A short plane ride from Port Vila brought us to the island of Tanna. There are few places in the world where you can get this close to an active volcano. Mt Yasur has been erupting continuously since forever to a greater or lesser extent. In my book, lesser is good when it comes to volcanoes :) After a 2 hour ride across the island we hit the ash plain, an amazing lunar landscape that the local cowboys enjoy racing over at breakneck speed. Who can blame them, stuck on crummy dirt tracks all day suddenly the jungle gives way and its pedal to the metal. We blast around the side of the volcano and arrive at out lodgings. A pukka little tree house inside a big Banyan tree. The local string band put on a bit of a reception for us. Real island life, funny as hell .... one tune and ten different sets of lyrics !!Late the following day we made our way up the mountain, about a 2 hour walk from the tree house. Every 4 minutes a huge boom would roll out, just like cannon fire. We made our way around the rim of the crater. An acrid smell of sulphur pervaded the air. As the light waned the crater glowed orange, lava sloshing around at the bottom of the crater like the devils own cauldron. Every now and then a huge explosion would send molten rock flying into the air. The most crazy place I've ever been. We sat mesmerised just watching the fireworks before wandering back down the volcano in the darkness. On the path out, fumerals hissed and steamed all around us.
Nice addition of 2 armchairs in the back of the 4x4 We're on the top looking toward Mt Yassur
Life in a tree house
Welcome to the throne room. The first morning I heard a scream coming from the en-suite. Diane had nipped in and discovered a massive 4 inch slimy slug on the seat :)
The only Volcano post in the world
It really is that close. No barriers no danger signs. Hard to describe sitting on an erupting volcano (to a lesser extent :) )
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