David von Oheimb's Photo Gallery:
Sicily and Aeolian Islands, Italy, 07 - 12 April 2008

…this page is still under construction…

Part of the photos by Gabor Szarvak.

This trip was on a special occasion, which gave me the motive to finally accept a very nice invitation by a colleage and friend, Giampaolo. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy or extremely hazy for most of the time, with the exception of the 9th April which we spent on the island of Vulcano - this is why most of the photos shown here are of that day. Still we were able to visit the main three volcanic attractions of the area, neither of which were particularly active. Each of them had their special safety-related regulations, which we assiduously neglected to make our experience more interesting.  

Flight from Munich
 

Venice

Filicudi

Etna
Giampaolo's home

 

 

well, our stuff ;-)
Stromboli We first went along the abandoned "telephone line" path along the southern coast from Scari to Ginostra, which requires some UIAA grade II scrambling and wading the sea for a few meters.

leaving Milazzo

 




 

Ginostra

Ginostra
Then we went up the north-western trail to the volcano summit, where we were able to observe and listen to the frequent lava splashes in the dusk. Soon a guided group appeared, and it took a few moments to convince the guide that we were as safe as his paying guests, such that we refrained from calling the police. Unfortunately it had already started dripping, and then we were shrouded in a cloud mixed with steam and biting sulfur dioxide. We joined the group for going down the eastern route, conveniently sliding down the ashes while it was raining. Well, we had expected a more pleasant scenario.



well, this sign is not really concrete



a very special day in Gabor's life :-)


 

standing on the Pizzo

acidly whiteout :-(

 

 
Lipari
Lipari
Vulcano



To reach the Gran Cratere, we did not take the usual route but the abandoned and overgrown steeper trail departing just about 100 meters south of the port.













The fumarole and "the dead field" (undersea volcanic gas outflow)








Excursion with quad-bike for the views from Capo Grillo

 

 

 

Stromboli

 

 

hydrofoil

 
Milazzo
 

 

Capo di Milazzo

Etna

Etna, south side We started very late, at 11:30. The first and final part of our hike was more or less the Montagnola route. Then we continued (short-cutting the gravel road) to Torre del Filosofo, where we waited for more than an hour for the guides to disappear before we finally at 16:30 were able to continue, hoping that we would not be discovered and fined. When we disappeared an hour later on the rim between the southeastern and main craters, we felt safe :-) Of course, we were careful to avoid the objective danger of collapsing crater walls. As expected, the wind up there was very strong with gusts of up to about 100 km/h that almost overthrew us. Because of the poor visibility and the nasty wind, we decided not to continue to the northeastern crater and started descending at 18:10. Sliding down fields of snow and sandy ashes, we were able to reach the parking lot within only 1.5 hours, such that we did not even need to use our headlamps.

just above Rifugio Sapienza

Valle del Bove

 

 

shelter of the guides at Torre del Filosofo

just west of Torre del Filosofo

Central Crater: Bocca Nuova and Voragine

South-East Crater

to North-East Crater

Etna, north side We did not do the northern ascent thereafter because I had slight problems with my ankle. Instead, Gabor did some lava tube scouting in the Piano Provenzana area.

 

 

 

Rifugio Citelli




Taormina



Around Etna
Taormina

Zafferana

Bronte

Bronte
Return flight
Catania

polarized light

Ponza, Zannone

Monte Circeo

URL: http://David.von-Oheimb.de/gallery/Sicily/index.html, Last modified: Tue Apr 22 14:46:14 CEST 2008