Ambrym
Ambrym maintains the old ways of ancient living cultures and
it is here where we found a delightful concentration of Vanuatu’s master
carvers, dancers and the volcano, a center for sorcery. We anchored off of Ranon village and to our
delight we were re-united with our friends Don and Paulie Grover on Stormhaven. Our first adventure in Ranon was to see the
Rom dance and some beautiful carvings; the second was to seek out the
volcano. In between, adventures, we had
some great meals on Stormhaven, Lardo and J-Marie – our new 75 year old single
hander Aussie friend Graham that we met in Vanuatu.
Sandy was our friendly driver who drove us in the community
four wheel drive truck through the jungle to the village where the Rom dance
was held and the following day up to the trailhead of the volcano. Our adventures were fabulous, but just
driving these dirt roads were a trip in themselves. The roads around the island are barely
passable even in good dry weather conditions.
Boy did we get bounced around on these roads.
As previously mentioned, our first outing was to see the
village where the sacred Rom dance is conducted in front of the paramount
chief’s hut and to roam the village seeking the carvers. Before we watched the dance, we walked around
the village where we found an artist just completing his wood carving. Dennis bought it quickly and the carver put
on the last minute finishing touches.
All the villagers attended the dance and showed off their beautiful
carvings too – I couldn’t resist and found another carving to buy! Between Dennis, myself, Don and Paulie, we
managed to buy four carvings.
After our tour of the village in search for the best
carvings, the villagers performed the Rom dance, an ancient dance performed on
the island of Ambrym where each dancer becomes a non-human legendary
figure. The paramount village chief danced
with only privileged villagers such as his brothers and other relations in
front of his thatched hut adorned with tall carvings (no one can enter the
chief’s property unless invited by the chief).
These men wore namba’s (penis wrappers) and were also escorted by other
privileged village dancers wearing elaborate headdresses representing the
non-human figures. They danced and
chanted ancient songs to the rhythmic beat of the drum – you could feel the
earth vibrating under these stamping dancer’s feet. Follow the blog for many pictures of the
dancers, carvings and the village.
Our second major outing was to check out the volcano. At night, the mystery and ancient spirit of
the volcano took our breath away with the fiery red and orange volcanic fumes backlighting
the mountain! It was this lure that
intrigued us enough to hire a guide, George, and to hike 18 kilometers round
trip to the volcano with Don and Paulie.
It was another great adventure to drive the rough dirt road with Sandy
two kilometers to the trail head; the rest of the trip was on foot over rough
terrain, volcanic rocks, steep hills, streams, mud and lava river beds- we were
all worn out after this exhausting hike.
Unfortunately, we could not see the volcano due to the cloud cover but
we sure could hear the rumblings of this active volcano! Must make one additional comment that Paulie
was a real trooper – her red wing hiking boots that she had only worn three
times fell apart within the first five minutes of our trek – with shoe laces,
she wrapped up the soles and continued along!
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