Etna
(Ettna)

Getting up early is rather unusual on holidays, but by our 5th day on
the volcano trek, we were getting used to it. Luka, our guide, has
warned us the day before not to say anything rude to the chap on the
phone (who was giving us the wake-up call) as he was doing us a
favour. "Fancula" was therefore out of the question. I struggled to
say something intelligent at 6:30 in the morning, but the hotel owner
got the message -- we were awake. That's what mattered and a mere 20
minuted later we were having breakfast.

We were the first ever group staying at the (rather nice and shiny)
new hotel; evidently they had not got used to serving breakfast
yet. Coffee turned out to be a tiny cup of espresso, orange juice came
quickly, but the glasses were slow to follow (people who had tea
were so desperate for a glass of saguinello, they used their cups
instead!). Cereal was also there, but we had to ask for milk which
came warm and in a teacup and was shared out. Jokes aside, breakfast
was plentiful and were were in the bus by 7:30.

About an hour later, we were at 1900 meters -- the tourist area with
shops, restaurants and a few craters. We were not settling for small
craters -- our mission was to get to the top of the 3300 meter unnruly
female volcano which is renowned for presenting more than a few
surprises to both the local population (Catanga itself was destroyed
around 1660) and the tourists -- just a year before the hotel in which
groups like ours stayed was wiped out.  We went for a short walk and
saw hot gas coming out of a lava flow. Just to illustrate the point,
Filippo threw some newspaper into the hole from which the gas was
coming; it instantly caught fire.

Due to recent eruptions, the jeep which was supposed to drive us to
within 400 meters of the top was to stop at a mere 2 and a half
kilometers leaving us with a fair walk to the top. Having bought
tickets and signed a totally unnecessary declaration, we got into a 4
wheel drive bus and tried not to watch the driver who was looking more
at Franco (our guide) than the road. Luka's sense of humour saved the
situation.

We got out of the bus and immedeately could feel that we are at
altitude and half way up a volcano -- the grey lunar landscape with
large rocks dotted about the place, various craters, steam, snow
and the breathtaking views of Sicily below created an atmosphere which
I certainly have not experienced before.  Franco and Luka were keen to
get us going and for the first 45 minutes we were free to wander about
vaguely following the group. Then, at 2900 meters, it was made clear
that enough was enough and were were to follow Franco closely and pay
attention to what was going on around. Meanwhile, we were passing
crater after crater, and still there was no sign of the top of Etna
itself. The volcano was huge, but all of us handled the 800 metre
climb well, arriving at the top at around 12:30.

A quick stop, photographs of Suplphur crystals and the gases emerging
from the crater, and we were off again. Franco went ahead, and came
back saying that it was safe to see the main craters. So, first there
was Bocca Nouva, then the Central crater (Matt of course threw stones
into each one!), then we saw the dangerous North West crater which
apparently takes lava from the magmatic chamber 15 kilometers below
sea level. Apart from inhaling various amounts of sulphur and other
nasty chemicals, everyone escaped unharmed. The guides were quite
eager to get us safely off the mountain.  One of the craters was
200-300 meters deep with lots of gas coming out, but another was
pointed out to us as the dangerous one: "it had the lid on". This
means that the gas cannot escape from below, pressure builds up and
rocks go flying several hundred meters up into the air and then ome
back down on the poor tourists. So, don't throw rocks down, they can
come back up!  The other concern was "blue smoke" which indicates the
presence of lava close to the surface. All of these were duly
photographed from a distance.

Next, we opted for a quick walk down the sandy mountain filling our
shoes with volcanic material and lunch in a crater. The surface is
black, covered with small stones, but underneath there is snow. Near
our lunch spot, howerver, it got hotter and hotter as you dug a small
hole. Hmmm. I guess that's what volcanoes are about! While we were
having food, several sizeble rocks were spotted rolling towards us,
one of them causing Franco to jump up in order to save us from it. The
rock, however, had other ideas and stopped a safe, but disconcerting
distance away from us. 

On the walk back, Luka entertained us by sliding down the snow covered
slopes on a plastic bag, though some of us found much funnier the fact
that he ripped his trousers in the process. Franco was content with
showing us the different types of rocks lying around a volcano. There
were several: round bombs, rocks which spun in the air and then rolled
down the hillside and rocks which landed and stopped dead. He also
told us more about Etna.

We also saw an old valley which had a huge volcano in it. It is now
all covered with what remains of the lava; the volcano itself has
disappeared and it is not clear why. It was beautiful.  The path back
took us near a collapsed crater (if you fell in, it looked very hard
to climb out; more stones thrown down by Matt) and across a wide and
long slope. There Luka made us sit down right in the middle of it,
provoking slight squeaks from Loretta's direction. "Enjoy the
view!". (I did). We then descended a very sandy (black volcanic sand,
of course) slope the "Luka approved" way -- running down and filling
our boots with stuff. Good fun.  Funally, we passed a 2001 crater
which had a very obvious lava flow coming out of it. It would have
made a very nice photo, but I was out of film long ago. A beer (and
about a pound of sand from each of my boots) later, we made quick dash
into a cave (which was an empty lava flow, of course) and arrived back
at the hotel for 6. Not a bad day on holiday, really.