Ambae, also known as Aoba is an active volcanic island. Ambae is an exceptionally beautiful island and is known for its legendary disappearing act. On rare days, you can see the beautiful island rising from the ocean in the early morning light. But as the sun climbs higher, the island quickly disappears behind a glare of sea haze.
Ambae Island is home to one of the seven active volcanoes in Vanuatu, Lake Manaro Volcano. The level 2 active Lake Manaro summit and volcano is about 3000 – 4000 feet above sea level.
There is an anchorage at the northern tip of the island called Lolowai Bay which is actually an old caldera. We can only enter this beautiful bay at high tide as we have to cross over the submerged northern wall of the caldera. Once inside we are blessed with truly beautiful conditions and gorgeous, clear turquoise waters. The surrounding cliffs are rich in colors as they jet from the water up to the sky.
Even though this is a fairly calm anchorage it was not super peaceful. We arrived on Friday later afternoon and ended up leaving on Sunday early morning. As it would happen, four different supply ships were dropping off and picking up during our short 2 day visit. Not surprising as this is the business center of the province, but a little disappointing as the locals zipped around the anchorage most of the day and night.
Manaro Volcano
The Manaro volcano is pretty active and constantly monitored by a live web cam and seismological charts. The summit is 1,496 metres (4,908 ft) above sea level and about 3,900m (12,800 ft) above the sea floor.
According to indigenous custom Chief Virenaliu Paul Vuhu, the summit’s valley and lakes are considered `the “sacred place and paradise” where they believe after death, their spirits go to live happily ever after.
The entire population of 11,000 residents were evacuated during its last eruption which started in September 2017 and had after effects well into September 2018.
There are several “lakes” on Ambae which were formed by volcanic cones and filled with fresh water. We happened to anchor inside one and fairly close next to 2 of them on shore. So, Matt and I decided we needed to go check them out.
In the bottom right photo, you will see the anchorage is one caldera, the lake on the right is another and then there is a cluster of lakes that make up a third caldera.
A 8.1 mile Loop
The plan was to walk from the anchorage, which is between 3 and 4 (closer to three) clockwise to the airport and back around. It looked like there was a road on maps.me so it should not be “too difficult.” We could have cut it short at Lovatumemea but we were feeling “jiggy” and continued on.
We were enjoying the beautiful views so much that we actually missed the turn off for the first lake. Unfortunately, we did not realize it until we were already several miles past it. We opted not to backtrack since this was already going to be a long walk.
But the views were lovely and the breeze was so appreciated as it was a really hot day.
At the very tip of the island we came to these beautiful cliffs. We heard some chatter and decided to carefully look below. To our surprise, there were two young boys trying to bring up a tire. What the heck? Where are there parents? Yikes. It doesn’t look that scary in the photo, but let me tell you it was no place for children.
We made it to the airport and followed the dirt trail that ran parallel to the runway. We toyed with the idea of walking on the runway (I know, not legal, but still thrilling). Our thinking was that there is only one flight per week that comes here and both airlines were operating on limited flights (one fighting bankruptcy and the other recovering from a fatal plane crash).
Thank goodness we did not do that as a few minutes later we heard the roar of an airplane. What are the odds? Seriously?
In the end, we walked over 8.1 miles or 13 kilometers around the northern tip of Ambae. It was a little longer than we both anticipated. I had one small bottle of water and no food. We enjoyed a well deserved rest once we got back to the boat.
Intruder Alert
It has been a very, very long time since we had intruders onboard. We try to be very vigilant by locking all hatches and doors and stowing our belongings. We try not to leave anything in the cockpit or on the life lines that might provide an “opportunity” for thieves.
However, we noticed footprints in our cockpit when we returned from our long walk around Ambae. Normally our boat is pretty clean so seeing footprints in the cockpit leading up to the bow is not normal. We later checked our security camera and found out that two teenage boys boarded Sugar Shack uninvited. Lucky for us they did not take anything but it still was a violation.
The irritating thing was that we saw these two boys on shore as they were trying to pull their white canoe into the water. We waived and said “hello” just as they were heading out to illegally board our boat.
The camera captured one kid’s face and the body of the other. We left early the next morning so we did not get a chance to report it to the police or the chief. Not that they would have done anything about it but I would have liked to scare the pants off these kids.
This is the 6th incident that we know of here in Vanuatu this year. Of course there are many others that we don’t know about. But we were lucky as nothing was missing or stolen. Just a reminder to stay aware of your surroundings, take all precautions, and lock everything up.
Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events. This blog post on Ambae occurred in early September. Visit the scintillating island of Santo in our last blog post.
