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Published: September 11th 2023
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There are very few direct flights from Solomons to Vanuatu, but none of the days I'm looking for. So the easy way was Honiara to Nadi, night in Nadi and on next early afternoon on the Fiji Airways ATR72, propeller, 2 hours flight from Nadi to Port Vila!
Port Vila is the small capital of the Vanuatu archipelago. What a surprise coming from the Solomons. Here the main industry is tourism, and it shows! I haven't done my homework before landing here! The three official languages are Bismala, French and English. Bismala being a mix of the past two colonial powers!
I'm spending the first night in Port Vila. The visit to the local supermarket, Au Bon Marche was a fun one. Nothing is cheap here, but it's impressive how many French products are available here! I stock a little to bring back to Bali.
My hotel is a basic old affair, nothing to brag about and not a place I would spend a week of holidays, but it does the job and isn't that expensive. Dinner tonight is at L'Houstalet. French restaurant packed with Aussies and Kiwis enjoying some French food. Did I mention
that nothing is cheap here, but everything is available!
Next morning, I wake up early to walk into downtown. This is one of these little island I could easily live in. The people are simply charming. There is wine easily accessible from Aus/NZ, Champagne from France...food is super nice...and you can dive and play golf! More on these later...
There seems to be a lot more veggies available here...but on top of the obvious seafood...Vanuatu is famous for growing some of the best beef in the South Pacific! It does actually show on most menus where beef is often proposed ahead of fish!
Late morning and I'm ready for my next adventure. I name the flight to Tanna Island and the active volcano of Mt Yasur. The minibus is picking guests around town, there are five of us. I can tell you, not my type of crowd, yes it does happen! So it will be a super fun 20 hours experience...don't speak to me about the crowd!
Visiting Tanna is a special experience. The island host one of the only active volcano that you can visit in the
world. Bear in mind, some 15 years ago I walked not that far away from the lava flow in Hilo, the Big Island, Hawaii. Well, this is very very different! This place is your wildest or worst dream...you have basically access to the active volcano, rather standing on top of it!
First step, the one hour flight from Port Vila to Tanna Island. From there, a decent SUV is picking us up...direction the volcano. The first hour is on a proper road. Not many stops as we have better ahead of us, but couldn't not stop for few pictures of the massive banyan trees on the way. Than we left the tar road for a way more tortuous track! Shaked we end up being...proper way! Next the view from few kilometers away of the volcano. This is active...non-stop...so yes, the fumes are out of it on a permanent basis...the adrenaline is there for sure!
Once we got closer, the ride was way similar of what you would drive in places such as Bolivia, Iceland or few places in New Zealand...yes, it's super pretty and very lunar! The driver clearly enjoys the drive on the
massive field of ashes!!
We stopped by the visitor center. Our little group of 5 is joined to others...total max 20 people. It seems we are lucky as most days is seeing an average of 50 tourists for the sunset visit!
The following drive is a shaky one to the near ridge of the volcano. The cars stop, one more security briefing and we are on for the last 300 meters up to the rim of the volcano! We cannot see the volcano yet, but we can ear the frequent explosions...is it safe? Kind of!
Sadly, the pictures won't give you much feeling of the experience. It is very noisy, with explosions every few seconds. You do actually feel the heat of the magma. It is also very windy. Good for us, the wind is mainly pushing the fumes on our opposite way. But this doesn't stopped us to be submerged by sulfur every few minutes. Not really sure how healthy is the experience. We stay here close to two hours, going from full day light to pitch dark!
This experience would for sure not be possible in Europe or the States!
No fence here, no protection gears, but Very few have actually fall in... And the volcano seems to be decently predictable. Well, at least it was for us!
We were happy to reach our little resort for the night on the way back. Early dinner and early in bed for everyone around here!
Next early morning rise. Enjoyed the views from White Grass resort, and we were on the plane back to Port Vila by 8am
I got dropped at the golf course. Nothing magic here, but it is way better than the course in Honiara. Basic rental clubs, had fun playing 18 holes... back to the airport. This time it's Air Vanuatu ATR72 for my next diving adventure, 45 minutes North of Port Vila!
Enjoy the pics, I'm soon on my way back home!!
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