Espiritu Santo may be the largest island in Vanuatu but it is definitely still off the beaten track.

Hidden up behind the town of Luganville and away from the aquamarine blue water along the coast are small villages in the hills. This is where we will be heading on our Millennium Cave tour.

You can’t do this trek without the local guides but we saw this as a good thing.

We met Sam at the ‘office’ in Luganville before setting off on our big adventure. His dad is the chief of the village that owns the land the cave is on, and the money goes directly back into their community. Already it has funded schools and training for the locals.

The day starts will a slow drive up to Nambel village, along a wide, pothole-filled dirt track that was once the biggest air strip on the island, built by the Americans during WWII. While you may have to brace yourself for some bumps, this will probably be one of the easiest parts of the day!

For the rest of the day we will be trekking, caving, canyoning and swimming.

Aiden and I were lucky enough to be travelling on our own with two local guides who know this land really well. The first ‘trek’ is a 20-minute stroll through the lush green jungle to Vunaspef village where you will be briefed by your tour guide and given a life jacket – not the most comfortable accessory to have in the humidity, but a necessary piece of equipment.

If you have anything you want to keep dry, leave it here to collect on your return! We had a dry bag with us for the essentials and our lunch.

From here on out, this trek is no walk in the park and you will need some degree of fitness to make it out. The ground was muddy and slippery even though it hadn’t rained in days, and soon the grooves in my water shoes designed to provide grip were soon caked with mud. The core was definitely engaged.

We walked along narrow tracks, across bamboo bridges and up and down ladders with slippery handles until we got to a rest point before the descent to the river. Along the way, our guides pointed out different plants and had interesting stories to tell.

The different lines symbolise different elements in nature.

At a clearing, we paused for a symbolic ritual: clay paste applied to our faces to mark our respect for nature and ensure safe passage. The next section involved steep ladders so I hope you aren’t afraid if heights, because you have to look down to make sure you don’t miss a step.

Eventually you look up and see the entrance to the cave itself – which is immense.

The cave has a high ceiling and is home to many nesting swallows and some bats, which you see by torchlight as you walk through. The river runs the entire way through the cave and is cool and refreshing as you climb over rocks and wade through the cavern.

The size of the cave means that for most of the trip through, it is pitch black. We stopped at a waterfall in the middle and all turned our torches off to truly experience the extreme darkness.

It takes at least 30 minutes to get through the cave, especially slow going when the ground is a riverbed, covered in rocks of different sizes and flowing water sometimes up to my thighs. I will admit I stumbled twice on this section of the trek but with no injuries other than a slightly bruised knee and ego.

You can see the natural light from a distance but the exit to the cave is much smaller than the entry. The final stretch from the cave is to cross the river with the aid of a rope as it is quite deep and fast flowing in the centre. After all that effort, the bank of the Sarakata River is a rest stop for lunch and you definitely have it all to yourself.

From here is was the canyoning portion of the day – although not in the true sense. There were no harnesses and no helmets. Just a few J-bars secured to the rocks to help you up, down and over.

Some sections had a strong current as the river was near some small waterfalls so indeed there was no shortage of hazards here. In fact, I would say this section of the tour was perhaps the most treacherous part, and we really had to pay attention to our guides as well as concentrate on where we were placing our hands and feet. The whole body was getting a workout on this adventure.

I was excited for the next step – the most relaxing and the obvious reason for our life jackets. We spent the next 20-30 minutes floating down the river, past some epic waterfalls, looking up the overhanging rock faces.

Unfortunately, what goes down must go back up, so there is some hard work to do to make it back to the villages.

We climbed up a small, slow-flowing water that seemed tailor-made with hand and footholds before finding some more of those almost vertical ladders to take us higher. It is about 20-minutes of just moving ‘up’. I was feeling the workout at this point, especially with the extra weight of wet clothes and a life jacket to carry.

Once back at Vunaspef village, we enjoyed some of the freshest fruit- literally picked by our guides on the walk - and some coffee before walking back to Nambel village for the pickup that took us all the way back to your accommodation.

This has to be one of the most epic treks I have done with so many different aspects. I also couldn’t bend my legs properly for a day or two afterwards – swimming in those blue waters helped though.

See for yourself and book accommodtion here.