Vanuatu

A long Y of volcanic islands, Vanuatu reaches across the south-west Pacific from the Torres and Banks groups to Tanna and Aneityum. Several volcanoes are active: on Tanna, visitors climb Mount Yasur at dusk to watch it toss glowing lava bombs, and Ambrym’s craters have held lakes of molten rock. Espiritu Santo, the biggest island, rises to Mount Tabwemasana and is dotted with freshwater blue holes. Cyclones arrive between November and April.

Lapita potters arrived about three thousand years ago; their graves have been excavated at Teouma, on Efate. In 1606 Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, sailing for Spain, landed on Santo convinced he had found the great southern continent, and in 1774 James Cook named the group the New Hebrides. Labour recruiters later carried thousands of islanders, often by deceit or force, to the cane fields of Queensland and Fiji. From 1906 Britain and France ruled jointly, with separate police, schools and courts, until independence in July 1980.

Neighbouring valleys may speak different languages, and kastom, customary law and ritual, decides who holds land. During the yam harvest on Pentecost, men leap from tall wooden towers with vines tied to their ankles, the rite that inspired bungee jumping. Sand drawings, traced with one finger in a single unbroken line, carry stories. Evenings end at the nakamal over coconut shells of kava. Copra, cocoa, kava and beef from cattle grazed under coconut palms are exported, and cruise ships call at Efate.