We were on top of the world, and it was…foggy

Look! It's the lovely view of the two lakes on top of Manaro

Thomas, Alison, Kathleen, Avery, myself, and a few Ni-Van friends decided to hike up to Manaro (the volcano in the middle of Ambae) this past weekend. Last Friday was pay day, when my town is the busiest I ever really see it. A lot of people come in on pay day to go to the bank, the store, the post office, or just have a day in town. This includes the Peace Corps Ambae folks, so I had a full house Friday morning. Steve and Alexis had come through town Thursday night on their way to Ambae, Michael G was here to conduct a training, Len had come in from the office to do some site development and help figure out my counterpart, and all the Ambae folks had come in to do some shopping. It was the most Peace Corps people I’d seen in one place for a long time!

That afternoon, the five of us (Alison, Kathleen, Thomas, Avery and myself) caught a truck up north to Kathleen and Avery’s sites. We hung out, drank kava, ate some burgers, and went to bed early. Waking up the next morning, we were all excited for our weekend adventure! The plan was to hike up to the top from Vamburugu (Avery’s site), make a fire, cook some food, get tattoos, camp by the crater, and come back on Sunday. This is not exactly what happened.

Getting ready to leave!

When we woke up, it was raining. Not pouring rain, just a drizzle, but enough to get us all pretty wet. Avery’s brother that was going to be our guide couldn’t come, so we decided to take a different route, going through Ambanga. We left at about 11, and began to hike. It was very up and down, over pretty steep hills. About 45 minutes in, we heard a shout from behind: “Hey guys, hold up, Thomas cut his leg.” I stopped and walked back, because I had some tape and gauze in my bag, to see if it would be helpful. I quickly found out it wasn’t his leg, it was his hand, and it was a pretty deep cut. We weren’t sure if we should keep going or head back, but we ended up cleaning it out as best we could, wrapping it up and continuing on.

It was a little bloody

After about 3 gruelling hours, we finally made it. To Ambanga. I was pretty wiped already, and not excited for the next, longer, harder leg. We took a quick lunch break, and headed out, up the mountain.

Not an uncommon thing for this trip. I got really good (or at least I can pretend I did), at climbing under and over logs like this.

The rain had made the road quite muddy and slick, and we often had to pause for Avery’s dad, our guide, to cut a path for us through the bush. We went up and down hills, over and under logs, and generally just wound back and forth all over the mountainside. At about 4:30, Avery’s dad started to warn us that we might not make it that night. We pushed on, and at 6 when the sun went down, we pulled out our headlamps. We kept walking, but ended up calling it a night about 7. We were all disappointed not to reach the top, but I for one was glad for the break. Avery’s dad and David, one of the other Ni-Vans with us, cleared some brush, and found a place for us to camp. Our legs were sore, we were all tired, and as soon as we stopped walking, the wind and rain reminded us that cold was a thing too. Shivering, we set up tents, hammocks, rainflies, and changed into whatever warm clothes we had. We had spent the morning cutting up vegetables and potatoes to make hobos (foil-wrapped food to be cooked over a fire), but it had been raining so much that there was no dry wood to be found. We made do with the food we had: crackers, peanut butter, gato (fried dough), peanuts, and a bottle of red wine; saving our tuna for lunch the next day.

Squeezing into the two-man tent for dinner

That night, was freezing cold. Thomas and I slept in our hammocks, which have mosquito nets and rainflies, while Avery, Kathleen, and Alison crammed into a 2-man tent. I spent the night alternating between curling up to preserve body heat, and stretching out to relieve my cramping muscles. Sometime around 2 in the morning, we all happened to wake up. And I really do mean all. The tents started talking, someone played music, and for about a half hour, we forgot it was the middle of the night. As one, we all decided to try to sleep again, but I don’t think any of us slept all that much that night.

The lovely, foggy morning

The next morning, we woke up to a slightly drizzly, and very foggy forest. As soon as we started the next leg of the hike, we realized why Avery’s dad didn’t let us keep going the night before. It was incredibly steep, and within short order, we had to walk across a thin log over a decent fall into a creek. I don’t know if any of us could have done it the night before in the cold, wet, and dark.

It took about two hours to make it to the sulphuric lake that houses the cone of the volcano, and it was by far the hardest part of the hike. We ducked (or let’s be honest, crawled) under at least 10 logs, climbed up some almost vertical mud walls, and slid down some almost vertical slopes. Long story short, it was pretty tough, and once again, we were all glad we hadn’t tried the night before.

Wading through creeks...

Practicing our balancing act...

Going up...

Going down...

And back up again...

We finally made it to the top, and were surprised by the change in vegetation. Whereas further down it was green and lush, close to the lake, it was very brown, and most of the trees had been stripped bare of leaves. Whether it was fire, wind, or the sulphuric fumes that did this, I’m not sure. We looked over the steep drop down to the lake and saw…white. We couldn’t really even see the lake at the bottom, about 100 feet below us. We wandered around the edge for about a half hour, with no luck. Just as we were on our way out, the clouds started to clear a little bit, and we could see just the edge of the lake. Then, Avery’s dad sang out to the cone, and it appeared, fleetingly, in the middle of the lake. Even if it wasn’t the clearest day, it was still a very cool view!

The first glimpse of the lake

The way back was long, but rather uneventful, unless you count the many times I slipped and fell on my butt as eventful. We left the top of the mountain at about 10, and made it to Ambanga by 4. We were all hopeful that we could catch a truck from there to Weinasasa (Kathleen’s site), to save us the extra few hours of hiking, but with no luck. We reluctantly put our bags back on our sore shoulders and stumbled the last 2 hours back. By the time we finally reached Kathleen’s site, none of us wanted to move. We'd been invited to go to a fundraiser, where there would be food, kava, and the possibility of getting the Ambae tattoos, but we unanimously decided we didn't have the energy to walk the extra twenty minutes. We rinsed our muddy legs as much as possible, hobbled around just enough to make some dinner (the hobos we’d made for the hike that we never ate), and were all fast asleep by about 8:30.

Back in Ambanga, resting a little bit before the last leg

We were sore and tired, but at least there was a pretty sunset!

While it was a challenging weekend, it was quite an adventure and bonding experience, and I’m glad we went. Here are some things I learned about that hike for anyone else that wants to go:

    1. Camping is the way to go! It’s definitely fun, and it would be a hard hike to do in one day.

    2. If you’re camping, bring plenty of warm things to wear at night. It gets a little chilly up there!

    3. Take the truck to Ambanga. Do not, I repeat, do not, add the extra 6 hours of hiking to Weinasasa and back. Definitely not worth it.

    4. Wait for a clear day to try it out. Would definitely be a lot easier if you weren’t slipping on soft mud the whole way up (and down). And you also might get a view of something more than just clouds at the top!

    5. Definitely do it. It’s totally worth the sore muscles, aching feet, and cut up legs and hands.

Turns out my socks weren't tall enough the second day...this is post-rinse, pre-cleaning out that lovely raw area on the back of my heel.