Mt Yasur volcano – an experience of a lifetime on Tanna, Vanuatu…

One of the things I have always wanted to do was to visit an active volcano and hike to its rim to look down at the lava spewing out of its cones. Over the years I have flown over a few volcano’s in Hawaii and Reunion, and viewed others in Indonesia from a distance, but on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu you can drive to within a 10min walk to the rim, making it the worlds most accessible active volcano.It’s a must-see when visiting Vanuatu…and the government of Vanuatu and residents of Tanna know this, which is why it is also probably the most expensive place to visit in the Pacific.

To get to Tanna you have two options: a 24 hr boat ride on the filthy Vanuatu Cargo (or the ferry when it eventually comes back into service) at a cost of VT9000 (US$80), or probably the worlds most expensive 35min plane ride on the state-owned Vanuatu Air at a whopping US$130 one way. Once you arrive at the very basic airport in Tanna you will usually be collected and transferred to wherever you are staying on the island by the accommodation provider at a standard rate of 5000VT (US$45) each way. I don’t really blame the local guys for charging so much as the roads are generally horrendous, so they have the risk of damage to their 4×4’s. They also pay about twice the price for fuel on Tanna than on the main island Efate. Government’s failure to provide decent roads and control the price of fuel really causes suffering for local people in Vanuatu.

The cost of extremely basic accommodation runs at around US$50/night for a basic bungalow with a shared bathroom with cold shower which in our case had a garden tap as its head. We resorted to asking for a bucket of hot water to wash in each day. Meals provided by the local accommodation is also very basic as the island has no electricity supply – another infrastructure failure by government, so locals have to either run a generator at incredibly high cost, or resort to solar power, which is only sufficient for a few bulbs for night use. Refrigeration is not common unless one stays in a fancy resort at a cost odf US$100+ per night. We stayed in a cool tree house at Yasur View Bungalows which look out over the volcano in the distance.

To visit Mt Yasur volcano costs an incredible V9750 (US$100) per person for a visit of less than 4 hrs, of which more than an hour is robbed up with a boring feux-cultural dance by a group of sad-looking villagers who are paid 200V per performance. Another 30 mins is needed to be transported on one of the worst roads I have ever been dragged over anywhere in the world. Why on earth the private company that runs the volcano cannot use some of the entrance fee profits to build a decent road mystified and annoyed everyone we met in Tanna. The volcano and its entrance fee is also causing lots of strife and bitterness between the one village which ‘owns’ the volcano and the rest of the islanders, who get nothing from the entrance fee, even though they transport most of the guests who visit the volcano to its entrance. A commission of 10% would make sense, but instead foreign visitors are burdened with another transport charge of 2000V to 5000V to get there and back as this is the only way for local transport operators to cover costs and turn a profit.

The volcano itself is of course a magnificent spectacle to behold, depending on how active it is. When we visited it was at level 2 of activity which made for some cool photographs of us perched on the rim overlooking the caldera. The conditions were at times extreme, with massive plumes of volcanic ash laced with noxious sulphur engulfing us on three occasions, accompanied by gale-force winds and some lashing rain just to magnify the discomfort. Luckily these conditions subsided after 5 – 10 mins and we could continue to marvel at the might of Mother Nature in her rawest form.

Once on the summit of the volcano it was pretty hair-raising at times, and to be honest I am surprised that tourists don’t regularly topple into the caldera given that our guides disappeared towards the end of our time on the summit, leaving many visitors to stumble their way off the mountain by themselves. The danger factor is part of the thrill – in most countries there would be many more safety measures taken – a long rope to rescue a toppler would be a good idea 🙂

Because Mt Yasur is so unique, and every visitor finds the experience amazing, people seem resigned to the fact that in order to visit it one will be screwed by the overcharging on Tanna. Trip Advisor does have numerous negative reviews by annoyed independant travellers, but the more affluent day trippers on a short vacation from Australia tend not to complain, and so the government and the volcano operator pocket the big profits while failing to improve the infrastructure on the island which would benefit local people as well as tourists. The people of Vanuatu need to realize that not all people who travel are rich – some have worked for years to save the money to make the trip to see their country. To be treated like a cash cow can be quite depressing for many travellers.

Akhona and I have discussed the whole experience we had in Vanuatu on many occasions. We visited mainly because I had read a survey years ago about how the happiest people on earth lived in Vanuatu. As someone who is interested in what makes people happy, I really wanted to visit the island group myself. We did not find evidence of particularly happy people during our month in Vanuatu visiting Efate, Santo and Tanna. Rather we met lots of frustrated, bitter locals who dislike expats, and who see travellers only as a source of inflated income. We did meet some wonderful Ni-vans, but they were not in the majority. On the streets and in the tourists areas people seemed decidedly unfriendly towards us, even when we greeted them. I guess that we were spoilt by the genuine warmth we experienced from villagers and locals in Fiji…

After I posted a short post on Vanuatu just as we were leaving, where I mentioned that it was the most expensive destination we have ever visited, and that the people didn’t seem very happy, but were actually unfriendly, the post was shared on some Ni Van FB groups and unleashed over 100 comments, many supporting my opinion, and many rejecting it and resorting to abusive name-calling and immature responses…which actually made it clear that we had accurately gauged how Ni-Vans really behave. I was very sad…It took a lot of time, effort and money to get to Vanuatu only to realize that it was definitely not a dream location as portrayed by many tourism sites. Click on the comments icon in the post to see the reaction in Vanuatu to my post…

Was the visit to Tanna worth US$1000 for flights, accommodation, crappy food and the amazing volcano? To us it was, but to many travellers we spoke to probably not. The video below says it all: