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Amazing Tanna, it doesn't get better, an active volcano!!
The crossing from Fiji to Tanna in the Vanuatu islands was very boisterous to say the least. We had 40 plus knot winds and rough confused seas with 15-foot waves, 36 hours in a washing machine. The boat coped superbly, cutting through the waves at speeds of up to 10 knots, which is faster than hull speed, must have been downhill! I was in the head, reviewing my dinner and watching the water go down the plug hole anticlockwise as we're in the southern hemisphere. We sailed 485 miles in 3 days, anchoring in Resolution bay, under an active volcano.
Tanna is an amazing place; the people live in villages and are very friendly. We took the dinghy ashore, carefully traversing the coral reef, and landed on the beach. We took some gifts to the nearby village and they gave us a huge basket of fruit in exchange. The Resolution bay yacht club had no beer when we arrived! It consists of one large thatched building and a number of small thatched huts for tourists to stay in. Here you can find a man called Stanley who will organize a trip to the famous mount Yasur, one of the world's most dangerous and active volcanoes.
There were four other boats in the anchorage so we all went together to the volcano. A real United Nations trip, an Australian couple, three Italians, a Belgian, another Brit plus us four. The transport was a pickup truck, scheduled to pick us up near the yacht club at 4 o'clock, so that we could get to the volcano, a one-hour drive, to see the sunset. It turned up half an hour late and we all piled in. Jim and Nancy sat in first class, in the cab with our driver Johnnie. In the back there was a plank across the width, next to the cab, this seated four in what we referred to as business class. It afforded a great view of the road ahead, or should I say series of deep potholes connected by mud. Finally there was economy class, more like cattle class, here sat the rest of us, plus Stanley. Off we went, accompanied by a sound like a cowbell. A couple of hundred yards down the road we met a French family of five. It turned out to be their transport not ours. Our truck had not turned up, so it looked like we were out of luck. However after some negotiations, we all piled in together, eighteen people in an Isuzu truck, it was a very tight fit. The road, which resembled a riverbed, became very steep and the overloaded truck couldn't get up it, so cattle class had to get out and walk.
We finally arrived too late for sunset. Johnnie parked the truck carefully facing downhill so that he could bump start it. We trekked the final few hundred yards on foot, across an ash field strewn with boulders, to the edge of the crater. The view was spectacular, with a crescent moon over the mountain.. We looked down into the volcano unimpeded by health and safety regulations. Mount Yasur glowed red, rumbled and occasionally spat out a few sparks, like a petulant firework. 'Never turn your back on the volcano', warned Geoff the Australian who had been before. 'If any of those boulders starts to come this way, keep your eye on it and get ready to run!' Suddenly the mountain gave a huge ground-shaking roar and spewed out a shower of massive molten lava boulders, hundreds of feet into the air, luckily not in our direction. It was truly awesome. The darker it got the better the show. All too soon we had to leave and jingled back in our luxury transport. The cowbell turned out to be a part loose on one of the brakes! I am sure the truck was far more dangerous than the volcano. Back on the boat we had a drink to celebrate having survived.
On Sunday Jim and Nancy went to the village Christian church. It was the most welcoming church so far and part of the service was in English. Many locals follow an alternative cargo religion, started by a man called John Frum. Believers are awaiting the arrival of a messiah in a cargo ship loaded with goodies.
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