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INTRODUCTION
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Vanuatu, Efate Island. April 1999.
This morning, Christian, my uncle working at Port-Vila,
the country capital, went out the Air-Club
club-house's with a large smile on his face:
'forecast is good, immediate boarding!'
With a Cessna C206 which he's about to pilot,
we are heading to Sulphur Bay,
a remote village on Tanna, the most southern island of
this melanesian archipelago, composed by 83 islands
disposed like a 'Y' in the middle of the Coral Sea
in the South Pacific, at about 550 kilometers from
the French Territory of New-Caledonia.
Since the sky was clear, it was decided to have a quick
aerial view on the near actives volcanos
of Ambrym and Lopevi islands.
Few minutes later, we were flying over crateras
spiting endlessly some heavy smokes,
now whites, now blacks!
The sulphur smell was penetrating the cockpit
but we just didn't mind about it
because of the power of the scene.
The greens and pinks slopes of Ambrym volcanos
cames after the special conic shape of Lopevi,
a volcanic island raised right from the deep ocean.
This extra-time tour was already over.
Cape now on Tanna, our final destination,
or more precisely, Sulphur Bay, an evocative name
for a village settled at the foot of an active
and threatening black volcano: the Yasur!
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