{"id":4716,"date":"2016-05-21T05:07:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T19:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2026-05-12T07:43:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:43:04","slug":"we-might-have-found-a-wow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2016\/05\/21\/we-might-have-found-a-wow\/","title":{"rendered":"We Might Have Found A \u2018Wow\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tu sei qui\u00a0 –\u00a0 you are here<\/em><\/p>\n

\"On
On the road up to Etna from Nicolosi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, Etna\u2019s peak was annoyingly covered in cloud.\u00a0 The grumbling had stopped, or at least we couldn\u2019t hear it. On the road out of Nicolosi, the land was quarried on both sides and in between each quarry were huge mounds of solidified lava, interspersed with boundless pink valerian, yellow broom and what looked like a tall heather on fire.\u00a0 It was a fascinating scenery and if it hadn\u2019t been for the fabulous flowers, it would have felt a little like we were heading to Mordor.<\/p>\n

\"Eileen
Eileen crossing an old lava flow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The cloud sprawled across the top and gradually increased until we could no longer see the sun. But we kept stopping at every viewpoint and playing tag team with a French campervanning couple who had parked next to us the night before and were now doing the same as us.\u00a0 Each time he got out to take a photo, I got the giggles.\u00a0 He was wearing a skirt, long socks and trainers.\u00a0 No, not a kilt, it was a smart black skirt\u2026.!?!<\/p>\n

\"Incredible
Incredible sight of lava flow destruction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sadly, when we reached the Piazzale Rifugio Sapienza carpark, the weather was getting increasingly worse.\u00a0 It is possible to ride a gondola up to a ridge, but we watched them disappear into the clouds and decided it really wouldn\u2019t be worth it.\u00a0 We popped into a caf\u00e9 to escape the weather, hoping that it may have improved when we came back out. But it hadn\u2019t.\u00a0 At the far end of the car park there are walking trails to two craters, so we headed off uphill to the top of the highest one first.\u00a0 It was a steep, tough, heart pumping walk because with each step forward, you slipped a little way back on the small, light, loose fragments of magma (lapilli).<\/p>\n

\"We
We can’t imagine skiing across this, but they do in the winter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"On
On the climb up to the rim of Crater Silvestri Superiore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Walkers
Walkers on the rim of Crater Silvestre Superiore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking down on Crater Silvestri Inferiore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking back up at the craters of \u00a0Silvestri Superiore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The two of us<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

When we walked up and around the Crater Silvestri, I seriously had to hang onto Rodney a few times, or crouch down really low.\u00a0 The wind was gusting at incredible strengths and I feared I was going to be blown into the crater, or off the sides.\u00a0 Looking around, it seemed like we were surrounded by drunk tourists, everyone was staggering around and being buffeted by the gale.<\/p>\n

\"Flying
Flying in the wind on Crater Silvestri Inferiore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking downhill from Crater Silvestri Inferiore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rodney
Rodney hiking against the wind<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I
I can’t believe we got to the top of Crater Silvestri Superiore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

When we got back to Eileen, a police car pulled up and parked behind us.\u00a0 We, of course, hit the anxiety button.\u00a0 It turned out that they liked the look of Eileen and had driven over for a closer look.\u00a0 They even took a photo!<\/p>\n

The road down from Etna South was very different amongst oak, pine and chestnut trees.\u00a0 Pine cones littered the tarmac and rain filled the potholes. By the time we reached Etna North, the rain was going sideways and the wind was rocking Eileen from side to side.\u00a0 Rodney dashed in and out taking photos of the amazing lava flow which apparently destroyed the ski resort and the roads in 2002 and 2003.\u00a0 I stayed dry and un-buffeted in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n

\"Lava
Lava flow on Etna North, in the rain…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Dead
Dead ‘Ents’ in Mordor…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The lava flow and the bits it missed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

At Linguaglossa Rodney won, as usual, on the bank cash teller machine and promptly crossed the road to a mechanic, to treat Eileen to new windscreen wiper blades.\u00a0 She had worked hard all day, up and down the volcano, in driving winds and rain; she deserved a treat.\u00a0 Camping Mokambo at Mascali turned out to have no view of Etna, sadly the cloud was still hiding the view, the showers were crappy, there was a large resident barking dog and the place was just tatty, so we didn\u2019t bother staying a second night.\u00a0 Instead we\u2019ve moved on to Letojanni, to Camping Paradise, which it isn\u2019t, but it\u2019s a lot better and it\u2019s closer to Taormina.\u00a0 Tomorrow we\u2019ll test the bus service and aim to spend the day there.<\/p>\n

\"Back
Back down at the beach the sun came out on Friday. A little bit of paradise, until the wind blew us indoors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tu sei qui\u00a0 –\u00a0 you are here   On Thursday morning, Etna\u2019s peak was annoyingly covered in cloud.\u00a0 The grumbling had stopped, or at least we couldn\u2019t hear it. On the road out of Nicolosi, the land was quarried on both sides and in between each quarry were huge mounds of solidified lava, interspersed with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8231,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions\/8231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}