Tanna, Erramango and on to Port Vila

NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Sun 5 Sep 2004 01:21
Tanna, its volcano.  Erramango and on to Port Vila
 
 
Port Vila.
5th September 2004
 
 
I am sitting at the nav table with a sort of writer's block.  The reason being that I am very keen to do justice to one of the most interesting visits of our whole voyage so far.  This I find rather daunting but here goes.
 
After the feast mentioned in the previous diary entry we arranged with 'Mr Fixit' alias Stanley for the transport to be at the village for 0700hrs to get us to Lenakel on the other side of the island.  This had to be done because it is here that one goes to check in with customs, immigration and health.  Only fifteen minutes late Tom and his battered Toyota turned up.  Armed with cushions and backpacks six of us scrambled in followed by a large number of locals.  Annette sat in front and very effectively chatted up Tom who is otherwise known for his lack of interest.  Apparently she spent a lot of time talent spotting to try and find him a suitable girl as we motored through many bery basic villages.  The track wound through  jungle like countryside until suddenly we came out onto the lava ash plain that has formed in the lee of the active volcano for which this island is famous.  Until four years ago it was necessary to divert a long way around a lake but with a slight rumble nature's dam burst and there was a lake no more.  Nearly two hours and some very sore behinds later we were in Lenakel.  Here we were lucky enough to find it was market day.  As well as this event there was a play being staged in the open just behind the market.  Apparently the government is trying to educate the people against such crimes as theft and family violence by use of moral  but amusing plays.  The theatre group had come from Port Vila.  I will not repeat it here but the posters in pidgin  proclaiming this event were an entertainment in themselves.  A visit to the bank, itself quite an education, Customs, health and immigration done we settled down to a meal of rice and steak in a little palm hut near the beach before the nearly two hour drive back to the boats.  This sentence covers a slow and laborious but always entertaining process.
 
On the way back Annette's chatting up of Tom really paid and he decided to show us his skill with the Toyota and zoomed far up the lava mountain for us to take photos.  He was actually a very competent and careful driver despite, or perhaps because, there is only one place in the whole island that he gets beyond third gear.  We did not go on this piece of road.
 
During this day's drive we saw endless children so 'plastic blong push push' i.e. condoms in pidgin are not much used.  Interestingly enough on two occasions in the more remote villages young children went into near hysterics at the sight of our white faces.  Even to the late pre teenagers we were obviously a curiosity.
 
Now to the excursion.  Next day at three thirty the same happy six of us, two British and one American couple, set off with Tom but this time no Stanley.  He had apparently hit the Kava in a big way the night before and was quite simply spaced out.  We understand us this happens fairly frequently.  Tom took us to within three hundred meters of the rim.  The rest we walked up and on apparently rather further than one is supposed to but this gave us a superb view into the inner two craters.  From these twin holes huge volumes of smoke and ash were erratically pouring.  This display being interrupted every three or four minutes by a very loud explosion followed by greater or lesser quantities of molten magma thrown into the air.  This magma fell back to earth with a sound rather like a hundred gravel lorries being emptied at once.  As the sky darkened these explosions became more and more impressive due to the red hot material showing up in the fading light.  The largest eruption we witnessed threw lava to within a hundred meters of us.  All the while we were getting this show with no other people in sight.  The atmosphere was primeval.  The gut wrenching bum aching journey home in the dark was done in awed comradeship.  This experience being heightened by us all getting along very well and in fact tonight here in Port Vila we are going to have our second dinner party together.
 
On our third day in Tanna the swell began to creep round the reef and the anchorage became something of a hardship as Nordlys pitched and rolled.   So up the anchor came and we enjoyed a fine fifty mile reach to Erramango.  This island which is within site of Tanna was the scene of some notorious blackbirding in the nineteenth century.  Also a lot of Sandalwood logging.  It was also here that the locals carried on murdering and eating missionaries until very near the end of the above century.  Today the local community of a few villages has resisted the demands of large Asiatic logging firms and quietly cuts sandalwood for three months of the year only.  They also have an extensive seedling growing and planting program.  The climate is not kind to them and we were taken up their valley to the 'gardens' where most of their food is grown.  Last year this whole area was devastated by a cyclone and the resulting flash flood.  Nevertheless we as we walked amongst the detritus of the flood areas were already cleared and planted with banana palms, sago, taro and some paw paw trees.
 
After socialising with Swedish friends we had not seen since Whangarei we decided to leave the lovely anchorage of Dillan Bay and sailed overnight the eighty miles to Port Vila.  Leaving in the dark at seven thirty we enjoyed one of the best, in fact by far the best sail this season.  Fifteen knots across the deck with sheets just eased and a gentle sea saw good progress and when the moon rose the scene was magical.  Oh how sad that Jago and Claire never enjoyed this side of Pacific sailing.
 
Now moored in Port Vila we are enjoying a week of stocking up, mending and cleaning the good ship and generally preparing for the arrival of friends from Lymington.  There are some good dive sites near the Port and we also have a friend from Sydney days who lives here so it will not be all work!  As I said in my earlier diary Vanuatu showed much promise.  We have hardly scratched the country yet both of us feel it is as enjoyable as any we have so far visited. 
 
Stanley was always happy.  Seen here before his Kava binge.  Tom
has just driven us up the lee side of the volcano as far as he could
 
 
Dante's inferno?  The inner rim  can be seen with the two holes.  The one on the left
usually produced most lava and on the right most ash.  Here all is comparitavely quiet.
 
Molten magma begins to show as the daylight goes
 
The full effect seen here as night arrives