VANUATU - APX

Dominated by Mt Garet, which puffs steam, ash,
sulphur and smoke into the air, Gaua Island is
renowned for its natural beauty. Lake Letas lies
on an ash plain at the top of the mountain, and
the lake's extraordinary ability to carry the
reflection of passing ships hundreds of metres
below has earned it the more prosaic name of
Lake Reflection. At 7km (4.3mi) long, it is one of
the largest freshwater lakes in the South Pacific,
although volcanic sulphur has stained the waters
orange-brown. Thousands of birds come here to
feed, and incubator birds lay their eggs close by,
abandoning them to incubate in the warm mud.
De Quiros estimated that 200,000 people lived on
Gaua, most likely a gross exaggeration to impress
the Spanish king, but dozens of stone ruins and
dry stone walls reclaimed by forest attest to a time
when Gaua supported a larger population than
the 1300 it does today. Trekking on Gaua is
strenuous, but the lake and Siri Falls are worth it.
The falls drop away into dense forest shrouded in
mist. The Banks Group, of which Gaua is the
second largest, is serviced by air from Luganville,
and speedboats ply between the islands. Small
trading ships also service it from Luganville.
Maewo Island
volcanoes, Mt Inrerow Atahein and Mt
Tahentchai. Accessible reefs, such as Port
Patrick and Inmal Reef, are ideal for diving and
hot springs at Umetch, Itchepthav Bay and
Anwunupol offer a rewarding soak at the end of
a long day. The locals at Anawamet have created
an offshore marine sanctuary to protect the
numerous turtles that feed there, whereas they
are hunted for food elsewhere on the island.
Vanair links Aneityum to Vila.
History
Some of the islands have been populated
continuously for thousands of years and others
are still uninhabited today. The earliest known
settlement was on Malo Island, where pottery at
least 4000 years old has been unearthed.
Prehistoric cultures in Vanuatu were plagued by
inter-tribal warfare. The tribes' rich spiritual life
attributed all natural and human-induced bad luck
or calamities to sorcery, and they staged lavish
festivals to appease the gods. The elaborate
burial chamber of a nobleman buried in AD1265
was excavated on Eretoka Island, off the coast of
Efate, and bears evidence of human sacrifice.
A needle-thin chunk of land on the maps,
Maewo's central mountainous ridge draws more
than 4000mm (that's 4m, or 13ft) of rain annually.
Not surprisingly, the rivers run fast and the jungle
grows thick. A magnificent waterfall surrounded
by deep waterholes lies near the airstrip. Two
coral monoliths at the village of Kerembai
represent people turned to stone in the island's
mythic past. Sorcery, secret societies and a rich
mythology flourish on the island despite, or
perhaps because of, its tragic history. About 90%
of Maewo's population was wiped out by disease
and blackbirding during the 19th century. Avoid
Maewo during the mid-year yam harvest, when
the mid-year hurters, masked men wearing sacks
and banana leaves chase and beat people with
thorny sticks. Hot springs at Lolarouk and
Gaiofo, and cascades at Naone make Maewo
worth more than a flying visit, and you can dive on
a wrecked blackbirding vessel at Talise. Reach
Maewo by air from Luganville or on the Aloara,
that sails from Vila and Luganville.
Aneityum Island
The southernmost of Vanuatu's islands, Aneityum
arguably has the most pleasant climate. Tropical
fruits and vegetables grow luxuriantly and a
walking track that loops around the island makes
trekking an attractive prospect. It is harder work
in the interior, but worth it for the magnificent
mountain scenery punctuated by massive kauri
pines and ancient waterfalls. Three mountains
dominate the interior, two of them extinct
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Explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros laid eyes on
the islands in 1606, naming the first one he
sighted Nuestra Señora de Austrialia del Espiritu
Santo, known today simply as Santo. His lofty - if
quixotic - ideal was to found New Jerusalem in
the Pacific on the banks of a river he called the
Jordan. But the locals didn't really want to be
saved and the prevailing south-easterlies
continually hindered the Spanish landings. De
Quiros wandered off into the Pacific not long after
he arrived, presumably believing his failure had
condemned the unsuspecting ni-Vanuatu to burn
for eternity. Among the Spanish, Portuguese and
French explorers who followed was Louis Antoine
de Bougainville, who wrote that he had been
'transported to the garden of Eden'. The
Englishman Captain James Cook was perhaps
less starry-eyed in 1774 when he wrote that the
traditional manner of preparing kava 'is as simple
as it is disgusting'.
Vanuatu's more recent history brims with a
panoply of pulpit-pounding priests, scurrilous
slavers and fumbling colonial bureaucrats. Hot on
the heels of the explorers came the adventurers
to harvest whales and sandalwood and the
missionaries to harvest souls. The Europeans
brought epidemics of influenza and measles,
venereal disease and the slave trade, and the
populations of some islands, particularly in the
north, have never recovered. The English and
French, often at war with each other last century,
settled uneasily next to each other in the New
Hebrides, as the archipelago was known until
independence, and formed probably the strangest