A Trek up the Volcano

The day after our wine tasting adventure, we met with Roberto, a volcanologist, and spent many, many hours in his Land Rover trekking up and down the volcano. 

The Land Rover that fit nine people… barely

I told Roberto about my 'rolled' ankle, and he was kind enough to edit our itinerary so that he drove us as close as possible to all of the sites around Mount Etna. That was good for me, but the Land Rover was quite cramped and not having several longer walks throughout the day made it a bit more challenging for the taller people crammed in the 4X4. But all in all, I think we had a great day! 

The smoking volcano with lava in the foreground

Roberto took us to an old quary where you could not only see the volcano, but also a lava flow from the '80s and earlier.

A defunct quarry of lava rock and stone

Various layers of rock

We were also able to see the various stratified rock along the edges of the quary. I took a basic geology class way back in my freshman year in college, so I remembered a bit about the various metamorphic, sedimentary, and ignious rocks that Roberto discussed. 

Brook, the former rock hound enjoyed himself

Roberto teaching us about rocks

The Land Rover seated two in the front, three in the middle (I was in the middle, middle), and four in sideways bench seats in the back. I think the people in the back had it the hardest, as they bounced around quite a lot.. and sitting sideways close to the roof meant they had to use their core to try and not bump each other or their heads! My seat was quite nice, but it was rather difficult getting into and out of the tall Rover with my sore ankle.  

My view from the Land Rover

We made our way over to the lava tubes to do some cave exploring. I sat in the shade not too far from the Rover, as it was a bit of a walk. Bill took the camera, so the next series of shots are from him. 

Dan getting ready to go lava tubing

It was at least 80F outside waiting in the shade (down by the ocean it was in the mid 90sF), but I hear it was quite chilly inside the lava tubes. 

Heading in to the lava tubes

I see a lava tube!

And apparently very, very dark! 

Spotlight inside the lava tube

Exiting the lava tube

As we left the lava tubes, we noticed we were getting closer to the volcano ridge line! 

Smokey volcano 

After lave tubing, we made our way to a picnic spot for lunch. We had stopped at a small market halfway up Mount Etna for some delicious, traditional Sicilian fair. 

At a wee grocers for lunch provisions

And made our way to a small park. We met a very nice Sicilian couple who demanded we sit with them and they proceded to share quite a bit of their food with us as well. So again, we had a feast! 

Picnic lunch!

Fresh ricotta was the bomb-diggity! We also had mortadella, salami, bread, cheese, olives. I was starting to see a trend. A delicious trend! 

Lunch!

Roberto holding court at lunch

I left the picnic spot a few minutes early to slowly limp my way back to the car. Bill caught up with me to show me his special prickly flower-thingy he found for me :-) 

Bill found a cute, prickly thing

Bill and I were both enamored of the lava rock walls. They were all over in Sicily, very similar to the dry stone walls that enclose many a field here in North Yorkshire, only made of lava rocks. 

Lava rock wall

We then made our way to a tourist-y roadside cafe for coffee and a saunter around a handful of defunct calderas. A caldera is a crater usually formed by the collapse of land, following a volcanic eruption. Not to be confused with a volcanic crater, which is the mouth of a volcano. 

Exploring a few calderas

Learning about the calderas

I didn't limp far, but I keep my spirits high!

Roberto teaching us about the calderas

The rest of the group walked around the largest caldera's rim while I stayed near the Rover and took a few photos with my phone. 

Walkers around the caldera rim

Bill took the nice camera and got a few shots of his view from the rim of the large caldera. You can see quite a few lava domes, where there is (or was) an upheaval due to the slow protrusion of lava. 

View from the caldera 

And you can see at least one other caldera in the distance. 

View from the caldera 

I liked the wee park signs dotted around Mount Etna. 

Interesting park sign with graffiti 

While our group was walking the rim, several posed for a prime 'HELP' photo! 

HELP! 

One last, etherial shot of the lava domes and calderas shrouded in volcano steam, before we headed back to the Land Rover to head home for the day. That's as close as we were able to get to the volcano's crater. 

Last view from the caldera

Roberto from VolcanoTrek did a great job! He really knew his volcanology, Sicilian history, and was very personable to boot. And, he rolled with my 'rolled' ankle, for which I was very greatful. 

Heading back down the volcano