Land divers, the original bungy jumpers

Anxious wait

I ate my breakfast hastily at 0700 because the pickup was 0730. Becca and I waited at the entrance; she had been there since 0710 as she had to get here by public transport. The weather was still on/off with rain. After about 20 minutes I asked the hotel to check with Air Taxis as to whether the trip was still on and where the ride was.

The receptionist spoke to Meliana at Air Taxi in their language. There was some apologetic expression in the conversation and my heart sank. I thought the trip had been cancelled due to weather or insufficient numbers. Fortunately the receptionist advised that the transport was late and would turn up between 0800 to 0830. Meliana had left a message with the hotel but that hadn’t been passed on to me.

You wouldn’t believe how relieved I felt. The land-diving (nagol) is something I had wanted to see specifically; that along with Tanna volcano was my whole reason for being in Vanuatu.

We waited till nearly 0900 before I got the receptionist to make another phone call. We were advised that it should be along soon. It finally turned up at 0915 after a 1h45 wait!

At the airport, I paid up and was weighed. Meliana explained that we only have a group of four (their minimum in a six passenger plane) but she had told the villagers that we had come a long way to see nagol. They agreed to do it for our small group. It would be an intimate affair compared to a Saturday which may see up to 8 planes and 50 customers.

The reason for our delay became clear soon afterwards. Passengers from the inbound flight from the Tanna overnight disembarked. A mainland Chinese passenger apologised to his fellow-passengers for causing the delay. He couldn’t find his mobile in his room and caused a delay. Then at the airport, he realised he had left his laptop back at the hotel. Without consulting anyone, he rushed back to the hotel to retrieve it causing a further delay.

Finally, the long awaited trip to Pentecost

Captain Nick in flip-flops (as opposed to shoes for Unity Airlines captain) introduced himself to us. We were given a safety briefing on the tarmac and asked to strap the lifejacket pouch to our waist, so that it would be readily available to don in case of a water landing.

The yellow Cessna 207 took off at 1015 for the hour flight, flying low at around 2000 ft, over the sea and islands to reach the sealed strip at Lonorore on Pentecost Islands. Because of clouds we couldn’t see the any volcanoes on the islands along the way.

The village chief came to greet us at the plane and we hopped on the back of a pickup truck for the 15 min ride through tracks in very lush vegetation. Going up a hill, we got stuck. As the nagol tower was near, we chose to walk the remaining distance.

The tower didn’t look that high at first from afar. It was set on a slope. Climbing up the slope, I realised the tower itself was higher than it had looked and the height was augmented by the slope it stood on; the land-divers would land beyond the base of the tower itself.

Around midday, a couple of men climbed up the tower to a relatively low tier. One started putting the vine on his ankles. A cheer leading squad consisting of men, women and toddlers sang, chanted and swayed on the hillside behind the tower.

After a little wait at psyching up, we saw the first jump. They appear to project themselves forward. Combined with the sloping ground they land on, their impact is lessened compared to a direct vertical jump. Anyway, that’s what I think … I still wouldn’t like to be doing it. It was an awesome sight that had been worth waiting for.  This is the inspiration for bungy-jumping; even if it is cultural appropriation!

The cheerleaders are at it in the background the whole time while the successive jumps were prepared and executed. A total of five jumps were done for us over the period of 30 minutes, each time from a progressively higher platform.

We were all grateful to Air Taxi and the village for putting this on for us specially. We walked back to the pickup which drove us to a shed by a beach very near the airport. We had our ham roll and some biscuits.

I chatted to Captain Nick a little as his next job is in Indonesian Papua. I gave him some travel suggestions, some of which he knew already. His roster there consisted of 40 days on and 20 days off, which would mean lots of time for exploration. He seemed like the adventurous sort compared to others who have to use their days off to go back to their families.

We walked back to the plane along the track for our flight back around 13:45. We had a much higher altitude of around 8000 ft this time and once again, we couldn’t see the volcanoes in the islands en route.

We landed around 14:45 and I was back in my hotel around 15:00 after the most amazing day. I was so happy that my trip objectives for Vanuatu had been accomplished. Combined with bad weather, the trip had been nearly a write-off apart from the moments looking into the crater of Mt Yasur’s crater.

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Costly Vanuatu

Due to the geographic spread of its islands, getting to sights and places often involves flying. Tour packages using small planes (instead of independent travel using Air Vanuatu) is often more practical. Even though the prices may appear prohibitive, they are actually cost-effective. Eg. if I had gone to Tanna independently, I would have paid a fortune chartering a vehicle to get to the volcano.

My Tanna volcano and Petecost nagol packages added to a whopping NZD1100, for two day trips. They are two once-in-a-lifetime daytrips though. It seems like a lot of money but it is equivalent to having a coffee from a cafe every weekday for a year! I’m so glad I’m not a coffee connoisseur!

Choosing between air tour operators

There are several air tour operators in Vanuatu, eg. Air Taxis, Unity Airlines and Air Safaris. I had the pleasure of dealing with the first two. Here are my thoughts:

• Air Taxis: Very professional with emails and in person (actually Meliana is a delight to deal with). Some flights not too reliable if weather isn’t favourable, due to limitations with single-engine aircraft. Smaller aircraft means more intimate groups and their tours can proceed if there is low demand.
• Unity Airlines: Quite professional with emails and in person. All planes are twin-engined and operate in nearly any weather (but it may not be pleasant up there).