Beaches in Vanuatu

Eighty islands on the Pacific Ring of Fire, several with active volcanoes that can be walked up to the crater rim — Mount Yasur on Tanna is among the most accessible active volcanoes anywhere, and the ash it lays down colours the beaches below it. The beaches are an afterthought in most accounts of this country and should not be: Espiritu Santo in the north has white coral sand at Champagne and Lonnoc, blue holes fed by underground rivers a short way inland, and the wreck of the SS President Coolidge, a requisitioned liner lying in divable depth a swim from the shore. Land is held under customary title and access to most beaches involves a small fee paid to a village, which is the normal arrangement rather than an imposition. Vanuatu ranks among the most disaster-exposed countries in the world, sitting on a subduction zone in the cyclone belt, and the building stock and the beaches both show it. Practically: cyclone season runs November to April and the dry season May to October; internal flights link the main islands and are frequently rescheduled; Bislama, a Melanesian creole, is the common language alongside English and French, a legacy of joint Anglo-French rule until independence in 1980. Port Vila on Efate is the entry point and has little of the sand.