The People of Vanuatu by Kyle Mijlof

Our foreign correspondent / resident travel photographer Kyle Mijlof recently sent us his latest collection of photographs from his trip. Since we last heard from Kyle he has visited Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and currently finds himself in Indonesia.

“I thought i would share with you some images and experiences from Vanuatu, which was my 50th country I have visited on my travels around the world, and was always on my bucket list to visit the 83 islands that make up the country.

I was a bit worried arriving / travelling here as Vanuatu had just been hit by a massive Cyclone called, Cyclone Pam. Due to this there was no communication or power for 2 weeks to the outside world, so on arrival there were many aids from around the world working at the capital airport, Port Villa, with huge Military airplanes and cargo ships bringing in fresh food and water. I’ve got a one month visa, and headed straight to the airline company. When I walked in the guy at the desk knew who I was after seeing my blog, he offered me a job working for the revamp of tourism because of the cyclone and planned a trip to visit five islands in Vanuatu.

The islands visited included Malakula, Santo, Efate, Pentecost and Tanna island.
I won’t go into too much detail, but some of the highlights included, standing on the rim of an active volcano, living with a tribe for 3 days, watching the Land dive/nangol (the invention of the bunny jump, where rope vines are attached to the guys legs and then jump off a man made wooden structure), flying on 14 flights landing on grass airstrips in the middle of no-where and for most of the trip being the only traveler at all the home stays I visited.

The country is slowly getting back to normal but I must say it defiantly has been above and beyond what I expected. I will defiantly be back.”

If you enjoy these photos, have a look at the rest of Kyle’s travels on Orms Connect.

 

Photographs shared with permission.