The alarm rang at 6am, although it was not needed as an army of cockrels were doing their pre pre dawn practice wake up calls. There was an electric storm all through the night and is still going on. The deep deafening rumbles and being on a volcanic island does play havoc with your imagination. John Tasso (the guide) didn't think it would be a good idea to go up the volcano so we are staying put. Due to the flight cancellations we missed the good weather windo...

Ambrym - the black island. This refers to the black soil and sand that covers the island from twin active volcanos. When you see this we will be off the island and safe. Not that it is irresponsibly dangerous, there are two types of volcanos and this is the safer type - if that applies to volcanos. I liken this to the risk of being hit by lightening. Last night (in Luganville) we met a group of Aussies that were also affected by the plane problems (though they...

TIV (This Is Vanuatu) - yes you guessed it, the flight has been cancelled again! As the sun is shining they had to admit that it is their problem. The first cancellation was put down to the weather - but I smell a rat. They were relunctant to say the flight would go when the weather improved and they let it slip that there was also aircraft problems. The airlines offer to put us up for the night compounded the problem. The place they took us was very cheap (t...

We are back in the relative luxury of Luganville, with cafes, restaurants and a ATM (there are only two places in Vanuatu that you can get cash and you cannot use plastic). We are only here to get a flight and provisions for the next island. Luganville is full of divers that come to dive the numerous WWII wecks around here (not our scene). The next island has no ATMs, two shops, food shortages and very basic accomodation. Liz has been buying supplies: mosy coil...

It was a Sunday, no buses run in or out of Lonnoc. The plan was to do a bit of snorkelling as it costs nothing. Heika (a German we met) however had arranged someone with a 4x4 to go over to Matantas and wanted to go with someone else. So we piled into the back of a pickup truck along with a couple of mad locals (complete with machetties) and headed west for the day. It seemed that the locals were just out on a jolly. Matantas is as far as you can go by road on...