“Look, look, look!!! Can you see it? Can you see it?”
Chris was furiously pointing his hand into the sky. We were sitting on black volcanic sand in a patch of shade eating our lunch of peanut butter and crackers. Although we were about a mile away from the volcano, we could feel the shock wave, followed by the boom, followed by large debris shooting hundreds of feet into the air, followed by Chris’s flailing arm pointing at the sky. With our heads tilted back and mouths open, we watched the chunks of mountain fall back into the rim of the volcano. Shaking our heads we smiled as we finished our lunch, the edge of the rim was where we would be in a few hours.
On the southern island of Tanna, in the country of Vanuatu, lays Mount Yasur, one of the world’s most easily accessible volcanoes. Known as the “Light House” of the Pacific, it has more or less had continuous activity since Captain Cook first observed the volcano in 1774.
Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, to reach Yasur most people fly into Tanna and spend several hours crossing the island in some form of 4WD transportation. It can be done in a day, but we opted to stay in several spots around Tanna and spent two nights camped at the base of the volcano. We enjoyed the illuminating lava lights as we ate our dinner and fell asleep in our tent atop the soft, black sand to the rumblings of an ancient volcano.
Map courtesy of world atlas.
The drive over the mountains to get to the volcano. There was some major road work going on. All the traffic crossing the island was trying to cross the construction zones at specified times when the work crew would be taking their breaks.
Our truck load of passengers decided to walk around the corner to get the view.
Look at that switch back on the road.
The view of Volcano Yasur.
Do you need a taxi?!
Car decor. Everyone loves to have some bling on their vechicles.
Driving across the volcano flats. This was the road.
Having a walk in the volcanic sand water.
Or foot spa gone bad.
Off to find lunch spot.
The back side of the volcano.
Tiff preparing to charge up the volcano.
Instead we decided to take jumping shots like Chris’ canon ball.
Go, go, power-jump.
Ok, this was the actual entry point to climb.
We chose to walk up to the volcano.
Roads were extremely rough driving on the island of Tanna.
Always good advice to “think safety” as we walk up to one of the world’s most active volcanos in flip flops.
There were three vent holes for Yasur.
Molten hot lava.
Lava flying everywhere.
One of the vents going off.
Entering the world of the volcano.
The vents would go off at different times. Sometimes the vent on the left would put off tons of smoke.
Sometimes it would get so much smoke we couldn’t see the lava shooting out.
Then the smoke would clear and we could see the lava.
Other times there was a red glow leading us into the night.
The best way to watch Yasur was to arrive in the day light and stay into the evening. Then one could watch all the different changes of the volcano over several hours.
Here you can see the left vent putting out a lot of smoke and with the red glow there are two vents going off.
Evening twilight.
It was amazing to be able to walk up to this active volcano. No barriers. No helmets. No signed papers. You can read the warning and assess for yourself whether or not you want to look down an active volcano.
This was an all night fire work display.
As we walked back down the hill to our campground, Mount Yasur continued the unceasing, thundering booms. I can still close my eyes and envision the atmosphere in front of me right before one of the shock waves sent debris flying into the sky.
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Now THAT looks like it was quite the experience! I don’t imagine there is any wildlife in the immediate area…
There was not too much living at the very top, a few small lizards scampering by, but no wildlife at the top of this volcano. In Nicaragua we have been to active volcanoes where sulphur parrots actually lived just inside the rim of the volcano, but not here.
How cool that you got to see a volcano that Captain Hook discovered. I bet it was like you were in Never Never Land
It was pretty sweet. It was also cool to be camped at the bottom of Yasur and just hear the rumblings all night.