Vanuatu
Mount Yasur
Molten rock bursts skyward several times an hour from a rim you reach at dusk.
The drive crosses a grey ash plain where nothing grows, and then the cone is above you, breathing sulphur into Tanna's evening sky. From the rim at dusk the bursts arrive as sound first, a thump through the chest, then orange arcs against the dark. Sailors once steered by this glow.
Mount Yasur is a 361-metre scoria cone that has been in more or less continuous eruption since Captain Cook recorded its ash columns in 1774, a rhythm that may reach back 800 years. Its strombolian bursts, several in an hour on an ordinary day, lit the night sea so reliably that Yasur became known as the lighthouse of the Pacific. It is also about as approachable as an active volcano gets: vehicles stop close below the crater and the rim walk takes minutes, not days. Access runs under Vanuatu's volcanic alert system, and the day's level and local guides decide how close any visit goes. For the people of Tanna the volcano is not scenery; Yasur stands at the centre of kastom belief, and villages on the ash plain have lived with its rumble for generations.
Solo
Join a guided dusk ascent and stay on the black-sand coast nearby, where the crater's thump carries through the bungalow floor at night.
Couple
Time the rim for the half-hour when daylight fails and the arcs turn from grey smoke to orange fire, then share the slow drive back across the ash plain.
Friends
Watch the bursts together from the viewing points, then argue over which explosion was biggest across Tanna coffee back at the bungalow.
- Yasur has erupted more or less continuously since Captain Cook observed it in 1774, a pattern that may span 800 years.
- The 361-metre cone is among the most approachable active volcanoes on earth, with a rim walk of minutes from where vehicles stop.
- Its night glow guided sailors far out to sea, earning Yasur the name the lighthouse of the Pacific.
- The volcano anchors Tanna's kastom belief, and communities on the ash plain have lived beside its rumble for generations.
Hilltop bungalow kitchens minutes from the crater gate cook seasonal lobster and reef fish with organic garden vegetables, finished with freshly brewed Tanna coffee.
The ash plain sells nothing, so coast bungalows pack cooked picnic lunches for the volcano run; order yours the night before.
El Calafate
Argentina
A glacier calves office-block towers of ice into turquoise water as you watch.
Serra do Rio do Rastro
Brazil
Hairpins carved into a sheer cliff face, climbing out of the lowlands and into cloud.
Mount Meru
Tanzania
The climb starts among giraffe and ends on a knife-edge rim facing Kilimanjaro.
Port Vila
Vanuatu
A capital where France and Britain ruled at once, and kava quiets the harbour at dusk.
Millennium Cave
Vanuatu
Enter the cave on foot; leave it swimming down a jungle gorge.
Port Olry
Vanuatu
Dugout canoes land the catch on white sand where the village speaks French.
Riri Blue Hole
Vanuatu
Locals paddle you through dark jungle to a pool that glows like stained glass.