Mota Lava and Ra, a Banks Islands escape
Mota Lava and its tiny neighbour Ra are northeast of Vanua Lava in the Banks Islands, Vanuatu. The lagoon between Ra and Mota Lava is closed by reefs and one can wade across at low tide. These two islands are relatively small so most attractions are easy to walk to:
- White sand beaches and coral reefs around west Mota Lava and Ra.
- Climb the massive rocks on Ra. The two boulder piles offer good views but the climb is not for people who aren't confident climbers.
- Climb the Sleeping Mountain on Mota Lava. It's a short but steep climb rewarded by magnificent views on a fine day.
- Walk around Mota Lava (about 2.5 hours along the truck road and about 3.5 hours through the bush on the other side).
- Caves on Mota Lava, one is full of bats.
- Mota Lava is the place to organise an expedition to the uninhabited Reef Islands, the only coral cays in Vanuatu.
- The volcano on Vanua Lava is accessible by speedboat from Mota Lava.

There are lots of island bungalows concentrated around West Mota Lava and Ra. In fact there are too many and most of them are invariably empty. You need not worry about finding somewhere to stay.

Caring Home Bungalows, Mota Lava
Dori Lagoon Resort, Ra
Harry Memorial Resort, Ra
John Ralph Bungalows, Ra
Nisa Sunset Bungalows, Mota Lava

Unfortunately Caring Home Bungalows on Mota Lava has fire ants. There were no fire ants on Ra Island in May 2004.

Airfares to Mota Lava are expensive from Port Vila and moderately so from Santo. To economise, a good plan is to visit both Mota Lava and neighbouring Vanua Lava on the same trip. These islands have two flights a week so you should be able to plan a suitable itinerary using the Air Vanuatu timetable. Also, if you want some flexibility in your itinerary you can forego the short flight and catch a speedboat between Mota Lava and Vanua Lava. For example, fly to Mota Lava, take a speedboat to Vanua Lava and the volcano, fly out from Sola.

Transport
With Air Vanuatu flights on Fridays and Mondays, it is possible to visit Mota Lava just for the weekend. An adult return fare to Mota Lava is 44345 Vatu from Port Vila or 22070 Vatu from Santo (May 2006). Tourists with a return Air Vanuatu ticket are entitled to a 20% discount. When leaving, plan to be at the airport early. What happens is the pilot radios ahead from Santo and may decide to change the routing. Exchange Rates.

There's usually at least one ship a month to the Banks Islands from Santo. A few ships that service the Banks and Torres Islands are:
- M/V Keidei (enquire at Lo Chan Moon store, Santo, phone 36530). This ship usually sails Santo-Ambae-Maewo-Mere Lava-Gaua on the outward leg and returns directly Gaua-Santo on the return leg. It routinely visits Vanua Lava, less frequently visits Mota Lava and sometimes goes far north to the Torres Islands.
- M/V Havutu (enquire at Wong Sze Sing store, Santo). This ship is more direct, sailing Santo-Gaua-Banks and returning Gaua-Santo. It's another reliable ship for the Banks and Torres.

Note the routing of these ships depends on the cargo and copra. If there's no cargo manifested for an island and there's no copra to pick up (often the case for the Torres Islands) then obviously the ship will not visit that island. Also, copra boats routinely circumnavigate Gaua and Vanua Lava to pick up copra from all the landings. All this cargo to offload and copra to pick up at many small landings takes time and it often takes days to reach the outer islands. Travelling by ship to the outer islands is cheap but can be very inefficient. It's best to use them only for shorter and direct journeys.

The airport on Mota Lava is about 12 km away to the east. In 2005 there was one operational truck on the island. A truck charter costs about 1700 Vatu to or from the airport, one way. To walk between West Mota Lava and the airport takes two and a half hours (easy walking along the truck road).

On some days, speedboats carry passengers across the 20km of water between Mota Lava and Sola on Vanua Lava.It costs around 9000 Vatu if you pay for the whole boat or 500 or 600 Vatu shared. It may be a rough ride if the trade winds are blowing. Larger vessels such are much less frequent.

Services
The village of Ra has a few basic stores. Ngerenigman village on Mota Lava has more stores and a medical clinic. There's a public phone near the clinic (38502). If you need access to electricity, a few locals have generators or solar power systems (Harry Memorial Resort has solar power and an inverter).

Last Updated: October 2005 by Stephen