Explosive Vanuatu

Labels: 55 - Vanuatu - the biggest surprise of all!

Explosive Vanuatu

The passage to Vanuatu started of so cool, easy. After our quick swim we enjoyed about 5 hours of gennaker sailing and then took it all down for a thunderstorm lurking just in front of us. One reef didn't seem to be enough and during the night the wind was building up to 30-42 knots steady for the next two days!

3rd October 2019 The girls don't really care about the weather and today it's Anna's birthday. She got mail and was so happy with the birthday card that we could enjoy a full day of singing ... the same song!!! 😏😂

With a mini jib and 3 reefs we still had a 6 knot average. The last day the wind dropped to 25 knots and we were going to arrive at night so we pushed the boat a little bit more and managed an average of 11 knots and arrived just at dawn in Port Resolution.

4th of October 2019

Our friends convinced us to explore Vanuatu on the way to New Caledonia. They left two weeks ago and gave us all the info we needed to know to get clearance done at Tanna, on of the most Southern islands.

As a surprise they were still in Port Resolution in Tanna so we could once again have a birthday party on LouiseAnna.

It's a party in again very beautiful surroundings!

The village is up there:

The volcano over there:

And sulphury smoke is already coming out at the shoreline just behind our boat!

The grownups get to catch up until very late at night as these 4 really get along very well 😍

5th October 2019

We check out the village Ireupuow where we look for the government officials. They won't come over today, so we are free to walk around and get the paperwork done the next morning 😎

It's beautiful, ... it's different ... it's sometimes a shock ...

This is the yachtclub.

As the anchorage is quite rolly, we decide to do some schoolwork in the yachtclub...

And this is how the girls decide to spend there "studybreaks" 😂

A first glimpse of the rest of the village shows a life we haven't seen before. Except for cyclone seasons, they have a wonderful climate and rich nature.

The houses are very very basic and brings us back far in history. Amazing how these civilisations managed to remain so pristine. Some houses have a cellphone and friends of us tried to help set up their small solar panel to charge it as they have no electricity.

We walked across the village up to the ocean on the other side. We're very happy to be "hiding" in this bay for the moment!

A bit too sandy to get a meal in this "restaurant". A pity because the owner is very nice.

6th October 2019
After our tour yesterday we decided it's time to empty our boat with all we have to share. While getting through the clearance documents, we give the chief of the village the rest of our hockey uniforms (about 70 T-shirts, thanks Merode!!!), we gave 10 boxes of antibiotics and a lot of school material. A bit weird as he didn't seem to be so happy about it and especially not about the Kava that came fro Fiji?! And also a pity as we just arrived again during school holidays, so we weren't able to visit the school... But the principal came up running to me just before we left Vanuatu and he was very very happy! He promised us a picture with the uniforms however I'm not sure if they will be able to manage that through the dinosaur computer they had at school...

The school buildings:

One of the classrooms...

And the school bell!

The next stop is on the other end of the village. I promised the owner of the restaurant to bring her cloths. She was very grateful and we got a nice bag full of vegetables! It was very difficult to decide who you give cloths and toys to first... We decided that the furthest away from the "yachtclub" would be the best place to start.

The white "box" is the only shop in town...

And the girls got to give away some more teddy bears 😅 Most of these children have never seen one! One little boy of maximum a year old was holding a big (20cm long) knife. He dropped it just next to his dad's toes when he received a toy 😱

We got together for saying our good-buys to our friends we end up meeting again and again anyway 😅 It's a small "restaurant" owned by Lea. A very nice lady that made us a wonderful dinner! It was delicious and nicely presented. I admire how she pulled it of in such a basic kitchen!

I gave her my plants as we were not allowed to take them into New Caledonia. She seemed quite happy and remembered another family that came through here a few years ago. It was Thomas Siffer with his family. We recognized her explanation as we read the book before starting our own adventure.

7th October 2019
We decide to go on a small hike of 4 km. Euhhh... it was a bit longer but especially hard. I don't know why, the heat, the climbs, ... at one point it all went black in front of my eyers, but the girls went on and on ...

Magnificent trees!!!

Along the way there are more villages, we already felt it then, but learned later that the different villages do not get along and can be quite hostile between each other. They were very nice to us though.

As there's no school, we found all the children playing along the beach while the mums were doing there laundry.

While trying to find the directions we met a lady that normally guides the hikes for some money. She showed us the road and we wanted to give her some teddybears to thank her. So we first went to her children that were playing in the inland freshwater lake.

