We flew to Tanna from Efate and spent 2 days (1 night) there.

The first afternoon we travelled to the other side of the island to see the Volcano.

This is the only volcano where you can actually stand on the rim and look down.  Well it did not appeal to us to go quite to the rim as it is against all common sense.

The driver was quite mad..  he drove through the middle of the island off the main roads so that he could show us his little village and told us a lot about way of life.

‘Cava’ which is a drink made from the roots of the ‘Cava’ tree and is very potent – probably worse than any alcohol.  He told us that people do not try to dance around having had cava as they would just fall over.

Daily in the village the Chief of the village has cava drinking and all men from the village can join in as long as they are married and have at least one child.

Women are not allowed to join in and not even allowed to come near.

When a man comes home after cava drinking he has a tourch (lit piece of wood) to warn his wife not to speak to him as it is believed that if he needs to talk, the effects will wear off.

At 5.30 the drums are sounded and signify two things..

1. the children are to come home now
2. the women are to stay away from the cava place as cave is being prepared and they are not allowed to see it.

Aerial photograph of our boat. It is just to left of the grey roof (reversed against land).  Steve in front of our plane on arrival at Tanna

View from the balcony of our ‘bungalow’                                                          our hotel room ‘bungalow’ where we stayed overnight

Tree house..  great for kids..                                                                    local children in front of the ‘huts’ where they live… - always smiling…

Our Driver/Guide..                                                                              Local boys on way home with the pig they cought and killed..

The road getting closer to the volcano..                                                        The volcano.. it is closer than it looks..  the earth was shaking and lots of ash…

We went for a walk the next day and the local children were very keen to have their picture taken and very excited to see a picture of themselves in the camera afterwards…  next to it is a picture of the house where they live..  very simple way of life….

Another picture of a local house.                                                                                     And not so local girl….

Another aerial photo out of the plane window on the way back….