It is around April/May, the yams are ripe for picking and the men of Pentecost Island are about to risk their lives to ensure a successful harvest. They’re gearing up to commit naghol, or land diving, a South Pacific fertility rite that inspired the extreme sport of bungy jumping – although, by comparison, bungy jumping seems a tame game for cosseted Westerners. Words: Genevieve Swart  Pics: Vanuatu Tourism

There are no safety ropes here: the men leap from wooden towers with just two liana vines wrapped around their ankles and plummet about 35 metres to earth. Should all go according to plan, the land diver will skim the ground – which has been raked up and cleared of rocks – with his shoulder, thus fertilising the earth and bringing about a bountiful harvest. Should it not go to plan … well, let’s just say the yams won’t be up to their usual standard.  There’s nothing like a brush with the Grim Reaper to raise the thrill factor at annual festivities. Before the man leaps, he says a few words which, as they could be his last, are received in respectful silence. There’s a moment when the crowd holds its collective breath, as the man crosses his arms, leans slowly forward and arches his back as he falls.  

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GETTING THERE
Add Vanuatu onto a trip to Australia – it’s only a 2.5-hour flight east of Brisbane, or 3.5 hours from Sydney. For flights from Australia and around the archipelago, visit www.airvanuatu.com  

CONTACTS 
For accommodation, activities and land-diving tours, visit ww.vanuatutourism.com. Other Vanuatu must-do’s include scuba diving on the World War II wreck of a luxury liner turned troop ship off Espiritu Santo and taking a 4x4 volcano safari to Mount Yasur on Tanna Island, the world’s most accessible active volcano, where nature’s fireworks explode nightly.