Busy busy

It's been a long time since I last blogged because I've been absolutely flat out like a lizard drinking.  The project that I'm working on has reached the stage best thought of as "intense".  We're commissioning and that increases the risk level considerably as well as the amount of things going on at the same time.

When I found out that I was coming to Sicily for a while, I renamed this blog after the most famous local landmark, Mt Etna. What I didn’t realise is just how appropriate that would be.

Mt Etna is amazing. Just amazing. It looms over the land, a single landmark visible from many miles around. Every day as I drive from Siracusa north towards the plant I am driving directly towards it and at least twice I’ve missed my turnoff, lost in awe at the sight. Throughout winter it’s been covered in snow and even more beautiful than ever, whether from a distance or up close glittering in the sunshine.


So when another friend from Mossley, Scott, came for a visit, naturally we had to tackle this monster. We went up the northern face to a ski resort, then followed the skidoo tracks up as far as they went. After that we were on our own to trudge through the 4m deep snow up to the nearest peak (still 1000 m from the top).

These photos show the view looking down at the clouds coming up behind us and up to the peak still to be reached. All up a round trip of 6 exhausting but fun hours.

The funny thing was that it wasn’t possible to make it all the way to the smoking crater… the closer we got, the more the snow had melted from the heat underneath. Because that mean that there was still a crust of snow on top, every step become more and more hazardous. So finally we stopped for a break in a mini crater and warmed up in the steam. Kind of scary, but at least you know you're not likely to die of exposure on the mountain.

A few weeks ago (back when I had Sundays clear!), I went about an hour south to a local nature reserve. I’ve talked about this blog before, in fact it was the first place I went to when I first arrived here. At that time I marvelled at the gum trees and feeling quite at home. This time was even better!  This is a normal sort of sign at a nature reserve, no camping, no fires, no rubbish…. no pet kangaroos!!! (Actually the sign says no introduction of foreign species, with the kangaroo on a leash as an illustration). I laughed till tears ran down my face when I saw this.

The weather’s starting to get very nice here. It’s been a strange year: snow in Manchester over xmas and temperatures 10 degrees above normal here. I still haven’t really been skiing in Europe which is just ridiculous but I’m still hoping that one day I’ll get there. I was sorry to miss most of the snow in England but I really am having fun in Sicily.