Tanna Island, Vanuatu
It sounds as fisherman’s story. On the island of Tanna, Vanuatu, there is an erupting volcano, which is open to visitors. Of course, we checked it out.
Vanuatu is an archipelago in "Y" formed by 80 islands, located on the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate being forced over the Indo-Australian plate. This action causes frequent volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis sometimes. In this country there are nine active volcanoes, two in ocean waters. Therefore, smoke and thermal baths are common throughout the archipelago.
From Port Resolution, where we were staying, to the crater of the volcano Yasur takes about three three hours walk. On the way, we stop at a place where festivities of independence of Vanuatu were taking place. Among sports that we know as soccer and volleyball, also witnessed the coconut tree climbing context and the bizarre “boiling water drinking” competition. The winner climber took a little longer than 30 seconds to ascend, harvest the nut and climb down the tree, as tall as about 30m. In the of boiling water game, the contestants drink a full glass of boiling water in a few minutes.
On the walk up the hill toward the crater of Yasur, since we could hear the muffled roar of explosions and feel that typical odor of sulfur. We stepped up on the mountain at dusk. From there we saw the sunset through Yasur’s eruptions of smoke, that happens every minute, about 100m away from where we were. After dusk, the fireworks festival has become impressive. We could then see the soup bubbling lava, massive red lava bombs being shot as high as 300m. All this occurred generally within the perimeter of the crater.
However, where we were, at the top of the mountain, we watched some giant lava chunks sometimes falling outside this perimeter. The tailwind made the most of these - at least the small ones - to fall in the opposite direction to where we were and that gave us a tiny sensation of safety. However, we are not sure we were in fact in a safe place. Around us were all sorts of petrified rocks, and we believe that no one has loaded them up there just work out or so.
Well, if we were not there watching the eruptions, hearing the incredible explosions involved in the smoke and feeling the cold ashes “landing” on our skin, you would not believe that all this is possible to watch, as up close as it was, a volcano in full activity.
To extend our stay in this spectacular mountain, I, Francis and Lise spent the night camping there, at about 300m from the crater, with an special license from the park manager, since this is not allowed for all visitors. We set a wood fire to ward off the cold and enjoy our super noodles accompanied by a bottle of New Zealander malbec. We stayed there chatting until the wee hours of the night, enjoying the sky reddening to each eruption. In the morning, we prepared our breakfast in a volcanic vent, next to our camp: additional zero emission!
Yasur, our “bravos” on the your show of nature. Unforgettable!
