Well from the 12th to the 15th August Bec and I escaped from our little speck of land to the neighbouring island of Ambrym, dubbed the ‘land of magic’. And it was an experience I will never forget! Not only did it show me some of the most beautiful, stunning and unbelievable things I’ve ever seen in my entire life, but it left me the most physically exhausted I’ve ever been. But let me start from the top! :0)
On the 12th of August we clambered over volcanic boulders and waded through the ocean along a black sand beach for an hour to reach the Tavie airfield and take a plane to Ulei airport. Our runway is a grass strip of land and the ‘airport’ is a concrete building with concrete benches out in the open. Our plane was delayed 3 hours and, unlike a national or international airport in Aus where you can grab a coffee or browse the shops, here there’s nothing to do but sit in the sun and get a glazed expression on your face.
Either that, or jump up in down in terror when you see the children playing on the airfield or running out to greet the plane, propellers still whirring furiously. Ah, Vanuatu! (That’s actually a song here. If only I knew the words, but they’re in Bislama)
On the plane over here I was lucky enough to be sitting next to Jessie Tarson, the Principle of one of the primary schools on South East Ambrym, and so he organised for two girls to walk us to our accommodation in Toak. The new bungalows with a flush toilet and shower I’d been so looking forward to turned out to be so new they were still under construction. So we slept in the Guest House, which turned out to be an authentic Vanuatu experience – much better than plumbing.
We slept on a mattress on the floor (which is actually more comfortable than our beds in Paama), ate island food prepared for us by the village ladies, squatted over a hole when nature called, and tried to take a shower with a bucket and a large audience of Ni-Van women. All things you have to do when you go to Vanuatu. :0)
Our luck continued when we met one of the better tour guides of the South East – Jeppy, who does most of the tours for white Western women looking for a little adventure! He organised everything for us. Accommodation, food, transport, tour guides, the Rom Dances… we would have been lost without him… literally :0) (ha ha)
The 13th of August constitutes the longest day in my entire being! We got up at 4.30am and it was so dark and I was dead! I’d had really bad nightmares and didn’t sleep well all night – courtesy of the lariam tablets. So I was tired from the get-go. But still, I packed my bags, got dressed, and lay on my bed waiting for Jeppy to arrive. We ended up getting our truck at 5.30am because Jeppy slept in.
The lady who owns the Guest House stayed up late making a banana cake for us and then stayed up even later to keep the rats away. It was so touching, and so delicious! It was a real cake and actually risen. Bec and I couldn’t thank her enough. We used the ‘toilet’, shaped like a keyhole, and then headed off.
It was an ordinary truck ride, but I can believe I’m starting to call those rides ordinary or normal. In Australia if someone saw a couple of teenage girls bumping around in the back of a ute they’d call the cops. We did nearly have our heads taken off by a low lying branch, but I found it amusing not frightening. I’m turning native!
The fantastic thing about the early morning is the bats. They fly across the sky like flocks of birds and they’re so big! It was amazing! (and the word for today is ‘amazing’!) Jeppy pointed out kava trees, coconut trees, the water tanks, etc, and also told us about the magic on Ambrym. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any, but apparently it can get pretty nasty so maybe that’s a good thing.
When we got to Endu village we dumped our bags and headed on up toward the volcano. Wow! I can’t believe how far we walked and for how long! We started walking just after 6am and got back to the village at 7pm. That’s 13 hours of non-stop walking!
Anyway, getting back to the actual walk…
We had to pay 1000vt to Peter because he ‘owns’ the path up to the volcano, or at least he claims to. Land ownership here is a bit iffy. It’s like they saw the British plant their flag and thought that was how they should claim land too.
Manu, his son, and Terry (the volcano guide) also came up with Bec, Jeppy and I. The walk was so beautiful, through rain forest, cane fields, up a dry creek bed, over a giant hill (what I’d call a mountain), along the ash highway, up and down the ash plains and then to the volcano itself.
