Check in, or at least I would if there was anyone there. So, time for a beer in the airport shop, tourist information office, local grocery store and bar. I got talking to the other guy in the bar, who had been fitting a solar panel at Dillons Bay. Rather than be stranded there for seven hours without food or drink, he’d hitched a ride on to Tanna with the pilot’s blessing.
It appears that Air Vanuatu have sold seats for a flight that doesn’t actually exist, and have stranded a number of passengers. Checking as to which flight this is, it isn’t NF243, so I relax.
The plane lands, activity takes place, it loads and I head for the plane, only to find that whilst it is my plane, it has to go to Aneityum first. It will be back in half an hour, I’m assured, so we’ll only be about half an hour late. The plane leaves, and life returns to its normal sleepy state.
An hour and twenty minutes later, the plane lands and we are off. Well, most of us are. A gentlemen and his fish, bound for Port Vila, aren’t flying as he is on standby (news to him). My new friend, the solar panel fitter, is also going nowhere, as there now isn’t a seat for him. Fortunately, the Air Vanuatu duty station manager, Tom, will put him up overnight, so he’s not too unhappy.
There isn’t a spare seat on the plane, so yours truly ends up as co-pilot for the run to Dillons Bay, trying very hard not to touch anything. We make it safely all the same, and touch down on the grass. Dropping off another four passengers and collecting one, Edward (still on duty, I note) announces that we may have a few problems heading back to Port Vila due to weather activity - apparently, the airport is shrouded in low cloud and torrential rain - so I gratefully retreat back down the plane to row 1.
Darkness falls as we cross the ocean to Port Vila, the clouds mass and the rain starts. I can’t see anything out of the window that resembles land, let alone an airport, as we circle the airport, waiting for the weather to break and the Boeing 737 in front of us to land (they clearly managed to get it airborne eventually). But finally, Edward spots a perfect, feather light landing and we are safely home.
And so, I write this entry in my hotel room, watching a spectacular electrical storm which started within hours of my reaching safety…
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