There were so many! And we only had about 8 teddy's with us so I promised to come back the next day.

As a token of her gratitude she showed us then all the way up to the farm we wanted to visit.

They have a sling for 'tourists' we didn't really feel like testing!

She told us the animals live with them in the villages and the farmlands are high up where they can't eat it all 😀

These are the cutest pigs we've ever seen! Look at those ears!

And these are the biggest spider webs we've ever seen! 😱

Our guides' house...

The way up there is steep and slings through a very lush rainforest. Our guide walks very quickly and we have it difficult to keep up!

Here and there you see a horse or cow along the road!

And then we arrived at the farm. Nobody's left as they went to a funeral of the chief of their village...

And this is the point where our 15 year old Nikon decides to give up!!! Aaarghhhhhh So I'm very sorry for the quality, but we tried to use a cell phone and an old Ixus from the girls 😉

Magnificent view up here! We could see the volcano smoking!

As the village was empty, we're not proud, but too curious to see how they live so we went snooping around some houses ...

After a 15 minute break we had to go back to be down before dark. 5 hours after the start of our hike, we were back at the boat. Needless to say we had a very good sleep!

8th October 2019 through the eyes of Kim, Louise and Anna
As promised the girls and I went back to distribute some more teddybears to the other children and I gave them an English children's bible and glue to fix there old one. Geoffrey needed to go to Lenakel to get the paperwork done for us to leave Tanna. It would take him all day!!!
We were the lucky ones as we spent the whole morning with our guide and her three children. They are still a bit shy now 😉

She made us a vegetable basket that would cook in the hot volcano-water, spilling in the bay along the shoreline.

We had to be careful with our feet in the water as it gets up to boiling here!

And then she took us up to the smoking holes we could also see from the boat.

The view is just gorgeous up here!

Now we are digging in the clay to paint our faces. This is where the villagers come as they don't have money to pay for makeup. They need painted faces for their rituals.

The shyness is completely gone 😍

Having spend too much time painting our faces, the tide had gone up so high that the vegetables washed away...

While the girls were eager to go swimming with their new friends, we still needed to do some school work, get lunch and wait for dad to come back as we will go and see the volcano tonight!!! Difficult to say goodbye after such a special day! On the way back to the yachtclub more and more children came running behind us and recognized the bright orange bag. They too wanted a teddybear 😊 I think we distributed about 100 of them in these two villages. And guess what we still have a few left, but the girls want to play with them some more 😌

8th October 2019 through the eyes of Geoffrey

He left very early in Stanley's truck to Lenakel. The government officials didn't want to come up to the other side of the island anymore... The road is long, bumpy and very dusty!

Passing Mount Yasur, an active volcano, is very impressive!

Suddenly people are walking along the volcano!

They like to race at this part of the track! It's so that their customers don't eat the dust from the car in the front! 😂

And then they arrive at the market place of the captial city "Lenakel". I ask Geoffrey where the pictures from the city are. Well this is it he says!!!

The shops and restaurants here have two prices: locals and 'white peoples prices'. And it's really officially written like that!!!

The harbour at the other side. Unsheltered and we're happy to have put anchor in Port Resolution.

They had to pick up some people at the airport.

And on the way back there was no more room in the car, so Geoffrey could 'eat' the dust! 😅

They pick up some merchandise along the road.

And push a bit here and there 😅

8th October 2019 we end the day all together!
Geoffrey came back all dusty and tired but had a great day. So we had plenty to tell each other but the best was yet to come! We told Anna she would blow out a very special candle for her birthday: the fire of a real volcano!!!

The girls wanted to sit in the back of the truck for the 1.5 h drive to Mount Yasur (we sat inside for the way back!). It's a very glamorous arrival a bit Disneyland like!

First you have to pick up your country sign.

Anna is super excited to blow out her giant candle!!!

Then a ritual starts to ask the spirits of the volcano if we are allowed to visit.

In front of us sits the president and his whole cabinet. Geoffrey saw them earlier today as they arrived at the airport!

As we receive permission 😏 we're driven up the mountain in jeeps and already along the road smoke escapes here and there.

A mail box 😀

It's cold, it's windy, it's AMAZING !!!

As it gets dark, you see the fire better and better. Every time the volcano explodes it takes all the surrounding air away and you have to pop your ears. You can see the air that gets sucked in!

😂 off course they really loved it, but as all normal children, they get distracted when it takes too long 😏

9th October 2019

We were supposed to leave today, but I have a big fever, so we decide to wait one more day and enjoy a view from above as the weather is nice and calm.