Mount Yasur is one of the most accessible active volcanoes worldwide and also one of the safest ones to visit as its activity didn´t change significantly in the last 200 years. Every couple of minutes a small, new eruption occurs, Mount Yasur spits out ash and volcanic gases and the roaring can be heard from kilometers.

From the entrance of the national park, there is a dirt road leading up to the crater and most people take this distance with a jeep. That´s completely unnecessary as the road is only a 30-40 minutes easy hike through lush forest and later through the ashy slopes of the volcano.  First, we tried to take a shortcut from our camping place to the crater from the opposite side of the volcano, which was recommended to us by some locals. It was leading up really steeply through the ashy slope, the strong wind was blowing the ash into our faces, eyes, and mouth, and at the end, we couldn’t see much. On the next day, we used the access through the above mentioned dirt road from the entrance gate which was a much more pleasant hike and the views over the crater were amazing from there!

We arrived back to Efate from Santo Espiritu with the belief that it will be easy to find a ferry or cargo boat going to Tanna that week. Or if not, we will still be able to book an Air Vanuatu flight. We couldn´t be more wrong… It turned out that at that time all cargo boats went North, the ferry got cancelled and all flights were fully booked. So how to get to Tanna? We signed up for the Air Vanuatu “waiting list” but it turned out very soon that it is also full with 30+ persons already on it… So what to do? We started desperately asking in the offices of the charter airlines if they have free space available on one of their scheduled flights for a price similar to Air Vanuatu. The pilot of Unity Airlines, who just first introduced himself as Captain Happy agreed to take us, and Unity Airlines was going to be ok with paying the same fare as for Air Vanuatu. The only problem was that the flight was leaving in 15 minutes and all our luggage, clothes, tent and everything else was at our accommodation. So we missed this one! On the next day we were wiser and just moved in the morning with all our stuff to the Airport to be on “standby” in case there is any place on any flight to Tanna. The Air Vanuatu flight was again full, so being on the waiting list did not help us. The good news was that Unity Airlines had again chartered a flight, this time a cargo, and Captain Happy was fine to take us, given that the person who ordered the cargo agreed. So we phoned the person and although we offered to contribute to the costs with the same amount that we would pay for an Air Vanuatu ticket, he didn’t accept any payment and just said: “Just hop on the flight, you`re welcome”. So that’s how we got a free ride on a cargo flight to Tanna!