On our last two days on Ambrym island, I decide to take on the challenge of walking cross-island to climb one of the island's dark, brooding volcanoes. It is said to be a hard, long hike requiring an overnight stay at the base of the mountain. Amy decides to stay in the village, while I set out with a guide to take on Mt. Marum, Ambrym's most active volcano.
When approaching from the North, the trail to the volcanoes winds through lush jungle and coconut groves. It's a pleasant walk, regardless of the constant incline. The sun is out most of the time and my guide and I are making good progress. Suddenly my guide Jonas stops and utters "Wit wit". He has walked into a spiderweb and from what I can make out, this spider bites. The specimen in question is of a decent size, has a hairless brown body and black legs with bright yellow spots. When it has made its way to a branch, we can pass unharmed.
Soon, the trail starts to climb more steeply, winding through thicker jungle dotted with banana trees and the odd banyan tree. Jonas mumbles something along the lines of "wokabout slow" and our pace is reduced to a snail's pace. It's true that he is carrying my big backpack, but it is not nearly as heavy or full as usual and these guys are supposedly used to it. Not so much.
As Jonas does not know more than two words of understandable English and my Bislama/Pidgin is equally bad, I decide to stop asking him questions about the flora and fauna we see opting instead to wonder and make some mental notes to look up a few things later.
Just after 1PM, we arrive at our campsite. Jonas cuts a bunch of leaves from the fern trees all around us and spreads them out on the ground to provide some cushioning for our tent. Then he collapses on the bed of greens and takes a short nap. I just managed to communicate to him that I would like to climb the nearest volcano at around 3PM to see it in both daylight and in the dark. It is rumored that when the ever present clouds on top give way for a few brief moments, a lava lake can be seen down in the crater below.
After Jonas' short nap and some writing for me, we leave camp and start to walk towards Mt. Marum. Slowly again - Jonas is not a fast walker, with or without pack. The approach used by Jonas turns out to be anything but a straight shot. We make a big sideways move across Marum's ash plain of loose gravel-sized dark rock interrupted only by sparse patches of vegetation. The sun is still out in full force so it is quite toasty on the black grounds. The volcano looms large whenever the brush allows a line of sight. Unfortunately, the top of Mt. Marum is getting rather more cloudy and periodically dissapears completely, shrouded in a thick gray layer of water vapor.
After about an hour of walking, the landscape starts to change and the expanse of the ash plain turns to a set of ridges fanning out from the mountain. We continue in what looks like a dried up river bed, climbing up large lava formations and hopping rocks in patches of standing water. It turns out that this river bed is the remains of a lava river and the higher we climb, the more difficult it becomes.
Suddenly, Jonas stops - looking confused- and then walks back and forth a few times between the ridges bordering our lava river bed. At a seemingly random spot, he proceeds to scale the grassy ridge on our right and gestures for me to follow. To my surpprise, I find that there actually steps dug out, making the ascent relatively easy. On the top, there's a nice view of the landscape of steep ridges winding and twisitng their way down the mountain. Jonas and I follow our ridge up towards the now clearly audible rumblings of the volcano.
Gradually the grass thins out and the ridge's sides drop away very steeply. Best to not slide down the sharp lava rock here... After a last push up loose sand, we find ourselves at the edge of the crater. Marum's rumblings are now clearly distinguisable as minor explosions followed by sounds of lava sloshing around and against the sides of the vent.
It is an eerie experience, especially since we cannot see more than 50 meters in front of us. "Tumas cloud" as Jonas aptly - for once - puts it. A real shame. After an hour at the top, in howling winds and intermittent pelting rain, I decide that with the clouds continuously rolling in, there's no point in waiting till nightfall as the lava glow in the dark will also most likely be obscured from view. I vow to return in the morning.
What rests, is the arduous way down the mountain and across the ash plain back to camp. And most of that will be by torchlight...
Against all odds, I make it off the mountain with only a few minors scratches and bumps.
The bed of fern leaves, so carefully prepared by Jonas fails to provide much cushioning at all, so I put my self-inflatable mattress to good use again. Jonas, seems perfectly happy with the ferns.
At first light, the clouds are still out in large numbers so I call off our morning ascent. Instead, Jonas and I pack up camp and walk back to the village of Ranvetlam where we started from, in record time.
Perhaps it is more fitting after all that the elusive view of Mt. Marum's lava lake will - like so many things on the dark, strange island - remain a mystery.
