38.48.22N 22.015.14E

 

So enough of the ABC tours, another bloody castle, church, cathedral, colloseum, city..  Some of the man made stuff is interesting but nature beats it hands down.  Off to Stromboli, Europe’s most active volcano.

 

Something took the fishing lure bout 3am, as far as we know he still has it, if you are reading this please return.

 

Tha’ she blows, (seems more appropriate than ‘Land ahoy’) – Stomboli

 

Lighthouse rock just off Stromboli reminding me of a gothic themed chess piece.

 

The water here is stunning, 20 plus metres visibility, turquoise blue in colour and 28 degrees celcius!  Stromboli explodes every 15 minutes or so with a shower of lava, the rising smoke is ever present but eruptions are not visible from the anchorage.  The best time to view is of course at night, we motored around in dead calm conditions just after dusk, positioning ourselves in amongst the tourist boats to watch the show.  Our first sight turned out to be the best of the evening, although we missed out on te rumble as the engine was still on.  Right at the summit the entire cloud cap lights up in a dull orange glow, followed shortly after with raining balls of red hot lava crashing back to earth on the steep northern slope of the mountain.  The shower lasted for almost a minute, the experience stays much longer.  Further explosions followed, none gave us the lava show but experiencing the deep bass rumble of a live volcano and seeing the light show in the clouds is pretty cool.  Raw nature, we love it.

 

 

One of the ever present hydrofoils speeding passengers between the islands and to a from the mainland.