Today we paid our respects to Mt Etna. We were told by our guide that Etna is a friendly volcano... unlike Mt Vesuvius, Etna never blows its top... it puts on fireworks more frequently than any other currently active volcano... but it keeps a sense of proportion... taking out the tourist facilities once a decade... but it shows no desire to take life or seek other forms of vengeance.
Care must by exercised in accepting such advice... of course the tourist guys are going to say, "everything is perfectly safe... tell all your friends to come along." However, the last couple of decades seems to back up the promotional material come-on.
The size of the volcano just 'blows' the brain... sorry... should resist use of the word blowing when talking about our friend Etna.
The last decent eruption occurred in 2002. Two craters were active on that occasion... one throwing ash in the air to heights up to 600 metres (including boulders up to 2-4 tonnes)... the second exuding a stream of lava. We asked our guide how many tonnes of ash was thrown up... his reply was 90 million tonnes... he pointed to the bottom of a valley, some 50 metres below us, and he said that was the level of the land before the eruption.
He told us to feel the temperature of the ash on which we were walking... it was mildly warm. He said the heat we felt was not coming from deep subterranean lava... it was the heat from the ash thrown out in 2002... still in the process of cooling. He then used his boot to kick a hole 20 centimetres deep. "Now feel that" he said. The temperature was hot... you wouldn't want a pocket full down your trousers... ouch!
Our guide pointed up the hill towards the summit and showed the thin layer of ash released in the April 2013 eruption. Its volume was insignificant compared to the 2002 effort... still, our year left its mark... even if it was a puny effort.
We caught the bus down from the crater zone in the middle of a heavy hail storm. Before the storm, ice packs could be seem in the protected valleys under dusting of ash... and little snow packs littered the ground. However, the hail storm transformed the landscape into a wintery wonderland.
We caught the cable car down to the car park area... noticing as we stepped on board that the car number was 13. The hail storm continued during our decent. Just as we reached the bottom all the lights in the terminal went off... our cable car journey stopped 5 metres from the place where the automatic doors open. We were at ground level... but couldn't get out. After 5 minutes, an attendant used his keys to open our doors... we suffered little stress or inconvenience compared to those stranded high above the steep mountainside... while the cable car operator sorted out the electricity supply.
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