It was so hard physically! I am so sore and I could have died thinking how much further we still had to go. Jeppy said Bec and I are the first people to climb the volcano and come back all in one day. Most people spend the night on the ash highway. As I continued walking I could understand why.
We saw a ground snake (huge! But motionless), countless giant spiders, cow bones, pig tracks and rats!
There was a dog that came with us and he caught a rat and killed it. Then Manu got a stick and started flicking the dead rat around like it was a ball or an acorn. It was so disgusting! The dog treated it like a chew toy between throws and I regret to say that I abandoned a limping Bec, walking as fast as I could away from Manu, and that Bec was almost hit by the flying carcass. Now that I think back on it it’s quite amusing! I’m sure Bec doesn’t think so :0)
The dog also broke its leg somehow. It was so sad! But it managed to hobble the whole way and I commend it! We slipped and slid the whole way up and down with fit legs… well, with unbroken bones, I doubt you could call them fit by the end of the day. :0)
There was one part, coming down the other side of the ‘hill’ or mountain as we’d call it in Australia, when Bec and I almost slid off the edge of a cliff. It was so scary (yet somehow thrilling) holding onto a tree root watching my legs dangling over the edge. A lot of the ‘paths’ were like that – narrow and crumbly with sheer drops on either side. It was exciting!
I was so reminded of Swiss Family Robinson or Predator clambering through all those vines and vegetation with Peter hacking away with a machete. At times I felt like Jane from Tarzan, an innocent little white girl at the mercy of the awesome and terrible jungle! :0)
The vines seemed to have a life of their own. They would wrap themselves around your feet and sometimes around your neck too – very full on.
The dry creek bed was so beautiful! It was all volcanic rock swept smooth and covered in moss. It was gorgeous! There were little pools of still water here and there filled with yabbies, and everything seemed so alive.
The ash plains were the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! They were big, black, smooth, clear, flat ‘roads’ where the magma had flowed decades before but they were bigger than highways. The formations of some of the rocks were surreal.
Bec couldn’t make it all the way to the top of the volcano and stopped at the end of the ash highway with Peter and the dog. We stopped for a little while for lunch as well. Those little breaks were fantastic and after our lunch of dry noodles we feeling so content.
Then Jeppy, Manu, Terry and I kept on going. Apparently Bec is very, very slow walking but I’m very fast – poor Bec and her short legs. :0(
Anyway! The ash plains. I can’t begin to describe them! Everything became so surreal after the ash highway, I wish Bec could have seen them. I kept thinking of Dad too and how much he’d love it here! I wrote him a really long letter. Seeing everything made me believe it might have been worth carrying Bec the rest of the way just so she could believe my stories about how everything looked.
The formations were unlike anything I’ve ever seen or imagined. Like solid waves, and with misty clouds speeding across the surface I felt like I could have just gotten out of a spaceship.
It looked like I was standing in a Van Gogh painting, or Jurassic Park. The colours were so vivid lime green, red or orange and there were beautiful pink flowers dotting the landscape. It was so prehistoric, and I loved every minute. It seemed too fantastic to even be believable in a fantasy story, but it’s a real part of our world.
Towards the top my asthma started kicking in and I could feel a strain in both leg muscles right up to the bum, but I’m so glad I got to the top. It gave me such a satisfied feeling. It was wonderful! There was cloud everywhere so we couldn’t see the magma or very far around the rim, but the cloud sped across the surface and over the edge. It was lovely enough just seeing that.
I just sat close to the edge (you can’t sit on the edge because its too windy and crumbly) taking it all in. On the way back to Bec and the others we got lost so many times, because everything looks the same and there’s so much of it.
It was an experience slipping and sliding over all that volcanic rock and soil. I got grazed hands, of course! :0)
On the way back to Endu I was sooo tired! Bec and I played a memory game (ABC travel) on the ash highway, and I was actually really good which surprised me. My body must have been desperate for any distraction from the pain of my swollen muscles.
