Fire, Rock and Ash

A planned 10 day trip to the volcanic islands of Lopevi and Ambrym coincided with a 'spel' of wet and windy weather. This resulted in the Lopevi summit climb being cancelled and lumpy boat trips between Malekula - Paama as well as for the onward journey in a much smaller boat to Ambrym.

Once on Ambrym, the itinerary got back on track (excuse the pun) with an east to south west crossing of the Ambrym caldera and Marum and Benbow volcanos. This was after a pleasant couple of days at Walter and Ronas place at Endu village

Peter, my trusty guide, successfully navigated us over the hill (including a nightime retreat from Marum after a dusk viewing of the lava lake), and did all of this complete with his trusty pair of jandals

As one might imagine an active volcano has its share of safety challenges including steep slopes, cliffs, craters volcanic gases and infrequent but possible 'bombs' or lava flows.

One good bit of advice from the Geohazards Dept here in Vanuatu reads as follows:

"Watch for bombs in the air - especially after explosions. Stand still unless you see bombs that are not moving left/right or up/down – these are coming towards you, and you should avoid them.

I think that the phrase "you should avoid them" is a polite Nivan way of saying "run for your life!" 

The crater, and lava lake of the Marum volcano was as terrifyingly spectacular as expected, particularly the ginger walk out to the edge of the crater rim to view the lava lake itself.

Another of New Zealander, Geoff Mackely's "abseil into the volcano" expeditions was on site camped on the crater rim, (courtesty of Vanuatu helicopters) which I have mixed feeling about - given the otherwise wilderness feel of the place, and the grumplings of discontent from some of the locals regarding lack of land access fees being paid and stories about buried rather than flown out rubbish from previous expeditions.

The later part of the week involved some actual work, with discussions and a workshop with tour operators and guides about safety and risk management for their businesses and the potential effect on business, if a significant incident were to occur. (and the things they need to do to reduce the chance of this occurring)

At the conclusion of the workshop we had a couple of days waiting for the once a week flight back to Norsup airport in Malekula. We managed to kill the time adequately at a few emerging visitor locations in west Ambrym including local Craig Cove bungalows and a freshwater lake formed by previous volanic activity (Lonwolwol)

After a hiccup with a dodgey front wheel on the plane (and a replacement plane sent from Vila) I am now back on the 'mainland' at Malekula and heading into the last last few weeks of my time here in Vanuatu !