Pretty steep but not a huge walk. It was interesting. Black basalt rock and gravel broken by great erosion gullies, then near the top a lighter coloured fine sandy/muddy layer. Again quite badly eroded. They had tried to keep erosion at bay but I suspect it is a losing battle. The mountain is scarred by erosion gullies all the way down.
...and of course heavenly views all the way up........with the occasional dong of a goat bell. The local goatherd was moving his herd from night pasture into day containment. Probably to keep them off the road.
Not many people on the mountain at this time. We saw a few spring chickens coming, well leaping down. They must have come up for sunrise. Other than that, one lady passed us near the top.
Near the top the erosion got quite bad and had undermined an attempt at a path. A little tricky but just near the final plateau.
The reward for making it was a view of hell.....smoke coming out of the ground, the smell of sulphur, and a dangerous looking pit in the middle. Sulphur crystals were growing around the vents, but you could not get a good look, the smell was overpowering and I could not get too close.
I just wanted to look the other way at the Icily Oily
Did not bother to walk all the way around the crater. How many angles do I really need after all. SO back down we went. A lot easier than up I have to say. Now the path was a traffic jam with people every 10 or 15 metres. I loved a group of teenage girls, all looking like they wanted to be on the beach taking selfies rather than hiking up here.
We got back, changed into swimmers and headed for the beach, where the cool water was a blessing to our sweaty selves. We were accosted by Indian, a guess, gentlemen selling trinkets on the beach. There were several of them and they took it in turns to do a walk along the beach trying to sell volcanic jewelry.
I am amazed by the number of people who do not seem to swim around these parts.
After a couple of swims we wandered over to the other side of the isthmus to buy some makings and eat a picnic lunch. On the way I took a shot, photographically but don't tempt me, of people smearing themselves in radioactive, smelly mud. They have paid 3EU for the privilege so good on them. I am not kidding about the radioactivity, there is a warning for pregnant women to keep out, though the smell of sulphur would keep me out.
I am not embarrassed to say that we followed that by a nap in our hotel.
You know you have reached peak chill when the discussion around what to do after a nap, comes to a violent agreement to lay about by the pool. Bugger the sightseeing, bugger the photo ops,let's just lay around and think about reading a book.
We followed that up by sitting at a seaside bar for a few hours, nursing a couple of drinks and having a pizza. We amused ourselves with a little historical research on Vulcano, and by checking out the almond eyes that many island women have. Life is quite simple sometimes.
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