We are nearing our time in Italy, and just like in the UK when we visited Lundy near the end, so in Italy were we off to some islands, the Isole Eolie and first, Vulcano. We leave the beautiful spot on the beach early and drop Dora off at an aire come storage parking yard which we had pre booked. The ferry leaves at 9.30, but everything runs to clockwork. We are joined by a bunch of Germans, they always seem to travel in packs.
Our boat arrives, a small but sleek hydrofoil. We board and she soon rises up out of the water.
The spray is tremendous. Any form of travel is amazing and speed can be useful. If this was your daily commute you would want it this fast. I would prefer it slower, well not slower. I like the old fashioned ferry where you can walk around, go outside and watch the islands come towards you, revealing themselves.
The windows are caked in salt and now spray and difficult to see through.
The journey is only half an hour and we are soon standing on the quayside looking at our home for the next two days. Vulcano is much cheaper than Stromboli to stay on so we have booked two nights at only €25 per night, well it is the slow season, but first we have to find the hotel.
We walk around the tiny main town of Levante a couple of times before we find signs to Al Tongo
We find our room. I think we are the only ones booked for tonight. The place looks deserted, the pool is empty, but you would expect that at this time of year. The room is fine for us for the next two days. All the usual stuff; bed, cupboards, a TV we will not use, but a proper hot shower, sheer luxury. We have also bought a load of gadgets to recharge off of the mains.
The volcano on Vulcano is not the classic shape from below, but we suspect it is somewhere up there. We can’t wait to find out.
We even have an outside terrace.
The hotel is a couple hundred yards from the town centre. Here that is probably considered a really long way, but it is quiet.
Itchy feet, we can resist it no longer. We pack up our bags and head off to our third volcano.
Vulcano is technically extinct, but we can see a lot of smoke pouring from her.
We walk up through the village and find the main road out of town, it points to ‘el cratere’, sound a great place to go until we come across the signs. Quite ominous!
That certainly won’t put the two wanderers off so we push onwards.
And we begin to climb the steep sides. Soon you get views back over the town and to the adjacent island of Lipari and Salina. They are that close it looks like you could swim.
These are really idyllic islands, maybe 15km long by a few kilometres wide, several villages and that is about it.
It is a long shallow path on crushed pumice up through the vegetation.
The goats seem to be liking the vegetation, hope they don’t do too much damage.
That feeling as you climb higher and higher, so quickly that the surroundings fade into the distance.
The landscape changes dramatically. The vegetation has given up trying to survive on these harsh, ever moving slopes of volcanic ash.
The path is carved out of the black dust, ever up.
And when the wind picks up, small dust storms surround you.
Looks almost vertical when you peer over the edge.
Mount Etna was covered in snow so it didn’t feel like a volcano. Vesubio is the closest to a volcano I have seen so far. However, at times, it felt more like a tourist attraction, as there were so many people on it. This one though, wild, isolated, lonely… Although he is extinct, with its smoke he wants to remind people it was dangerous at one time, that he had his days of glory. SM
An even newer terrain, is this lava? It seems quite soft and they have carved out a path to allow us up.
The hydrofoil makes a return visit, the last one of the day. When it leaves we will be all alone. Just us and Vulcano.
Stark, harsh, brutal. Those dots up on the ridge are people making their way down. We have all the fun left in front of us.
And we reach the first summit. Smoke is pouring from the vents and then whipped up by the wind. We stop for some lunch.
Another speedy film of us getting to the top which took about 40 minutes but is a two minute video. Not sure, but you could play it at slow speed, just don’t ask me how.
And the most perfect volcanic crater you can imagine. The power that created that! Awesome.
Smoke continues to billow, but we have another objective, we have yet to reach the summit. To reach the summit we will have to cross the vents.
The smoke is getting worse!
The hydrofoil leaves.
We are all alone.
It is not far, maybe thirty meters.
We pluck up the courage and head into the abyss.
Looks dramatic doesn’t it?
Amongst the vents, amongst the smoke, a surreal landscape.
Bright yellow sulphur crystals forming at each vent.
Incredibly beautiful.
Stunning, but you can’t stay long, you have to pass on, before the noxious smells get into you.
Through the other side, all calm once again.
The smoke billows more, maybe we have angered her!
Others, Spanish, don’t want to leave this captivating landscape.
We climb up towards the summit. Just a few minutes ago we were down there, amongst the smoke and the vents.
An incredible sight set against the deepest, bluest sea.
And more Spanish at the summit, waiting patiently for their friends to take that one last photo.
And now we get to see the rest of the island.
It looks stunning.
We hatch a plan.
We had considered more walks for tomorrow, but maybe we would see more if we rented some bikes. We considered this carefully. It looks quite hilly. It would mean another map type for the blog, but it would be good to see rest of the island.
But those roads do look steep.
Our thoughts return to today, and the descent.
We have the rest of the crater to circumnavigate.
We head down. It is getting late, and there is one last activity which we forgot to tell you about.
Mud baths.
Apparently this is meant to be really good for you. Good for skin disease, inflammation of the joints and all sorts of other maladies.
Which is great.
Until you start to think about all the people;
with skin diseases that have bathes in that pools.
There doesn’t seem to be a way of cleaning a naturally occurring mud bath.
Not to worry, it is only three euros and what is a bit of leprosy amongst friends.
Everyone else leaves.
Want to see Susana with a cleansing mask?
Look no further.
We end the day with a bit of fishing.
No of course we don’t catch anything.
Just a beautiful sunset amongst the tranquillity of the islands.
Time for dinner, and desert. The Sicilian delicacy, a perfect end to the perfect day.
Tomorrow, bikes.
GDR
Impresionante!!!!!!!!!!!!! totalmente impresionante.
Vosotros a lo vuestro nada de carteles, ibais a ver el volcán y un cartel no lo iba a impedir ,valor es lo que os sobra, pero creo que gustando lo que se hace merecía la pena subir, la verdad la naturaleza hace cosas increíbles. .
La naturaleza no nos deja de impresionarnos
Very brave walking the crater rim. The smell must have been really noxious. Loved the mud bath. Hope there was a nice shower to get the mud off!
The shower was really pants and cost an extra €1 which was not worth it. It was cold, and the air temperature was still not that warm. I think the sea could have been warmer as I noticed lost of vents, so maybe it gets warmed by the volcano, we didn’t try it out though. The sulphur smell stayed in the hair for several days.
GDR