Mount Etna

I had put Mount Etna on my itinerary, without realising quite how difficult this would be. The3re is a limit in elevation above which you cannot go without a guide. Mike wanted to actually reach the peak, but we found that all trips had been fully booked, and besides the website said that people with diabetes and high blood pressure were strictly forbidden, which counted me out. It sounded bleak, cold and an endurance test that I didn't feel I needed in my life.

So we managed to book on a tour which took you up to some of the side craters, and was on "our side" of the mountain, which has the prettier slopes. We set off early only to find out satnav had decided to take us up the mountain at Taormina rather than round it. To be honest, it was a real shit show - awfully narrow winding road and extremely steep. Eventually at a corner we came across a local who could speak German (as can Mike) who told us this was not a sensible route and helped us perform the ultimate in three point turns on a steep incline and then return down. Only to then hit a pothole (well it was more that the side of the road just wasn't there in one spot), which resulted in us losing the plastic wheel arch from the right side (which Mike put on the back seat, to look at us accusingly for the rest of the trip!)

Anyway, we reset the Satnav to a different address nearby and got there only slightly late for our tour, or in fact half an hour early as everyone else was late too. We met up at a ski lodge in the woods

And then we went on a guided walk across old lava flows

This is a species of silver birch only found on Etna. Two characteristics are that it forms multiple trunks rather than just one (as displayed below) and the leaves are rough as there is a lack of moisture and the roughness retains moisture better.  The problem isn't a lack of rain, but that the rain soaks quickly through the porous lava ash

 Then we proceeded to climb one of the side craters. Not too arduous a climb but the surface is very loose. Like walking on sand

After the craters we got taken into an underground cave formed by the volcano

And back to base for a sandwich, and then on to Syracuse, our next home for four days