Lost in Time - Vanuatu

So the start to the Sydney departure went well, took the train to the airport, all good, made it to Brisbane, where they said the flight was delayed. Ah. The delay was 1.5 hours because of mechanical issues, so 1.5 hours was the time I had to connect to my flight to the island of Tanna. Long story short, I missed the connecting flight and had to pay for a hotel I did not want in Port Vila. I was re-booked on the flight for the next morning...

The flight from Brisbane to Port Vila however was a little odd, I had a bag of potato chips that was unopened, it had blown up like an inflatable pillow.. the woman next to me nada a Pringles like product - it too was bursting... obviously the air pressure inside the cabin was quite low.

We did make it however :)

 Pacific Blue (Virgin Australia) was the carrier in.

 Passing Noveau Caledonie there was a huge atoll with fringe reef - my first full south pacific atoll sighting... isn't it a wonderful, the whole atoll alive with coral! I love it!

 Off to Port Vila airport the morning after and a road flooded on the way - if there is a God, it looks like he's doing everything to stop me going there!

 Port Vila Domestic Terminal (almost identical to the International one next door - no security, no Starbucks..)

 Above is Port Vila from the sky, on the island of Efate (eff-fat-ay)

 Our Aerospatiale ATR-72 made in in 35 mins after leaving the morning clouds...

 Oh this is Port Vila once more through the cloud...

And finally to my white coral sand resort.... actually it's very simple lodgings, everything here is! But it was very good.The shallow reef extends for ever - a feature of the south pacific a lot of the coral is close to the surface.

 So this is my hut and this is my tent complete with mozzie nets - oh I was chatting on the plane with 2 guys working for the Canadian Consulate, they look after small self help projects here - they told me minimum wage is 43,999 $ in Australia- so that explains why prices are insane - they get paid lots!

 And snorkel time - firt thing was to go in the water..

 The crown of thorns is trouble here now, they are looking for ways to get rid of them. Sad to see...

 But the best thing about the little reef at the hotel, part of one that circles the island - is the anenomes and their clownfish there are tons of them, and I love 'em!

 I cannot get enough of these little cuties...

 Not that's there's nothing more..

 I could have snorkeled around here for a lot longer - but had to keep it short, we were off in a van from the hotel over the rocky roads...

 Lovely house reef, talking to some of the staff they too were concerned about the arrival of the crown of thorns..

The coral below has a little face :)

 Lovely, lovely!

On the way up to the  hills, here's a banyan tree..

 And someone just had a funeral...

 Coffee grown here on Tanna

 And the mysterious Kava bush!

 As we get higher the views become magnificent..

 And there is Yasur - the Volcano that made this island and hasn't stopped belching to this day. Yasur means God.

 Those hills in the pic below are next to the volcano...

 We are going to climb that volcano!

 Part of the way in this thing :)

 Through the mud roads..very small areas are paved, usually by the Australian and French Armies...

 We are now on a huge area of pumice ash blown out of the volcano..

 Almost moonlike it is quite scenic.

 The two below are the driver and his friend..

 See how the piles of pumice just roll into the jungle..

Sometimes the rain makes canyons in the dust..

 With big rocks thrown out sometimes too. No reference to size they are probably football sized and we are several KM from where they came out...

 Vanuatu has a claim to odd mailboxes, they have one underwater and one here on a volcano... it gets emptied daily!

 On the edge of the vent, there are two smoking chambers and we have to stay out of the fumes, they are toxic sulphurous things and the wind blows this gritty pumice ash in your face... We slid around to one point and there's a big explosion and we had to run...not from the lava so much but you could feel the heat, but the clouds of pumice and the fumes...

 The crater edge goes up and down...

 Behind us the sun was setting..

 And so of course the lava appeared brighter as it got darker... you can feel the heat...

 There's a handful up there from hotels all over the island, there's only a handful... the people I rode up with are from Noumea in New Caledonia. They were very nice.

 One vent nearer to us was particularly noisy. The lava here, if I remember my school days correctly is gasseous lava - it spits and explodes as gases escape, it's not clean flowing stuff, it splats all over -

 Of course you wait and wait for a good belch...

 But my camera battery is going down! Arghhhhh!

 By the time it is completely dark, you can see this entrance to Hades glowing in the fumes... Quite evil! But a marvellous sight.

 And one last belch for good measure, I took hundreds of pics :) Never should get this close to lava again!

 We then stopped to try Kava on the way home, the mystical hypno drink of the Coral Sea islands, the plant is innocuous enough, for sure but apparently here in Vanuatu they pound the roots into some strong liquor - which u gulp down in one go.

Not only was it attached to ceremony - and is male exclusive, women are not welcome - but it's first effect was supposed to numb the tongue and lips a little...

 And it was just a little. I didn't feel anything else! But Kava houses or Nackamal as they call them are all over the island. They fuel a huge mini industry...there's little lights at the end of house driveways if they have Kava... and you can see lots of lights in places!

So that was day one Tanna, where I should have been earlier...sigh... but yes I did for sure get what I wanted done today. From my little hut there's no traffic and no AC,  nothing but waves, the cicadas in the forest and the odd gecko squawk. Life is good in Tanna!