Volcano Trek

We have recently returned from from a 4 day trip to Ambrym Island in central Vanuatu to have a look-see at Marum Volcano.

While not as famous as its fire-spewing friend, Mt Yasur, on Tanna Island, the volcano on Ambrym has a reputation in volcanology circles as being a bit wild and untouched due to the fact that you can't drive up to the rim, as you can with Mt Yasur.

While we are far from being volcanologists and we probably weren't really ready to be tackling wild and untouched lava pits, our trip to Tanna in 2009 had given us a bit of a taste for volcano trekking.  Plus we were keen to check out Ambrym, which has a fearsome reputation in Vanuatu as a black-magic hub.  So off we set with three friends in tow all fresh-faced and ready for adventure.

Our trek began in the south-east of Ambrym in a village called Boy.  Boy is a lovely little community.  Look at our cute bungalow.

Plus it has a super-cool local language - the word for yes is "yo!" and the word for good is "boss". 

Would you like another banana?  Yo!  Your bananas are boss!



Here we are enjoying a refreshment in Boy town -look how CLEAN we were.  This wasn't to last.



In the kitchen cooking up a pre-trek feast with William.

While two of the local kids plucked us a chicken.



While dinner was in the stove, one of the village elders showed us a bit of sand drawing - an artform widely practiced in this part of Vanuatu.



She drew this for us.  To the unitiniated, it may look like a very complicated picture of a turtle (head and two legs at the front) but it is, in fact, a portal.  A turtle portal, if you like.  Apparently it is a simple matter of jumping into this turtle and being transported to where ever you please - but usually just to the next island and mostly to steal brides it seems.  When we commented that the turtle seemed a bit small to accommodate two travellers, we were rebuked for our foolishness.  There are compartments, of course, and plenty of room for everyone. 

We had the privilege of being the first guests to stay in the recently finished bungalows, so the chief wanted us to take a group photo with all the villagers before we set off.  'Say chiefs!' (no cheese in these parts).

And off we went.

The first part of the trek was mostly jungle and our excellent guide Kerry cut a swathe through the vines with his trusty bush knife (machete).  He advised us that there would be 4 lookouts on the way to the volcano.  This was the first...



..the second....

..the third...

....and the fourth. 

At this point we had been walking for 4 hours. We had understood that by the fourth lookout, we would be but a hop, skip and jump from the volcano crater. You can therefore imagine our dismay and great alarm to be told that our end goal for the day was the hazy mountain you can see in the distance in the photo above.

'What??!!!' We collectively cried. 'But that will take us two days to reach!!!'.

'Nah' said Kerry. 'Only a couple of more hours'. 'Don't worry' he said. 'Everything will be boss'.

Our faces at being told we still had what looked like 400 kms to walk by sundown.  Start rationing the dried fruit!

But we had very little choice in the matter and so off we went.  It started raining and that was actually a good thing, given the jungle heat.

Well, good for a while anyway.

And so we walked....

and we walked...

and we walked...

pausing occasionally to rest our feet and count our blisters

and then we walked some more

like little hobbits we pushed on, towards Mordor and an uncertain fate

and the mist rolled in and gave the place an especially surreal atmosphere

At this point I'm sure Romain would appreciate me mentioning the fact that he opted to carry his hiking pack for the whole trip.  I (and the other girls) had wussed out from the get-go and taken the 'porter option', meaning some poor dude had lumped my pack through the jungle and had now taken the short cut around the volcanic ash plain to the camp. 

We were pretty happy when we finally stopped climbing, having reached the volcanic plateau.   

We were almost there!

And then finally, as the wind really picked up and the steam was whipping all around us, we reached the edge of the crater....

Holding on to each other for safety (?) we leaned over the edge and peered in...

...to behold the eye of Marum.  The pit of lava was about 400 m below us and we could see it spitting and bubbling and gurgling up great globs of lava.  It was mesmerising. 

This photo by no means does it any justice, but if you really want to check it out in all its glory, you tube the clip Marum Volcano Madness.

Once we had our fill of bubbling lava action (I nearly needed to be dragged away), we had to make our way across the rest of the volcanic plateau, past another 5 or so craters - none of which afforded the same view as Marum - and down the other side to our camp site. 

It was scary skirting around the edge of volcanic craters - to one side was pit of lava and to the other was a slippery tumble down a slope to be dashed on some volcanic rocks below. 

But the scenery was really spectacular - unlike anything any of us had ever seen before.

At one point, we thought we could see a beach in the distance - impossible given we were hundreds of metres above sea level.  The water looked yellow.  It was all very martian-like.

This is a solidified lava river.

And then we had crossed the plateau and were back to scenery that was slightly more earthly and familiar.

And we made it to camp just before the sun went down - hooray!!

The camp kitchen

Our tent - and oh how we slept!

The next day it was a leisurely 5 hour hike down to the other side of the island.  We were all utterly exhausted and propelled by the thought of finally getting rid of our hiking shoes and maybe having a beer somewhere once it was all over.

Kerry, our tireless guide who had done the entire trip BARE FOOT (by choice, we weren't so cruel as to not offer him shoes), was full of beans on the other hand, and scrambled up this palm tree to grab us all a green coconut to drink.

Cheers Kerry!

Then with a deft swoosh of his machete, he cleaved the coconuts in half and fashioned each of us a coconut husk spoon so we could spoon the goop out of the shells.  Really delicious!

We reached the end of the trek, only to learn that the truck driver scheduled to pick us up had been way-laid at a local soccer match, and so we needed to walk another couple of hours to the next village.  No worries!

We did finally get collected and the driver kindly ferried us to a spot which is a favourite amongst locals - the Sisivi hot springs!  SO so good.  It is a regular beach but with volcanic heat vents pumping through the sand meaning you are in this lovely hot salty bath.  The driver almost needed to prise us from the shallows, it was that good.  I felt so CLEAN and SOFT and RESTORED. 

That night we slept in Craig Cove, a village in West Ambrym.  The drought has been so bad this year that there was absolutely no running fresh water.  Everyone bathed and washed and cooked in salt water and all the drinking water was carried in wheelbarrows from a well a couple of kms away. 

This is bath time in Craig Cove - too much fun!

While the boys drank kava the girls hung out under a pretty pink tree.

And the next morning we ate roast bananas for brekky, to fortify us for the trip back to Port Vila.

But the plane didn't come.

And so we waited...

And waited...

Until after 4 hours of waiting we hit breaking point and with wild eyes I negotiated (begged) our way onto a plane that had been privately chartered for the local MP.  I really needed a shower and a cup of tea.

As we flew away from Ambrym we could see the distance we had covered.  We had started on the other side of the island, crossed the volcanic plain seen in the distance in the photo below and arrived at the coast.

No wonder my calves hurt and Romain's hiking socks smelled like bad cheese!

An incredibly hard trek but without doubt one of the best yet!