05 Nov 2016

Vanuatu - sipping champagne on Champagne Beach!

As we waved goodbye to the Solomon Islands we also looked forward to the exploration of the many new places and cultures that lay ahead of us in Vanuatu. 

On a calm morning we slowly moved into Sola, one of the northernmost Islands in Vanuatu.  We spent time wandering around the small township of Sola, meeting locals with warm greetings, seeing how they go about their daily lives, and enjoying being an audience to their traditional performances.  There are always great interactions and photographic opportunities on these village visits.  After lunch we headed to a small picture-perfect, white-sand beach on a postage-stamp sized island not far from Sola.  Time stood still as we explored the underwater world - with five large ray sightings and some great reef systems everyone agreed they felt truly blessed to be exploring such pristine waters.

Overnight we moved down the island chain to Santo and Champagne Beach.  Our keen birders went ashore at 0500hrs to a birding hot spot to enjoy the early morning cooler temperatures. The remainder of the expeditioners were ashore at 0800hrs for nothing other than ‘champagne on Champagne Beach’ (why wouldn’t you?!) topped off with a swim and snorkel. 

While we had lunch, we moved the vessel down the coast to Oyster Island and headed ashore for an afternoon in Luganville, Million Dollar Point and saw other interesting sights on Santo.  Returning to The Blue Hole and being picked up by the zodiacs we then travelled down river to the ocean - a great way to finish an amazing day. 

Photo (from file) of Champagne Beach: © Heritage Expeditions