11/08/2019 to 14/08/2019 - Tanna / Vanuatu

Once again, we had to get up early in the morning and head to the airport. Tanna Island is located about an hour's flight south of the main island. We landed there around 11:00 am and continued our journey with a jeep. We drove for 1.5 hours across the island and quickly saw why we wanted to visit this particular island. The active volcano Mt. Yasur. It has been erupting every few minutes for over 800 years and you can watch this spectacle from the edge of the crater. We drove across vast ash fields, past canyons, until we reached our accommodation in the middle of the greenery with a view of the volcano. On the first day, we tried our luck and went up the volcano for the sunset. Unfortunately, the wind was unfavorable and the swirling giant was covered by dark clouds. But we heard every thundering eruption and felt the shockwave throughout our bodies. We wanted to try our luck again on another day. The next day, with perfect weather, we set off to the beach in a jeep. Despite being a volcanic island, Tanna has beautiful white beaches filled with seashells and plenty of driftwood. From there, we went to see one of the largest living beings on the island - the Banyan Tree. No one knows exactly how old it is, but it keeps growing and now covers the size of a football field. The island's inhabitants even built a treehouse with multiple rooms. Our next goal was to see the volcano at sunset. The weather got worse during the drive and eventually it started pouring rain. So we postponed our visit. It rained throughout the night and the whole next day, and the volcano was no longer visible from our accommodation. However, we didn't have much time left to see the volcano in action, so we decided to challenge our luck and go for the sunset anyway. Today, the wind was blowing in the right direction to look into the crater, but it was too foggy. Our last chance was the next morning at sunrise. So we woke up at 3:30 am. It was pouring rain. We still tried and actually saw sparks flying as the volcano thundered. We were soaked to our shoes and on good days, you can see much more volcanic activity, but we were very happy to have witnessed some of this natural power. We packed all our wet things back into the bag, because in the afternoon our flight from Tanna back to Port Vila was scheduled. We took great memories with us, but also the rain.