Vanuatu
Vanua Lava
Twin waterfalls the locals call the Devils' drop 120 metres in tandem into a fern-lined pool.
Vanua Lava climbs from the small provincial town of Sola into rainforest that closes above the trail within minutes. Two hours' walking through cocoa plantations and bush gardens ends at the Sasara twin falls, two white columns dropping side by side into a pool ringed with ferns.
This is the working heart of Vanuatu's remote Banks Islands, and its scale is volcanic. Suretamatai, known locally as Sere'Ama, rises to 921 metres as a chain of small stratovolcanoes holding a lake inside its 900-metre summit crater, and its geothermal field steams with superheated fumaroles, hot springs and boiling ponds; reaching it is a serious guided walk deep into the interior, under the volcanic alert system that governs every Vanuatu volcano. From Sola the island's excursions fan out: the twin falls, the Selva River, Kwakea Island offshore, and a river trip known for saltwater crocodiles, the Banks' most unexpected residents. Nothing here is packaged. Flights come from Santo, stays are family bungalows where every meal arrives with the bed, and the forest reclaims paths fast enough that a guide counts as part of the landscape.
Solo
Base at a Sola bungalow, walk through forest to the twin falls, and give the volcano the long guided approach it demands if conditions allow.
- Suretamatai rises to 921 metres as a chain of small stratovolcanoes, with a lake in its summit crater and a geothermal field of fumaroles, hot springs and boiling ponds.
- The Sasara twin falls, locally the Waterfall of the Devils, drop about 120 metres in tandem into a fern-lined pool reached on foot through forest from the coast.
- From Sola, guided excursions reach the volcano, the Selva River, Kwakea Island and a river known for saltwater crocodiles.
- Stays are family bungalows and homestays whose kitchens cook from the day's catch and the gardens.
In Sola's small kakae houses beside the market, laplap and grilled reef fish come straight off the fire.
Bungalow tables serve whatever the catch and the gardens gave that day: reef fish with taro, island cabbage and papaya.
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