Mt. Etna

Mt. Etna June 2014

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity. The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south. Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, Mount Etna has been designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations.[4] In June 2013, it was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[5]  Source Wikipedia
Mt Etna and Us

Today we headed for Mt Etna, helmet cam recording our drive up, which recorded more than one old Sicilian trying to run us off the road. You have to laugh really! Cars here are so damaged that no wonder they don’t care, who would notice the difference .

Our first stop was to fill with fuel, and we enjoyed talking with a very well educated gas attendant who was fluent in English as well as Italian, and knew of the various means we could have arrived in Acireale. He said he knew that Italy have everything going for it, except work. It was obvious from that, that such a well-educated person was pumping gas.
1986 Sylvestri Crater

Next, at the 2000 mtr. Crater centre we waved to, then returned to talk with a  married couple from the Tyrol area of Austria riding a  BMW GS1200 2012 edition. They had driven here from Austria but had had some damage done due to a drop in the rain and replaced a side case and had damage to the right cylinder head. He runs a rental shop for BMW’s in Austria and is associated with a bike hotel there and provided us with their details. Very nice people. It still amazes us that we get such get recognition and treatment from people when they see we are from Canada. We all better appreciate where we come from.


Etna at the moment isn’t very active, but we were able to walk to the Sylvestri crater which erupted in 1986, and the Cappernini crater that erupted in 2001,
2001 Cappernini Crater
neither of which is close to the mountain top. As we walked around you could feel extra heat being transferred to your feet and touching the rock it was warm to the touch. Erie! Higher up there was some small signs of venting going on away from the summit. The views from that elevation were excellent as you can see in any direction.  
Sandra descends from upper crater

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hope for the Best, plan for the worst!

Image
 Hope for the Best, plan for the worst! Ready to Ship This year we re-committed ourselves to travelling back through parts of Europe on our bike. Westjet's BikeAir program was not well founded at the beginning but in June seemed to have found it's feet. We found reasonably priced premium Economy seats, chose Rome as the destination as Barcelona/Spain doesn't honour the EU temporary permit for moto's for leisure purposes. We wanted to avoid as much of the high tourist season and high heat temperatures.  Plan for the Worst We knew that Westjet would fly the bike from Vancouver as well as Calgary with a small surcharge but since we had family to visit we decided to truck the bike to Calgary and visit family in advance. That worked great and a benefit was my son-in-law came to the cargo drop-off and I got a picture with the bike after the customs clearance was given for it. Next day, was flight day, our premium economy seats came with priority boarding passes and we were th
Read more

Switzerland - Sept. 21-23 - Lukmanier Pass and Disentis

Image
   Lukmanier Pass and Disentis Our last morning in Menaggio and we wake up to threatening skies. We knew they were forecast but we hoped we'd luck out like the rest of our trip and have great weather. It was not to be. After our final breakfast at the Hotel Merloni we load the bike and head towards Lugano, Switzerland.  This is a memorable highway for us that dates back to mid May 2006 when we rode from Colmar, France to Menaggio on a day that got colder and colder and began to snow on the Gotthard Pass. So much so, that we were turned back and had to take the Oberpal pass to Disentis and the Lukmanier Pass to Lugano.  I always characterized that ride which turned to pouring rain once you got over the Alps, "as driving inside a firehose" . We've been in contact with Heiko as he wanted to ride the pass and meet us 1/2 way and take us to his friends place in Disentis, CH. His last report was everything was cloudy but not raining there, and with it still dry when we prep
Read more

Ostia Antica and Ostia Lido

Image
 Ostia Antica and Ostia Lido After a nice hot humid afternoon getting repacked after recovering our riding gear from panniers etc. we enjoyed a nice pizza at our B&B suite hotel. They run an extremely successful B&B, pizzeria near Ostia Antica, which was the birthplace of Rome before Rome. We had been here passing through in 2006 and stayed in 2014 while visiting the ruins of Ostia Antica itself. Our neighbor Jeff who has a degree in Archeology remarked about how impressed he was with OA and it is impressive. Our 2014 Ostia experience is here .  This morning, Sunday, we reset and were just going to go for a walk when I suggested we head close to the Lido and then take our walk there. It was a good plan. Neptune and Friend to the left The Lido was busy when we got there around 10:30 am as it was super sunny, 33C humid and real beach weather. As we walked the Lido we got to see Neptune with a guy fishing beside him, and jam packed beaches. Beaches crowded The architecture there i
Read more