3 May 2022 - Riposto and Mt Etna

Brace yourselves, there are going to be a lot of photos today!

We were roused at 7:45 by a knocking on the passerelle from the guys coming to look at the problem that we have with the engine. Fortunately we were awake. The folks from the yard had said that they would get someone to look at the problem on Wednesday, but if there was someone available on Tuesday, they would come then. This seemed like a very good start, as we had seen remarks from other visitors saying that the yard are sometimes slow to react to visiting yachts. We discovered that George had had a word with them on our behalf. They looked at the problem and agreed with our diagnosis of what was wrong and therefore what it would take to fix it. They came back within the hour with a quote (not terribly pleasant) and said that the part would probably arrive on Friday, but it might be too late in the day for them to fit. If this was the case, it would be fitted on Monday. We don't have much choice on any of this, so authorised them to order the part as quickly as we could. The remainder of the morning was spent on shopping and other chores.

We had arranged to go on a guided tour of Mount Etna, and after various discussions with the guide, it was agreed that he would pick us up at about 4:00 to go up the mountain. He said he had another group in the morning who were reluctant to start at the hour he wanted, so the whole of his day was pushed back.  He did say that it was better to go in the afternoon as there were far fewer people about, and so it proved. We shared the tour with a young Ukrainian couple who now live and work in Chechia. They are on holiday.  They spoke a little English, but were not very communicative. 

The guide was absolutely brilliant and was a font of knowledge about volcanoes in general and Etna in particular. Geography at school would have been better with someone with his level of enthusiasm for the subject. He spent the 40 minute drive to the first stopping point giving a background to what we were going to see and the mountain in general. We started by visiting a small village where both the roads and the church are made from basalt blocks, mined from the lava flows in the past. Our first stop was to visit caves so we all donned hard hats. The caves were created within the cooling lava flows. The edges cool and solidify in contact with the air and surrounding land, while the inner part of the flow remains hot and liquid. This inner part may then flow through the solidified area or reduce in size as at cools leaving a gap.  There are several sets of these caves, and we visited one that had been modified in the 18th and 19th centuries to be used to store ice. Steps have been cut and the floor levelled to make the process easier. Etna is in excess of 3000 metres and has snow on it for much of the year, and there were traces of this that had blown in in through vent holes. One of the other vents had a tree growing out of it, which we were able to see from both above and below.

We walked on several of the lava flows, from various different eruptions. Most of the events are from side vents rather than from one of the four main summit craters. We were able to see how the lava flows out through the vegetation or cultivated areas, and it is quite strange to see a forest layer that has a several hundred metre wide black line cutting through it.  The most recent big lava flow in 2002 apparently destroyed the highest tourist village on the mountain. The lava took most of the buildings including one of the two hotels, the surviving one later succumbed to an earthquake. The village has now been rebuilt, but no one is willing to fund the building of replacements for the hotels, so it is only shops and restaurants. Giuseppe, the guide had many photos and diagrams to demonstrate what had happened, including before and after shots of the places that we visited to show how they had been changed.

We visited a set of 7 side craters, and were able to walk on the black ash to see into them. On the way were were shown the way that nature repopulates this otherwise bleak landscape, albeit on highly fertile ash. Lichens start to populate the ash and then eventually create soil that other plants can live in. There are many species of flora that are unique to the mountain and others that would normally be found much further north. The white birch trees were a particular example and looked dramatic against the black rock.

The eruptions, the most recent being for about 1 month last year, push vast quantities of the ash and small boulders into the air. This covers everything. There are local firms who specialise in cleaning it from people's roofs, where it sits like black snow, but doesn't melt away. The whole process is costly to all. The ash and rocks have several uses, but are becoming less economic and so a growing problem.

At our final stop, Giuseppe treated us all to a local snack delicacy and then served us some pistachio liquor.  The nut flavour was intense and I don't think I have ever tasted anything else quite like it, delicious. He also gave us a small glass jar of volcanic ash as a souvenir.

There was a mass of further information that we were given, but the above is a flavour of it.

It was about 9:00 when we returned to the boat, grateful that we had eaten our main meal at lunchtime. All in all a very memorable experience

Miles Today - 0

Miles 2022 - 258

Steve (and Tricia)