The inhabitants of all other islands are a bit afraid of the people of Ambrym because they are considered magicians with some extraordinary skills. We think this reputation is simply based on these people’s unreal and unexplored living environment.

The complete island is considered a volcano, with its twin summits Mount Benbow (1,159 meters/ 3,800 feet) and Mount Marum (1,270 meters/ 4,167 feet). A third yet unnamed volcano is evolving in the shadows of these two giants.

Benbow and Marum are active volcanoes with continuous sulfur- and ash clouds. An average of 40 days a year, both volcanos are clear of smoke.

The difference between these two volcanoes compared to Mount Yasur on Tanna are height and distance. It is a hike of around 7 hours through a dramatic landscape to reach the caldera’s rim. And it is so isolated that most of the time, you’ll find yourself completely alone on the edge of one of the world’s active volcanoes.

Some crazy adventurers abseil down from the caldera to the lava lake. And nobody would stay in their way. Image trying that in a first-world country. In Ambrym, like on most of the South Pacific’s isolated islands, you take your life into your own hands; no one tells you how to live or die.  

We decided to take an aerial view of the volcanoes in a small plane without any doors to get a clear view.  The weather was not perfect, but the experience was.

We started our flight from Ulei airfield, in the South East of the island. The landscape’s vast variation is surprising, ranging from how we would image mars to look like to deep Amazon forest areas.  

From the rainforest area, through valleys of green-coated dark volcanic rocks, up to the iron red lava cliffs, and finally the dark black caldera area, sulfur and ash clouds surround you.