Longitude 19° 31.9416’ S
Latitude 169° 29.1546’ E
Tanna Island, Vanuatu
Three Days in Tanna: Volcanic Adventures, Bumpy Roads and Cardboard Pizza
We only had a short three day stop in Tanna, but it was action packed and right up there with our highlights so far. We arrived in Port Resolution around lunchtime and could already see Mount Yasur steaming away, with a huge volcanic cloud constantly over the mountain. Unfortunately, this also meant that the boat would be covered in volcanic ash too, which had to be scrubbed off at some point. When we arrived, we saw many fishing canoes in the bay with locals trying to catch mackerel with nets.
Not long after anchoring, we went ashore and explored the village. On our way to the beautiful beach on the other side of the island, we stopped to watch the locals preparing for a big football match against Port Vila. Some barefoot, some with professional shoes, the ground a bit uneven and the goals just a couple of wooden poles, and all the locals were having a ball (literally). After the first half we went to the beach, which was absolutely stunning. Kids were snorkelling and playing in the blue reef. Some of us couldn’t resist jumping straight into the water, while others just sat and enjoyed it. I decided to take a walk to see what was around the corner. On my walk I was attacked by some dogs, but children came running out of the water to help me. That meant they were slapping the dogs and throwing stones at them. I don’t usually like to see animals beaten up, but it’s better than being bitten! I’ve learnt that just the gesture of picking up a stone is enough for the dogs here to run away, so I don’t really throw anything. If I needed to defend myself I would, but that might be a bit tricky with just a pretend stone in my hand!
The next day, we wanted to go snorkelling in the morning where we saw the kids the day before but when we got there, we realised that the lagoon wasn’t one at high tide, and the waves were coming straight over the lagoon crashing onto the beach. We still hung out on a beautiful empty beach and just played in the waves. For lunch we went to Lea’s Restaurant, which we had booked for 12 noon. Around 1pm we were served a lovely buffet full of local fruit and vegetables. With stuffed faces, we rolled back to the boat to get ready for the second and super exciting part of the day.
In the afternoon, we’d organised a tour to the volcano, Mount Yasur. The trip to the volcano was exciting in itself. I think there were 10 of us in a tiny pick-up truck, with some sitting inside and most on the back of the truck on tiny wooden benches. We were impressed by how organised the tour was and that we were given a briefing. Looking around at all the things on display in the Hall where we were being briefed, I noticed flyers from Rotorua, New Zealand. It turned out that our health and safety person had been to Rotorua to learn about volcanoes. Our briefing was pretty much this: we were going to be walking up a very active volcano with spitting lava rocks at alert level 2, which means major unrest, and that afterwards we would be able to tell our friends and family that we had made it out alive. The roads around and up to the volcano were top class compared to what we’ve seen so far. But with a tour price of $185 per person, you can see why it is all so shiny and new. Most of the money goes to the government. The volcano quite often destroys crops on Tanna island, and the government has to step in to help the locals survive, which is funded by the income from the tours.
Walking up to the volcano was both terrifying and exciting as we could hear the explosions and see huge clouds of ash from the car park. The closer we got, the more we could actually feel the rumbling too. And here we were, on the edge of Mount Yasur, an active volcano in all its raw power and beauty. As the most accessible active volcano in the world (I got that wrong in our video), we are absolutely humbled to have experienced this. The lava looks like it’s spitting in slow motion, which just goes to show the size of the rocks being spat up hundreds of metres into the air. You can feel the pressure of the shockwaves before you can see them, and you see the shockwaves before you can see the explosions. The darker it got, the better we could see the action as we watched the big lava rocks get stuck on the side of the volcano and slowly falling back into the crater. Walking down a volcano in the dark is also quite an experience. Firstly, you keep thinking you’ll miss the biggest explosion if you turn your back, and secondly, it was slippery because of the volcanic ash. This was definitely an experience we won’t forget and will talk about for the rest of our lives.
The next day was just as action packed. We went on a ‘bus trip’ to the other side of the island to Lenakel. Same driver, same vehicle as the night before on our volcano tour. We were lucky to be in the pick-up as it took us over two hours to get to the other side. From an extremely bumpy bush road, we suddenly found ourselves driving on this brand new, perfectly nice concrete road. Turns out China is building this road. Alarm bells went off! I hope, everyone out there understands what China is doing to these small, tiny nations that can’t pay back their debts. It’s sad to see all these islands fall for the ‘great deal’ China offered them, but then again, so do big countries like India and New Zealand too.
With sore bums despite the nice seats and road, we finally arrived and could stretch our legs. First things first: fresh vegetables from the market, as we hadn’t been able to source anything fresh for 13 days now since we left Port Vila. We took a walk around Lenakel, but there wasn’t much to see. Lots of small shops and we walked through each one to kill time. Then we went to the restaurant our driver had recommended. We quickly ordered a steak with chips and a pizza with a couple of drinks. We noticed that the dog from the restaurant looked really healthy, and that should have made everything clear; the penny should have dropped. After about 45 minutes, the waiter came and apologised for the wait, saying that the cheese on the pizza was still melting and that the food would be out soon. Twenty minutes later we finally had some food on the table. I wasn’t really hungry and didn’t order anything, which proved a good decision. The looks on everyone’s faces as they started to dig in were priceless. I had to try some of Mark’s pizza just to see what all the fuss was about, and I didn’t want a second slice. Mark kept saying out loud that he was grateful to have food to make himself feel better about eating cardboard. The steak ended up in the dog’s belly, and obviously many steaks have ended up there before. Bottom line: stick to local food all the way through!
The way back was so much fun. We ended up in the back of the truck, and with tiny, rock-hard wooden benches, quite often it was often more comfortable to stand up than sit down. When we went through the bush, we had to watch our heads to make sure we didn’t get hit by a tree. We had the funniest Kiwi guys in the back of the truck, and I was cracking up non-stop for two hours. We didn’t end up on the brand-new Chinese road and came back another way. The driver stopped at lots of little street stalls to pick up some fruit and vegetables, and we got the feeling he was doing it to support the remote locals who sell their produce on the street, as he stopped at a few, and always picked something else. We drove past the volcano again, and it was quite fun to do a little mini desert safari again. Lenakel wasn’t worth a visit, but the journey and meeting new people was worth it. Tanna has a lot more activities to offer, but we had to get back to Port Vila to drop off some crew. We would definitely come back and do it all again, and then some.
For some awesome footage, check out our YouTube video below:
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