Then we climbed up the hill and back down again… Aaaah! I was literally ready to give up sometimes. It was that hard, and I was that sore. My toes are so swollen it felt like the nails are about to pop off.
But we got down to the beach and followed that home. It was so nice letting the water from the sea swell around my feet.
Bec and I both walked bare footed the rest of the way back and while the bottoms of my feet are cut from the sharp stones on the beach and I sliced open my toe, it was better than leaving those sandshoes on around my swelling feet.
It was dark by the time we got to the beach so I got out my torch and the guys lit torches with fire and banana leaves. They worked so well! A lot better than my battery torch.
I also gave them all pencils from Australia, which they ‘appreciated’ I think is the right word. Manu loved it but the older men weren’t sure what to do with them. It was such a relief to get to the Guest House. Coming down that hill there were moments I literally felt I could not go on, it was so bad! My legs were shaking and I had dizzy spells and everything.
I was also limping pretty badly by the time we got back.
Walter, the owner of the Guest House, was so nice and friendly. We had a wash, a cold wash, which was fantastic! It was so refreshing and I just stood in the bucket of water for a couple of minutes after I’d finished washing. Then we ate the food he’d prepared for us: kumala with coconut, egg, island cabbage, bread, a couple of cream biscuits and coffee. Way better than anything we’d eat on Paama. The chief ate with us, which was lovely, the company was appreciated. The toilet here was even worse than the hole in Toak and I saw the biggest huntsman ever, 1.5 times the size of my hand (2 or 3 times the size of Bec’s).
But I loved every minute of that day! Bec is a slower walker and I don’t think she had a lot of fun because it was so incredibly hard. I’m sure she’ll think back on it in a couple of days and love it too.
That night I kept waking up saying ‘owe!’ because my legs, feet (especially toes) and shoulders were so tender. It hurt without pressure on it so rolling over was a big no-no.
At 6.30am I woke up, unable to sleep because it hurt to lie down (actually, it hurt to do anything) so I just got up and packed my bags to leave. Despite being ready so early Jeppy was late (again) and then breakfast was late so we ended up leaving at 8.00, maybe 8.30am for the waterfall.
This time we were guided by Solomon and accompanied, of course by Jeppy, but also by John, Walter’s son. The walk itself was very striking. We’d walked part of it back from the volcano, but that was in the dark. During the day we could see the ocean, giant volcanic boulders, lots of spray, unbelievable trees and all the cow pats we’d stepped in last night.
Most of the walk was along the beach, over lots of boulders and stones, but we also clambered up and down countless ‘hills’ covered in vegetation.
I kept on stubbing my toes on stones, or falling over and peeling back the nail. One toe was full of black dried blood, I had blood blisters on the bottom of my feet, and after one particularly nasty fall there was some worry as to whether or not I’d broken my toe. But after a week I could bend it again, so I don’t think it was broken.
The actual waterfall was stunning! I was literally stunned, just standing there saying ‘wow’, ‘oh my gosh’, ‘beautiful’ or nothing at all. Just taking it all in. I felt like a mullet.
The first part of my trip to the waterfall was really quite painful because a twisted thigh muscle meant I was limping all the way. But, thank God, the pain left as I was walking up the hills and I was able to see one of His most beautiful creations!
We had a lovely swim. The water may have been cold but I found that so refreshing on my swollen muscles. It was like a cold spa! There were yabbies, but the only ones we saw were the ones John and Solomon dug up for us.
Bec and I washed our hair with shampoo (wow) and then soaped up. We got dirty again on the way back but it felt soooo good! Then we had ‘lunch’: the cream biscuits I’d bought that morning from the Endu Shopping Centre. But don’t get excited. It was a building smaller than our kastom house.
Anyway. Back to the waterfall. After lunch we hiked a little further to see where the waterfall fell over 200m into the ocean. It just dropped off a cliff and it was so gorgeous I can’t even begin to describe it. The way it rolled over those boulders and vivid green moss, splashing in clear white spray into that aqua blue ocean hundreds of feet below us. I was stoked.
