Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Mount Etna
Wednesday 28th February
The campsite we stayed in is pretty much at the base of Mount Etna and as we looked up at the snow topped Volcano we saw white smoke issuing from the top. We noticed that none of the locals were dashing around in an agitated way and trying to leave the island so decided it must be a normal occurrence.
We drove up the mountain in the afternoon. Surprisingly it is quite easy to get lost driving up there and we ended up on the east side of the mountain many hundred of feet away from the top.
The North side of the mountain is a ski resort and at this time of year is also at the bottom of the snow. There was a cable car and chair lifts but by the time we arrived they were no longer taking anyone up to the top. Therefore, again we were thwarted with getting any closer to the top.
We decided to give up and drive back to the caravan, this was easier said then done, Dizzy (the sat nav system – yes very sad we have given our car a name!) directed us down a road that rapidly narrowed and lost any semblance of a road very quickly. The road (I say laughingly) was little wider than the car, we had to fold in the door mirrors and the car was being scratched on each side by the vegetation. Turning around was impossible. We ploughed on thinking it may only be a short stretch because there is no way Dizzy would turn us off a major road onto a track, especially as we had selected “Major Roads” as a route preference. About 500m down the track there was a small drive way, so our options were to try and turn around or carry on for another km down a track that was becoming impossibly narrower. We opted to turn around and successfully negotiated our way back to a major road, although we still got lost several times trying to get off the damn mountain.
On the way down the mountain we stopped next to a lava field so the boys could have a romp and see what volcanic rocks look like. When we got out of the car we could smell burning, not the most reassuring smell when on an active volcano, but it was coming from the brakes, when we had tried to put the parking brake on it made a horrible grinding noise that just didn’t sound good. So the following day Jon phoned Land Rover Assist, we have had to use them twice on this trip and I have to say they have been excellent. They took all the details, contacted the nearest dealer (20 minutes away) and arranged for our car to be collected and for us to be taken to get a hire car, this was all organised within the hour and 2 hours later Jon was back with the hire car.
We have been blessed with fantastic weather, the sun has been hot and the skies have been clear and blue.
