Aeolian Islands - Monday 11th July

We have loved these islands - they are all different. We left Stromboli and stopped for lunch at Panarea en-route to Lipari. Just a rocky tip of a crater really rising vertically out of the sea. Whilst there we happened to be looking in the direction of Sicily when we saw a huge mushroom plume rise high in the air. Taking compass sight, we were sure it was Etna (over 50nm away) and the plume did seem a bit big. Saw later on BBC news that it had erupted, enough to stop flights etc.

Cruised past Lipari and nosed into the harbour - looks very smart but a lot of ferry traffic. Saw our first swordfish boat, they have 10m long bowsprits from which chaps harpoon the fish and tall "masts" with a lookout on top to sight the snoozing swordfish on the surface (see pic). Lipari is lush and home to some good dessert wine, including Malmsey (sounds so old-fashioned!). It has spectacular rock stacks and coves and crevasses.

But we headed on through the narrow strait to Vulcano, the island with the only other active volcano. This one is different again, with yellow sulphurous rock, lots of plumes from vents (very pungent of the rotten egg variety), mud baths and beautiful bays. We liked it so much we stayed 3 nights. There is a little tourist port that had some reasonable provisions and we wanted to climb the Gran Cratere to see the caldera and smoking yellow for ourselves.

So this morning, early for us to avoid the midday sun, we headed up the crater. A longish, steepish climb, it was hot even in the early morning. The views from the top across all the islands were amazing. And the crater is continuously smoking, sometimes light puffs, sometimes more plumes and swirling mists of sulphur dioxide. We walked all around the rim (it really is bright yellow in places) and down some of the scree to a couple of little vents - putting your hand over them, you realise how hot it is. We took our time and the whole excursion probably took about 4 hours. A huge relief to get back to the boat and dive straight into clear blue water (a bit bathwater-ish - 28 deg C!) And lots of pictures!

Trying to work out a strategy for getting through the Messina Strait. We will leave here tomorrow (sadly!). It's tricky, because there are no good stopping points just before the Strait and we want to get all the way down to Taormina once through. Don't want to be caught by either Scylla or Charybdis (not quite between a rock and a hard place, more like between a rock and a whirlpool). xx