Hi All,

Today the sun was shining and off we went to climb Mount Etna!

It was a long climb .. 17km from about 500m to 1700m. We had some fabulous views of  the volcano gasing off from below but as we approached the top the clouds came in and we could not see anything!

The road up was a bit busy at times with tour vehicles and there  was also a mountain bike event which caused some congestion. .. but to our benefit! Most of the climb was in the forest and not as steep as our big climb in Girona (Roccicorba). The descent down the eastern side was on smooth road and little traffic. Great descent! But  probably the best part of the loop was the beautiful provincial road taking us to Linguaglossa before taking yesterday's route back into town.

Marion and I beat the guys back and enjoyed a beer and delicious mixed Sicilian appetizer (cheese/olives/dried tomatoes ...) at a cafe around the corner from our hotel.

Doug lost Christian on the climb. We monitored his progress on our  cellphones and were happy to see him arrive with a smile .. some time later!

Tonight is our last dinner here as we load up our panniers tomorrow morning and head around Etna to the west!

We understand that Ottawa has been affected by a tornado and power outages! I hope everyone is doing OK!

Cheers!

Harold and Marion