Climbing to the crater

Climbing to the Crater

Today we climbed about 1,300 feet to the top rim of Gran Cratere, the active volcano crater that overlooks our anchorage. It was a hard slog, and we had to pay twelve euros for the four of us, but the view is spectacular from up there. The crater looks like something out of a cartoon, a round, steep crater that is venting smoke from its rim. It looked like the surface of the moon, except for the blue sky and the yellow areas marking the sulfuric vents. At the top of the volcano the ashy sand turns to rock which on closer inspection proves to be compacted volcanic ash. From the very top we could see Sicily, and most notably Etna. It's startling to think that where we just walked a volcano once erupted, let's just hope that if it does go off again, it waits until we've safely left.
-- Orion Date
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