Ambrym has been lacking in creature comforts but we have become attached to the people. Liz has become very attached to the girl in the picture (the owners daughter). She is a bit scared of me so I have to grin inanly when I am near her. Today is goat day, basically a land dispute meeting between the neighbouring village. For a change lots of serious looking villagers sat in the road at the end of the garden hammering it out. Tomorrow (touch wood) we fly to Por...

Mt Marum - the volcano hike finally came. There has been many set backs getting to this point. We originally planned to go to a volcano on Tanna but it had turned nasty and people were being evacuated. Two plane cancellations meant that we had to do the hike straight away - of course the electrical storm and flooding b*****ed that up. After the usual communication issues trying to change flights - we had good weather but no guide and then bad weather and a guide....

Heinrich is leaving tomorrow so the village are having a party to say goodbye. The picture is of the villagers cooking the local dish of lap lap over an open fire. We watched them grate some taro and yam yams using some tied together storks as rough as very course sandpaper. The goo was then layed onto some banana leaves and parts of a pig chucked in (trotters and all). The banana leaves were folded over, tied and layed on the open fire (blog picture). Some ...

Food we need food! It has been only three days but we are already sick of taro, sweet potatoes, rice and bananas. The promise of eggs turned out to be a single hard boiled egg each. However we are impressed that we have this, the road side honesty boxes where the locals sell surplus vegetables are all bare. One meal we had was just a boiled sweet potatoe and rice, so they must be trying to find other vegetables - bless them. When you are in a dessert all you ca...

Liz went to bed early and I read. Every so often Liz conducted a bed search, she was being bitten in bed and the mossy net was firmly tucked in. Despite numerous detailed searches nothing could be seen. The next day I awoke to Liz scratching, poor thing was covered in itchy bites. I had to say something despite feeling bad. John and Sissy (his wife) said they are caused by ants or something called "Stink Billy". The matress was taken outside to be zapped by the ...