Events of Thursday 20th February 2020
The visit to Ambrym Island was added to the programme only on the previous day, when Noble Caledonia decided that the planned visits to the Solomon Islands were no longer viable. Overnight, the ship sailed to Ambrym and moored off the island at around 07:00.
At 08:30, after breakfast, Zodiacs started to ferry guests ashore for a wet landing onto a beach of black sand. Two parallel rows of long-stemmed flowers had been set in the sand by local ladies who presented us with beautifully-made leaf necklaces and directed us along a track to a performance area surrounded by fairly rickety bench seating where we were to witness the traditional and highly symbolic Rom or ‘Masked’ Dance.
There was one grave in the performance area, I believe that of a former Chief, bestrewn with flower petals. The present Chiefs, dressed in the traditional 'namba' (a penis sheath) formally greeted the Ship’s Captain, the Expedition Leader and the Local Tour Company Staff who had organized the event.
The Ship's Captain is welcomed by the local Headman: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
Then, the male dancers, all dressed in traditional 'namba' stamped and moved mystically for some time at a distance from the audience to the beat of a hand-held percussion instrument carried by the elderly chief.
The male dancers stamped and moved mystically: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
Then, the dancers were surrounded by elaborately-masked ‘devils’ in voluminous cloaks of banana leaves who twirled around the dancers, beating the ground with symbolic long staves. The whole group moved towards the centre and the ritual continued until the male dancers retired, leaving the ‘devils’ to pirouette alone.
Elaborately-masked ‘devils’ in the Rom Dance: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
Male dancers being surrounded by elaborately-masked ‘devils’: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
Male dancers completely surrounded by ‘devils’: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
Finally, the ‘devils’ retired and the male dancers, rather unexpectedly, quietly lined up for photographs.
Male dancers relax after the Rom Dance: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
One chief then performed a sombre melody on a long bamboo flute with a series of holes to allow different notes to be played.
A sombre melody on a long bamboo flute: Ambrym, Vanuatu
To demonstrate the Ambrym tradition of sand drawing, assistants then spread sand on one area near the grave and a second spot in the performance area. Two of the male dancers we'd watched then showed their skill at sand drawing, each smoothing the sand to their satisfaction before swiftly scribing a stylized image of remarkable complexity.
Sand Drawing: Ambrym, Vanuatu
The final item was a demonstration of 'magic'. Two men with woven baskets faced one another. The first showed that his basket held six large nuts, whilst other basket held none. The first man then pretended to throw an imaginary nut from his basket to the second man who caught it in his basket. This continued until six imaginary nuts had been transferred. The first man inverted his basket to show that his basket was now empty then the second man showed that his basket now contained six large nuts!
The first magician displays his now 'empty' woven basket: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
The whole performance had been quite impressive, if inscrutable. Seeking more understanding on my return, I found that the Vanuatu Tourism Office offers the exact programme we saw as "A sacred event associated with magic believed to influence harvests. You will watch hypnotic costumed dances and listen to beautiful and haunting bamboo flute music. You will witness a small display of mysterious ‘Black Magic’ only performed by special sorcerers – ‘the man blong blak majik’".
We then walked to the quiet village which showed a wide variety of building styles. Some houses had a wooden frame made from sawn timber, lifting the floor a few feet off the ground. The walls were woven bamboo topped by a thatched roof. Other dwellings of similar construction placed the floor at ground level. Elderly store houses had stone walls and corrugated sheet roofing but there was also one large, timber framed store with corrugated sheet roof. There were some stone plinths, presumably the relics of older buildings and at least one abandoned cement-lined stone cistern. The village seemed to have lots of derelict buildings. One more modern section of an abandoned building had a formed concrete foundation, with blockwork above, stabilized by vertical reinforcing bar with concrete poured into the spaces through the blocks.
Large house overlooking the sea - traditional but elevated on reinforced concrete piles: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
Lonbato Co-operative Society shop was quite modern and we went inside to study the wide range of stock held. There was a large array of solar panels outside.
Expedition Leader Craig Ward surveys the stock in Lonbato Cooperative Society shop: Ambrym, Vanuatu.
The Church was a large, modern building near Lonbato Co-op. Inside, on a large blackboard, the forthcoming programme of events and the draft budget had been chalked up. Behind this building I found what was apparently the original church building, now disused. A simple wooden frame still suspended a large gas cylinder, struck to call the faithful.
Ambrym, Vanuatu, showing old church, new church and church bell.
A loud thump behind me made me spin round. A large, heavy, ripe breadfruit had just fallen to the ground, uncomfortably close to me.
A ripe breadfruit falling from a tree just missed me.
Unharmed, I returned to our point of landing where a selection of beautiful polished hardwood carvings were on sale. After a fascinating morning, our Zodiacs returned us to the ship to be presented with yet another comprehensive and tempting lunch menu.
Jan, on return to ship with beautifully-made leaf necklace from Ambrym.
As we lunched, the ship repositioned off the village of Ranvetlam. The first Zodiac departures took swimmers and snorkelers ashore then the other Zodiacs Zodiacs offered the remaining passengers a one hour cruise looking at features along the coastline.
Zodiac Cruise, Ambrym
Along this part of the coast, there was no beach and the land met the sea at a 15 foot rock cliff. A stream tumbled over this cliff in a waterfall. Village women had completed washing clothes in this stream and had spread out the items on the rocks to dry in the sun, allowing a group of young children to splash around happily in the stream.
Village children watch their visitors: Zodiac Cruise, Ambrym.
Further along, the cliff was pierced by a series of shallow caves and the Zodiacs carefully nudged inside. Shortly afterwards, the Zodiac I was in suffered a fuel blockage. Having confirmed the plastic fuel tank in the locker in the bow had plenty of fuel, our driver tried hand priming by squeezing the fuel bulb a number of times but without success. Seeking fault-finding tips over the radio, our driver was told to try stamping firmly on the fuel bulb a few times and this technique was successful.
A shoal of tuna was spotted in a feeding frenzy, members leaping out of the water in their excitement. By then, it was time to return to the ship after an interesting interlude. With everybody safely back on board, and the Zodiacs stowed by about 17:30, the Captain was able to start our overnight journey to Ureparapara, third largest Island of the Banks Island chain in Vanuatu.
Related posts on this website
This post is in the series labelled 'Tropic of Capricorn’. The first post is here.
Clicking on the 'Next report' link will display the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
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All my Tropic of Capricorn reports
My pictures
This blog post was first published on the ship via a satellite link with limited capacity so the links to my pictures were added later.
Ambrym, Vanuatu
Zodiac Cruise, Ambrym, Vanuatu
[Links to pictures added 11-Mar-2020: Pictures embedded 01-Apr-2020]
