Vanuatu - Tanna (and the Volcano!) Photos
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 9 Oct 2012 11:55
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Tanna is the next island up the chain after Anatom and
is famous for the volcano, Mount Yasur. It's one of the most accessible active
volcanoes in the world, and by active we mean constantly bubbling away with
frequent explosions sending glowing red lumps of molten lava high
into the sky. When peering over the rim of the crater and an explosion occurs,
the instructions are not to run, but wait, see which way the wind is blowing the
lava, and then, if you need to, run!
The only decent anchorage in Tanna is at Port
Resolution. It's just an indentation in the east coast creating a
narrow bay that gives protection from the prevailing winds. It was
named by Captain Cook after one of his ships. There's no port there. The main
town on Tanna is over on the west coast, but has no proper anchorage and is
affected by the prevailing winds and swell. There is a track across, but it's so
bad it takes a 4WD 3 hours to negotiate it and apparently it's quite an
adventure. We never attempted it and so have no idea what it's like, but
the villages around Port Resolution are very basic - houses made of
pandanus leaves and outrigger dugout canoes the main water
transport. The school had breeze block buildings and maintaining it
was clearly a priority. At break-time the 90 or so pupils shouted and screamed,
and played football, just like any school anywhere else in the
world.
Thier way of life is very traditional, but with the odd
bit of modern technology where it fits. We had a knock on the side of
the boat from a villager who had paddled out in his dugout canoe to ask us if we
would charge his mobile phone! We said we would and he left it in a
plastic bag and paddled back to shore, returning 3 hours later to pick it up
again. They've never had land-line phones and have gone from nothing to
mobile. Another guy came along later in his dugout canoe to get his DVD
player recharged. Some of the villagers have generators, but they struggle to
fix them if they stop working, and some have solar panels, but they still
live in houses made from pandanus leaves.
It just so happens that the Volcano is
conveniently placed just over the hill from Port Resolution (45mins by slow
4WD). So one of the ways the village brings in income is to take cruisers up to
see it. They have one pick-up truck within the village and cram as many
people in the back of it as they can. You can see the smoke from the
volcano as you approach the island and as it's so close, every now and then
when at anchor, can hear the deep rumbles of the
explosions.
Vanuatu is a malaria area, although the southern islands
are supposed to be less of a risk. Nevertheless we did take malaria tablets - 2
days before we arrived, every day we were there and 7 days afterwards. Luckily
we weren't affected by the long list of possible side effects, which did make
you think twice about taking them!
 The inner bay of Port Resolution - it's too
shallow to anchor.
 The anchorage a little further
out.
 One of our first
callers.
 The local children loved having their
picture taken and then seeing what it looked like.
 The main dinghy landing, alongside the local
boats.
 Village houses and the 'main road' through
the village.
 They had restaurants
too!
 Village houses were concentrated around a
village green, but some where set back in
the trees.
 Following the main road out of
town............
 .............. which twists and winds a
bit, and you come across .......
 .....this! But don't get too excited
..........
 .... this is it. Quite modern compared with
the other buildings. You could get drinks here
in the evenings and they cooked meals for
guests who could stay in the cabins below.
Needless to say there are no resident
yachts, but there are a lot of yacht and yacht club
burgees from all over the world hanging
inside.
 3 guest cabins side by
side.
 There were a lot of these trees around the
village - datura - very poisonous!
 One of the villagers, Sara, demonstrating
the use of her hand operated sewing machine -
a Singer of
course!
 Lunch for the village one day! We saw only
one.
 The village pick-up truck loading up for the
next excursion to the volcano.
 The intrepid explorer waits in
anticipation!
 The glowing lava showers get brighter as the
sun goes down.
 A silhouette of the crater's rim. The high
point is the best observation area and you
can just see people standing on the top. We
climbed up there and peered
over the edge,
but decided to come back down before it got
too dark to see where you were going.
 The display continues every evening unless
it starts to get too active and visitors are
kept further away. The glowing lava was
spectacular, but the noise that accompanied
each explosion was quite
frightening.
 We had a very strong wind blowing away from
us, so felt sort of safe!
 Banyan trees - they are huge! The
villagers organised a fund-raising lunch to help
send one of the young men to
study to be a minister in Fiji. The lunch was in one of
the
village meeting places, surrounded by
several of these great trees.
 The food all set out on mats on the
ground.
 Beth, from yacht Sarah Jean, entertains the
children.
  Just through the village and you're on Ocean
Beach - a gorgeous beach to walk along
and watch the Pacific Ocean waves come
rolling in. The water's so clear and colours
so bright.
 No tourists here, except us of
course!
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