Epi in Vanuatu: Black-Sand Bays and Reef Passages That See Few Boats

Quiet by circumstance

Epi sits between Efate and Malakula and sees few visitors. There is no single reason for that — no airport closure, no restriction — simply that the islands either side draw the traffic.

The coast

Lamen Bay on the north-west coast is the usual arrival point, with a black-sand shore and dugong reported in the bay. Reef runs along much of the west coast with passages that are rarely dived.

Visiting

Domestic flights serve Lamen Bay and Valesdir. Accommodation is small-scale and village-run, and arrangements are made before arriving.

Where it sits

Epi lies between Efate and the Shepherd Islands to the south and Ambrym and Paama to the north. It is about 45 kilometres long, with the volcanic cone of Mount Allombei inland and a submarine volcanic field off the east coast that is among the more active in the country.

Lamen Bay

Most arrivals are at Lamen Bay on the north-west coast. The bay has a long black-sand beach, turtles, and a resident dugong that has appeared in enough accounts over the years to have become the island’s informal mascot. Lamen Island sits a short paddle offshore and is inhabited.

Why so few people go

There is no single reason. Epi has an airstrip, bungalows and reef. It simply sits between two islands that pull the traffic, and the domestic schedule reflects demand instead of creating it. For a visitor willing to take a slower flight, that is the appeal.

Practicalities

Flights serve Lamen Bay and Valesdir. Accommodation is small guesthouses and bungalows run locally. There is limited road on the west coast; elsewhere movement is on foot or by boat.

The submarine volcano

East of Epi lies a field of submarine cones that has produced eruptions within living memory, occasionally discolouring the water and pushing rafts of pumice to the surface. One cone breached the surface briefly in the 1950s and formed a short-lived island before the sea removed it again.

Copra and the plantations

Epi carried substantial European-owned plantations before independence, and the ruins of planter houses stand along the west coast. All of that land returned to customary owners in 1980 — see independence — and copra is still cut, though the price has done what it has done everywhere in the Pacific.

Paama and Lopevi

North of Epi sit Paama, small and densely populated, and Lopevi, a perfect volcanic cone whose population was evacuated permanently after repeated eruptions and which is now uninhabited. Both are visible from Epi’s north coast on a clear day, and Lopevi is one of the more striking sights in the country precisely because nothing is on it.

The Shepherds to the south

Below Epi lie the Shepherd Islands, administered with Efate in Shefa province. Boats run between them and Epi when conditions allow, and the connection is a normal part of local movement even though no schedule describes it.

Reef and fishing

The west coast reef off Lamen Bay drops quickly into deep water and is almost entirely undived. Local fishing is subsistence and small-scale commercial, and the reef shows it: fish size and coral cover are both better than on reefs within reach of a town.

Walking the interior

Tracks cross from the west coast to the east through forest and garden land, taking most of a day. Mount Allombei can be walked from the coast with a guide. None of this is formalised — there are no marked routes — and arrangements are made in the village you start from.

Why the airstrip matters

Two strips serve the island, at Lamen Bay and Valesdir, and the flight from Port Vila is short. Without them the island would be a day at sea from anywhere, which is the condition most of the outer islands were in within living memory.