The walk back was so tiring and painful! We played memory games with Jeppy, and Solomon and Jeppy helped to teach us a little Bislama. Back on the beach, after all those hills, we were met by Peter. He’d cooked taro and crab and I was so grateful for the taro. They ate the crabs whole, sucking the flesh out from under the shell. I don’t think I could have stomached it with those beedy little eyes looking at me.
Then we all walked back the final distance together. I’d started limping again because of the pain in my toes, but that last bit is always easier.
Back at the Guest House we were given paw paw while we waited to see the Rom Dance. After changing it was so nice just to lie down for a bit. We were both sooo sore and tired! My feet have never hurt that much in my entire life.
Limping up to the Rom Dance was interesting. We were laughed at, but I’m sure if I’d seen someone trying to walk as pitifully as me I would have laughed too. I think the villagers understood how tired and sore we were. They all thought we were a bit crazy for climbing the volcano in just one day. I take that as a compliment coming from a people as fit and buff as they are – maybe they just thought we were crazy for ‘albinos’, as the kids call us.
Before the Rom Dance we saw lots of fantastic carvings, mostly made from black palm, all in a ring around this big clearing. As we sat waiting on bamboo benches we had our first glimpse of the costumes through the trees and they were unreal! Giant, bushy things that made them look like Grug the monster, or something out of Sesame Street.
I admit I thought they’d be a little more colourful but it was still fantastic! They’d tied fruit to their legs that made rattling noises, put flowers in their hair and they sung too.
The chief and one or two others also wore nambas (penis sheaths) and nothing else. They’d coloured their skin in yellow with a plant too so it was all very striking… seeing their bum cheeks wobble and their testicles flying free had made me believe God truly is a practical joker.
After that amazing dance we had a closer look at the carvings and I bought a few small souvenirs for my cousins. Then we had another long lie down waiting for the truck. We also had some more coffee and chocolate biscuits provided by Walter (he was ‘da bomb’ on this trip).
The truck ride back was, again, ‘normal’. We did change trucks half way there because ours was making a nice healthy thumping noise, but that low lying branch from the other morning was gone.
After a very short rest we went to the kava bar (a ring of benches outside). Oh! Eeeew! Yuk! Bluh! Never again! I had 5 big shells (or 10 ordinary ones), which is as much as a fully grown Ni-Van man (who drinks Kava every night) drinks to get intoxicated. But Jeppy didn’t tell me. He just suggested I drink 5 shells, because that’s what he’d usually drink in a night. Not only does it taste like you’ve licked up dirt, but the after effects are awful!
It numbs your tongue and body so you don’t taste it after the third shell. The actual feeling it gives you at first is pretty awesome. You’re so light and relaxed, like foam floating on top of the sea (how poetic).
We talked to Jeppy about what the money looks like in Australia and why certain pictures are on the Vanuatu coins and notes. It was an interesting discussion.
Afterwards I stumbled back to the Guest House where the ladies had prepared a big farewell feast to share with us. The food was lovely but as I was eating I was thinking ‘something doesn’t feel right’.
10 minutes later I was on the floor. 20 minutes after that I was throwing up worse that I ever remember throwing up before. I felt so bad, I felt so rude, but the women were so lovely, massaging my head, patting my back, holding my hair out of the way. They also helped me into bed and gave me a spew bucket - I needed that several times during the night.
Another aspect of kava is that it ‘expands your mind’, letting you ‘ponder’ as the natives put it. So despite the fact that I was dead tried, that I was so exhausted I’d barely been able to walk to the kava bar in the first place, I couldn’t sleep. I was so utterly sick, and I’m never drinking kava again!The next morning, sunburnt, sore, tired and sick we waited for our plane. I never thought I’d look forward to going back to Paama, to the land of rats, with our charming privy, broken down wash room, and leaking kastom house. But it felt good to be ‘home’. I don’t think I’ll ever feel the same way about Paama again, and that’s a good thing. :0)
