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Published: August 7th 2008
We arrived in Stromboli early afternoon after a six hour journey from Palermo by hydrofoil (which included a gelati stop in Salina - well, we did have to change boats and it seemed a perfect opportunity to sample the local ice cream)! I was already feeling a bit apprehensive about the climb that evening after seeing the sheer size of the volcano in front of me. Our first stop was a well earned lunch - ferry travel does make you very hungry! We had a delicious meal at a great local restaurant overlooking the sea. Specialities included arancini (deep fried rice balls with all sorts of delicious fillings - spinach, meat etc), tomato and mozzarella filled paninis (with very hard crusty bread - you had to work for your food), Sicilian style salads with Mediterranean vegetables, potato salads and so on.
Whilst some of the group sat and enjoyed the satisfied feeling you get after having eaten far too much, Katie and Garry disappeared for about an hour on a hunt for accommodation for the night. It was either that or sleep on the beach for a night.
Whilst waiting for them we left the restaurant and sat outside,
making friends with a couple of locals - Franco and Michelo. Franco owned a little stand selling Brazilian jewellery whilst Michelo now organised bike hire and boat trips, but had previously been a guide taking people up the volcano for ten years. He did worry us slightly saying that we would find it very hard work and would probably not enjoy the climb at all but it would be worth it.
By this time, our intrepid accommodation hunters had returned looking exhausted and very hot. However their mission had been successful. After wandering round the town knocking on the doors of locals houses asking if we could stay there (and probably getting lots of strange looks) they tracked down the owner of the local supermercato (another Franco!) who also owned a lovely four bed apartment. After a bit of bargaining he happily obliged to put another 3 beds/mattresses in the apartment and even lowered the price for us, so the seven of us thankfully had somewhere to sleep.
We said our goodbyes to Franco and Michelo, took our stuff to our newly acquired apartment and psyched ourselves up for the long evening ahead of us.
‘Trousers’ ‘check’;
‘Bandana ’ ‘check’;
‘Jumper’ ‘check’;
‘Torch’ ‘check’;
‘Food’ ‘check’;
‘Water’ ‘check’;
‘Chocolate’ ‘check’;
‘Sun cream applied’ ‘check’;
‘Last loo stop’ ‘check’.
We were ready.
We walked up to the Piazza to the trek office to meet our guide for the evening. You can now only climb the volcano with a guide as it is unsafe to climb it on your own after the most recent eruptions. Only 80 people (in groups of 20) are allowed up the volcano at a time and we had been organised and booked in advance. We signed all the waivers agreeing that if we died or were injured it was our own fault, had our kit checked over properly (with a few arguments about the fact that some of us were in walking shoes rather than boots - our guide gave in) and were all issued with helmets. We then waited for the remainder of the group to arrive whilst looking up at the 900 metre volcano looming ahead of us.
At 5.30pm our guide, Andreas, reappeared. He seemed to be fluent in German, French, Italian and English which was pretty impressive, although we later found out that he was Swiss so
The food
Mediterranean veggies, potato salad etcthat explained it. Andreas told us that it would be a hard walk and we could drop out anywhere up to 400 metres if we weren’t coping (above that height you need a guide so you have to make a decision half way if you don’t want to do it). He also said that if he decided someone wasn’t fit enough he was within his rights to send them back down again - and we weren’t allowed to argue with him - that all put our minds at rest as it made the walk sound so much easier than we initially thought….not!
There were no sudden dropouts after Andreas’ little pep talk, so we started our long walk up the volcano. It was still relatively hot and the sun was still quite bright so we warmed up very quickly. We walked along ash covered paths, surrounded by tall grasses and were climbing at a steady pace. We had our first break at 250 metres up which wasn’t a moment too soon. I was already quite tired, and was seriously wondering if I would make it to the top. The chocolate and water were a godsend though and I felt
refreshed and ready to go by the time Andreas said ‘prepari’ (prepare to go). We were off again.
