Volcanoes, Dancing and the elusive Wahoo

It’s been a very busy last 10 days with three new islands visited, each with its own character.

On leaving Port Havannah, we set off in classic trade wind style, on a reach with a reef in the main and the headsail. We flew along at 7.5 knots with Debi sitting up on the rail in her favourite spot and arrived at Embae Island in the early afternoon where we dropped anchor in a nice sandy patch but close to what appeared to be quite a lot of coral. Debi didn’t delay in getting into the water to investigate and discovered some of the most extensive reef we have seen. It just seemed to go on and on. She had a brief encounter with a green turtle and we even had dolphins swimming nearby as we sat on deck for sundowners.

Debi on her favourite perch

At anchor amongst the coral of Embae

Debi conducting a coral survey

Extensive coral at Embae Island

Colourful clam on Embae Island

We stayed at Embae for only two nights and with all the snorkelling and a bit of time doing running repairs we never actually found time to go ashore! The following day we set off in the rain for Epi Island. Although there are a number of anchorages on the west coast of Epi, we decided to head to the far north at Lameh Bay which is reputed to be a good habitat for turtles and dugong.

As we headed around the final headland to enter Lameh Bay we were kicked into action by the scream of the fishing reel playing out loads of line. We promptly brought the boat to a stop and proceeded to try to haul in what turned out to be a large Wahoo, estimated to be 1.5m long. We eventually got it to the back the boat but it was too big for our net and in the time we were taking to work out how to land it, it managed to wrap itself around some equipment at the back of the boat and escaped. The one that got away!

The local girls walk on water in Lameh Bay

Offshore Taxi Service

Onshore Taxi Service 

As we anchored in Lameh Bay, we were greeted by two large turtles, but sadly no dugongs. We could hear some sort of concert going on ashore and decided we must have stumbled across yet another festival. We were too tired to go ashore that day but went in the next day. It turned out to be the 50^th anniversary of the Epi High school. They were celebrating with three days of events. We briefly watched a football match and then headed out for a walk to the local airstrip.

Epi High School Celebration football match

The people of Vanuatu were declared the happiest people in the world

The airstrip at Lameh Bay, the terminal building is on the right. It looks terminal!

The jetty Lameh Bay. Interesting construction method, they made concrete in bags and then removed the bag to produce a building block.

We met another cruising couple on our walk, who had been coming to Lameh for years. They pointed us in the direction of a lady who baked bread and also ran a little restaurant. This lady was very entrepreneurial and had a beautiful building set up as a tiny restaurant. There was no menu but she said she would cook us dinner with whatever she had. So we bought some bread, headed back to the boat and returned in the evening for a lovely meal of fish in coconut milk. Ironically we think the fish was wahoo. This was served with kumura, beans and laplap, a strange gelatinous dish made with yams. After dinner we headed back to the school to catch a bit of the talent competition.

The tiny local restaurant at Lameh Bay

Beautiful but simple house construction on Epi Island

The traditional way to catch fish, dugout canoe with outrigger

The next morning we set off north again. We had had a bit of a debate as to where to go next but Debi decided that she liked the sound of the north side of Ambrym, one of the most active volcanoes in the world! We had a perfect trip for most of the way, but the wind turned a bit nasty in the last few hours as we approached Ambrym, which is renowned for strong gusts coming off the volcano.

Anchored in the shadow of a volcano, Ranon, Ambrym Island

Debi had read that there was some sort of festival on in the north of the island and so we headed ashore to find out. Vanuatu is amazing in that you can basically ask anyone in the village about things you want to do and before you know it it’s all organised. We met a woman who we asked about doing a walk up the volcano. She led us to her husband, Freddy, and he pretty much organised the next two days for us.

Freddy and one of his daughters. He organised everything for us on Ambrym Island

Our trip up to Marum, one of two volcanoes on Ambrym, comprised a 6:30 am start with a 4WD trip along some pretty rough roads and then up into the rainforest as far as the road went. When we got out we were introduced to our guide who had bare feet, a pair of flip flops in one hand and a machete in the other. This was an interesting set of equipment given we were heading up to a volcano at an altitude of over 900m which was expected to take us about eight hour round trip.

The only way to travel on Ambrym

4WD through the coconut plantation

Trekking through the rainforest. The statue is carved from tree fern trunk and represents an ancestor

We set off through the forest with our guide, who didn’t seem to speak much English, slashing away at any growth that seemed to be encroaching on the path. After about half an hour he cut a length of vine that was growing across the path, threaded it through his flip flops and tied them around his waist. An instant and totally recyclable belt. He continued to walk barefoot. About ten minutes later he poked his machete into the undergrowth and pulled out a coconut. This turned out to be his drink supply and lunch! He could have probably survived up there for years equipped only with his machete.

Walking on the ash plain. Note the coconut on the end of the machete.

It was not a nice day for a walk up a volcano, with high winds and steady rain. Visibility was poor as we left the rainforest behind and started out on the ash plain, which was vegetated with bamboo cane. As we climbed higher the vegetation disappeared and it all became very bleak. The walk became a bit treacherous with the wind threatening to blow us off the final ridge approach to the crater.  Unfortunately, once there, we couldn’t see much and the ground was too fractured to go too close to the edge but it still had an ominous feel to it.  We didn’t hang about at the top and it was good to get back into the forest and then back to the truck for our lift back down. We were back on board  X-Pat by about 3pm and after a quick swim to freshen up, we spent the rest of the day recovering.

A demonstration of how to de-husk a coconut with a machete

Bamboo took over from rainforest as we climbed higher. 

This could have been taken on top of a mountain in Wales, but believe us it's a volcano in Vanuatu

Our well earned view into the crater! Hmmm

Yesterday, we had another interesting 4WD trip in the back of a ute to the “Back to my Roots” festival. It was very, very bumpy and not the safest of rides. The festival seemed to have been organised by the local chief to celebrate local traditions and dance. The audience of about 30 people were all visitors to the island, almost exclusively yachties. Things were a little disorganised, but we just went with the flow and everything just seemed to happen.

We saw a number of traditional dances accompanied by the sound of the Tamtam, a local drum. There were also some brilliant demonstrations of sand drawing, producing very intricate and symmetrical drawings in the sand using one finger which they do not lift out of the sand for the entire drawing. After the main festival we walked from the festival area down to the beach to see a fascinating display of water music. The story went that when the ladies are bathing naked in the creek, they make these sounds in the water by splashing around, which warns the men not to come there. The sound is like a base drum with lots of rhythm.

This dance was a bit like musical chairs and was called "Find the fire"

The Yam dance, which is performed at the start of the yam planting season.

The organiser and chief on his phone!

The boys pose with a Tam-tam, a form of drum

Spot the odd one out

Traditional meets contemporary

The girls join the women in traditional dance

The power of the stick

Sand drawing

The weather was not kind in the afternoon and so we waited about an hour and half for the rain to stop, before sharing a ride in the back of the ute with the water music ladies and our guide Freddy back to the boat. We bought a Tamtam drum before we left with a combination of money and barter items (rope, torches, t-shirts, reading glasses, bedding etc). It’s fascinating how this place works. Nothing is wasted and there is always a way.

The ladies making water music

Today we are having a day off. We took the barter items in to Freddy this morning and plan to just swim, make water and chill out today before heading off north again tomorrow.