Middle-aged flash packers

 What a day!

Started off with both of us feeling knackered. Steve could not sleep due to a sore neck and a cough.(no doubt due to the sulphur on the volcano) This then meant I was awake for ages – the good news was I managed to finish reading my book.

Had to be at the ferry dock for 8.35am so managed to get everything together and stumble down to the port in plenty of time. It then proceeded to pour with rain. There was no shelter and by the time the ferry arrived (20 minutes late) we and our luggage were soaked. 

The ferry journey took the best part of 11/2 hours. No-one told us but it stops at lots of islands and we and some people we met at the ferry dock kept trying to get off when it wasn’t Stromboli. You could easily get stranded at one of these places and have no idea until you couldn’t find your hotel.

Eventually we arrived at Stromboli. We had almost dried out although the backside of my trousers were still embarrassingly wet – I dread to think what people thought as it was the only bit of me that was wet!

Stromboli is basically a volcano with some restaurants and a few hotels built around it. It is still active although not dangerous (at the moment). We were hoping to climb it and view the active craters.

Once we eventually gained access to our hotel room we decided we were too tired to do anything but have a siesta before our walk to the summit began at 3.30pm. 

It took ages to get to sleep as every man and his dog had checked in and were excitedly making themselves at home in their rooms.

Anyway suffice to say we awoke refreshed and hot footed it up to Magma Treks who were organising our climb to the craters of Stromboli.

After a little bit of chaos at the start (hey we’re in Italy what do you expect?) we joined the right group and stuck like glue to our guide Marco. We were a fit group and walked without any problems along the windy path to the top. I have to say at this point that we were hardly alone – the number of groups ascending were unbelievable. This was partly due to the horrendous weather forecast for the next few days – everyone was making the trek while they could. 

I sweated buckets on the way up, it was so humid. The idea was to reach the summit at sunset and see the craters in the dark.

I had expected some steam and gas from the craters but we got so much more. Huge glowing red blasts of magma and rock spewed from the crater. Even when there wasn’t a massive explosion , you could see rocks being tossed about in a soup of glowing lava deep in the crater. 

It was phenomenal. Steve said it was a childhood dream realised, and I know exactly what he meant. All those David Attenborough programmes such as The Natural World, enthused our generation and made us want to experience such sights ourselves. Well now we have.

The descent was, as usual, the thing you don’t think about but was actually more tedious and difficult than the walk up. We made our way down the volcano via a mega black sand dune. Accompanied by a blood red full moon, it was a most spectacular if tricky descent.

After dropping off our safety helmets and thanking Marco, we went straight to the pizza restaurant over the road and ate and drank until we were full. 

When we got back to our hotel room, I realised I must have looked like a mad woman as I was grimy with ash and my hair was all over the place. 

What the hell, it’s not everyday you get to watch a seething cauldron of molten earth explode – unless you’re Marco of course.