Andreas pointed out caper bushes and also created a before and after dust model of Strombolicchio - the tiny remains of another volcano that we could see from where we were standing. He also told us that Stromboli imports all its water, which was a surprise - it hadn’t even occurred to me that they wouldn’t have their own water supply. By the time we reached 500 metres the scenery had changed. We had left the long grasses and the landscape was much more open and rocky; the black rocks turning a slightly reddish colour. We traversed up narrow paths that were cut through the steep slope of the volcano. We were told we were unlikely to see any eruptions as the wind was in the wrong direction and would mean that visibility would be poor as the ash and clouds would be blown directly at us. This put a downer on the whole thing and spirits were low. Four members of the group had climbed the volcano the day before and had not seen anything - they had come back
for a second go in the hope that the volcano would perform for them today.
We carried on, and the seven of us kept each other going by taking stupid photographs and having silly conversations - although I didn’t do much talking - I was too busy saving my breath! The walk however, seemed to become easier after the 500 metre mark. The terrain was rockier and much steeper so we were going a bit more slowly. I think it was a culmination of that and the thought that we were nearly there that made it seem easier.
When we first heard the rumbling of the volcano the realisation that we were nearly at the top gave me (and probably everyone else) another spurt of energy to keep going.
There was a quiet anticipation in the air as we were told by Andreas that we only had two more turns of the path to do before we would be able to see the crater and the molten lava. The pace picked up as people were eager to see for themselves the awesome power of the volcano. There was a unanimous gasp of amazement from the group when
we rounded the last bend and caught our first glimpse of the crater itself. Within a few minutes the magma erupted as if the volcano wanted to show us exactly what it was capable of. It was a humbling sight. By this stage it was nearly dark, the sun was setting creating a pinkish glow in the sky and in the foreground the volcano was spewing out red hot magma and putting on a fantastic display for us. The rumbles and hisses emanating from the crater were followed by a fountain of molten rocks lighting up the night sky.
We stayed at the top of the volcano for about an hour watching the light show whilst eating our picnics of ciabatta, cheese and lots of chocolate (purely for keeping energy levels up), and trying to keep the dog who had come up with us to stop eating our food. We wondered if that was the only reason he had followed us, but I think he was owned by one of the guides and seemed perfectly happy running around on top of the volcano as if he did it every day (which he probably did)!
We had been extremely
lucky. The wind had died down and the volcano had been very active. It had spewed out red hot lava every 10-15 minutes. It had been a breath-taking experience.
The dreaded word ‘prepari’ was shouted out. It was time to go. We packed up our things and by this time had put on our extra layers as it had cooled down surprisingly quickly after the sun had disappeared. We would be going down a different way and that it would involve going down a dust field.
It was now safe to remove our helmets and prepare for the descent. Going down the dust field was great fun. It was dark so we could only see by torch light, which made it even more of an experience. There were lots of cries of ’woah’ and ‘whoops’ as people lost their footing but it was much the quickest and safest way to descend. It was almost like going down a sand dune, except that it was dirtier, dustier, you had to avoid rocks and you were doing it with your shoes on. After about half an hour we stopped and I could barely move my toes as my shoes were
so full of sand and dust. A very cheap way to have a pedicure - the pumice stone dust did wonders! We had descended about 400 metres in just 30 minutes down a 52 degree slope. I don’t think any one had realised it was quite that steep. We then attempted to empty some of the sand from our shoes, turned off our torches, lay back and looked at the stars. They were beautiful and I wanted to stay there for hours. You don’t get to see many stars in London!
We set off again, this time with our masks on. It became incredibly dusty and was very difficult to see where we were going. It was almost like driving a car with headlights on through heavy fog. There were various obstacles in our way such as rocks, exposed roots and a big telephone cable bringing data down from the monitoring equipment at the summit. The dusty path eventually turned into a concrete one. We had been walking for about two hours and had finally reached the bottom of Stromboli. Shoes and boots were removed again in a vain attempt to empty even more sand and ash from them,
masks were thrown away and we walked the final few minutes back to the piazza. Andreas showed us a short video of the most recent eruption and it was quite strange to think that we had been standing on the top of such a destructive force only a few hours before. It had looked so peaceful in comparison.
The seven of us then wandered back to our apartment, toasted our success with a beer, attempted to wash off all the grime and dust in the shower and had a well earned sleep, thankful that we had beds rather than a beach to lie on!
It was an amazing experience. Well worth the hard climb up and something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
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