopping on the way home takes on a whole new meaning on Tanna

Photo:  The roots they make kava from – no instant powder here

The journey back is a torturous as they way to town, only now we are late for our afternoon sightseeing trip arriving back at the exact time that the tour is supposed to start, but we have to get back to the boat and change first, so much to our embarrassment (especially Mike’s as he is Mr Early) everybody waits for us to get a dinghy ride back, sort ourselves out and return to the cars.

Having already had a bumpy six hours in a 4-wheel pick up, the thought of more is not a particularly pleasant one but we are eager to do the trip and have no choice.  As we are last to the cars, we have the worst seats ie in the back of the pick up.  Mike and Reiner sit on the floor and I sit between two of the crew from Ariane on a wooden plank balanced across the width of the truck.  Would I do this in the UK?  Of course not, but thoughts of health and safety do no exist here, let alone the reality.

We bump along the same roads to the village of Etapu where we are welcomed with dancing and singing from the men.  Etapu is a ‘kastom’ village, where the ancient ancestral cultures are kept alive.  The village is beautifully clean and tidy, with small, well tended garden areas and huts with woven walls and thatched roofs.  Unlike the Indian village we visited in Panama back in January, there is no feeling of everything being staged for the tourists.  What we see is their way of life, and is evidenced all over the island.

  Photo:  Traditional house

Photo:  Me and a new friend

We are led into a clearing and after a few minutes we can hear singing as the men approach, coming through the archway of an enormous banyan tree (they are as spiritually significant here as they are in Polynesia).  Approximately 30 men and male children appear, singing and stamping their feet so hard that the ground shakes.  It is majestic, warrior-type stuff and I love it, having always preferred drum beats and tribal music to the more melodic ethnic music.  They all wear tiny grass skirts covering the front and nothing else.  At first appearance the men look as like their willies are bound with straw giving them the appearance of having huge erections but on closer inspection (although not too close – don’t want to look as though I am too interested) these ‘erections’ are actually the top of their skirts!  During the final dance they sing about how we have travelled over the oceans to visit us and they thank us for our visit.

Photos:  Traditional dancing

After the dancing we are given a demonstration of how to make fire.  It takes all of 30 seconds – they could teach the guy outside the fish and chip shop in Rarotonga a thing or two!

Photo:  Making fire

This is followed by the pipe player demonstrating his prowess.  Weirdly, his choice of music for this afternoon is ‘Amazing Grace’, a peculiar choice to me – I would have preferred something traditional, but he plays it well.  At first I can’t see him, then glancing up into the banyan tree, I can see him perched in its branches.

Photo:  A pipe player gives us a rendition

We are invited to look at their local work but absolutely no attempt is made to push anything onto us.  It’s quite primitive, not exactly the work of artisans, but unique in its own way.  I notice that all the necklaces made of huge wild pig tusks are the first things to go! 

I notice a group of the small children sitting watching the proceedings and go over to them.  They smile and giggle at me but let me sit and be photographed with them.  When I show them the picture afterwards they all point and giggle even more.

  Photos:  Aren’t they cute?

After that it’s time to load us back into the trucks and take us off to the volcano.

Photo:  Trying to find a bit of road to actually drive on!

The sky is already starting to darken as we make our way up to the volcano.  We go round to the opposite side of it from this morning and soon find the air starting to feel gritty.  Sitting in the back of the truck, the wind drives the grit into my face and I resort to tucking my head down and keeping my eyes closed for half the trip.  Eventually we stop.  Another lunar landscape greets us but this one is strewn with huge rocks, unlike this morning’s smooth ash field, and I wonder for the first time how safe this is.  Safe?  An active volcano!  And it’s only just starting to occur to me!  Jeez.  However, for some reason I feel no fear - my curiosity is by far the dominant feeling, and up the side of the volcano I walk until suddenly the edge comes into view.  And boy, what a view!

At first all we can see are plumes of black smoke emerging from the crater, then the rumbling starts and suddenly pieces of molten rock are thrown into the air - you can hear the soft thuds as they land.

Photos:  Yasur doing her stuff 24 hours a day

I walk further along the ridge until I get to the part where you can actually see far enough into the crater to see the molten lava all glowing away inside although by this time it is too dark for my camera to pick it up and I am finding my way around by flashlight.

It is mesmerising stuff.  I used to find watching our bonfire in the garden at home fascinating – I would stand transfixed by the patterns in the flames for ages – and this is a thousand times better.  Even though it is potentially dangerous, it’s difficult to drag yourself away.  Being so close to that much raw power is truly exhilarating.  I register another happy moment.  Only when I realise that it is pitch black do I return to the car, although we still have to wait for some of the others who practically have to be dragged away kicking and screaming.  I could have camped up there and I wouldn’t have been alone.

On the way back, Graham offers me his seat inside the pickup and I gratefully accept after a very short protest.  We get a lift back to Jeannius from Joe and Jared which takes a while as we forgot to leave the lights on and finding the boat takes a little while.  After so little sleep we are exhausted, and after dinner we flop into bed.  My hair is full of volcanic ash which I am far too tired to wash out tonight.  My pillow will be in a right state tomorrow.  Oh well.

What a fantastic day.  One of the best! 

 

Our position is:  19 deg 31 min S, 169 deg 29 min E

Distance so far:  9181 nautical miles