After a day at sea from Fiji, the new day saw our arrival in a new country. Authorities boarded and cleared us into Vanuatu. An archipelago of about 80 islands and 210,000 people, the islands achieved independence from Britain and France in 1980. Our first stop of the day was the island of Tanna. Our Zodiacs landed us on a volcanic black sand beach in Resolution Bay, named after his ship by Captain Cook when he arrived in 1774.
We then loaded into a variety of pickups for the half hour journey into the hills where we were to visit Mount Yasur, an active volcano. This was my first visit to this island, and indeed my first chance to visit an active volcano. I didn’t really know what to expect - I had visions of viewing the action from some range; seeing some belching smoke and ash emerging above a crater rim and hearing distant rumblings. I could scarcely have been more wrong.
We wound and bounced our way up a rutted dirt road through a forest of banyans and tree ferns, finally emerging on an ash plain at the foot of a short, rocky, slope. We could hear the rumblings and hissings of the volcano and see and smell the clouds of smoke and ash rising from the cone. Already we were closer than I had expected to be, and after a short climb, we were even closer, standing on the crater rim and looking across the 300 metre crater and down into the pit. And then ‘BOOM!’ As much felt as heard, an explosion would shake the ground and chunks of molten rock were hurled skywards before they thudded back down to earth in the crater. Nothing had prepared me for this. Such a raw and elemental experience, the sheer energy of the earth spewing forth molten rocks with such violence could not fail to inspire awe. We stood spellbound for a while watching as the performance was repeated, until we reluctantly had to leave.
In the afternoon we relocated the short distance to the island of Aniwa where we examined the reef using our glass-bottomed boat, snorkeling and diving. A beautiful afternoon was rounded off by a superb green flash as the sun set.
We then loaded into a variety of pickups for the half hour journey into the hills where we were to visit Mount Yasur, an active volcano. This was my first visit to this island, and indeed my first chance to visit an active volcano. I didn’t really know what to expect - I had visions of viewing the action from some range; seeing some belching smoke and ash emerging above a crater rim and hearing distant rumblings. I could scarcely have been more wrong.
We wound and bounced our way up a rutted dirt road through a forest of banyans and tree ferns, finally emerging on an ash plain at the foot of a short, rocky, slope. We could hear the rumblings and hissings of the volcano and see and smell the clouds of smoke and ash rising from the cone. Already we were closer than I had expected to be, and after a short climb, we were even closer, standing on the crater rim and looking across the 300 metre crater and down into the pit. And then ‘BOOM!’ As much felt as heard, an explosion would shake the ground and chunks of molten rock were hurled skywards before they thudded back down to earth in the crater. Nothing had prepared me for this. Such a raw and elemental experience, the sheer energy of the earth spewing forth molten rocks with such violence could not fail to inspire awe. We stood spellbound for a while watching as the performance was repeated, until we reluctantly had to leave.
In the afternoon we relocated the short distance to the island of Aniwa where we examined the reef using our glass-bottomed boat, snorkeling and diving. A beautiful afternoon was rounded off by a superb green flash as the sun set.
