{"id":6901,"date":"2012-12-12T19:01:41","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T19:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=6901"},"modified":"2018-12-18T13:12:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T13:12:13","slug":"a-volcanic-high-and-un-wowed-by-pompeii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/a-volcanic-high-and-un-wowed-by-pompeii\/","title":{"rendered":"A volcanic high and un-wowed by Pompeii"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave the motorhome is probably parked on top of some of the ancient ruins of Pompeii, Camping Zeus<\/a><\/strong> is so close to the site there must be a few bodies under it (N40.74927 E14.48096).<\/p>\n

Throughout the evening last night a fleet of eight Fiat Pandas raced up and down the volcano, the owner of the kiosk we were parked next to explained they were testing the new version – to us it looked the same as the millions of others on the road around here. The kiosk closed around 5pm and the owners walked over to say farewell, they’d be back around 10.30am if we wanted a cappuccino.<\/p>\n

\"Evidence<\/a>

Evidence that it was Charlie who opened the Christmas chocolates<\/p><\/div>\n

Armed with torches around 8pm we braved the dark to take Charlie for his evening walk. It might have been the freezing temperature, the pack of wild dogs barking, Jay and I nervously probing the darkness with the torches trying to spy the wild beasties or the fact that we were on the side of a volcano; whatever it was he didn’t want to do his business, so we all retreated back into Dave and prayed he wouldn’t want to go out in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

Italians keep much later hours than we do, so we were naturally apprehensive, but not overly surprised when cars continued to park up in the car park well into the night. It was almost as if Dave was invisible, a couple of blokes even stood next to him admiring the view and chatting until they’re called back to their car by a beep of the horn from a chilly passenger who wanted to get going. This morning it was the turn of the park rangers who arrived promptly at 9am and started hacking branches off trees and setting fire to them, obscuring the morning sun with the smoke.<\/p>\n

We drove up the couple of kilometres to the car park, coughed up \u20ac5 to park and a further \u20ac8 each to climb up to the crater – and it was worth it. As we worked our way up the path cut into the lava, walking on tiny bits of pumice which no doubt rained down during a previous eruption, the views of the Bay of Naples were amazing. With not much growing up here to block the view we could clearly see the outer volcano Somma as we climbed Vesuvius’s cone in its centre.<\/p>\n

\"Amazing<\/a>

Amazing views from the top of Vesuvius<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Jay<\/a>

Jay and Charlie take in the views from the top of Vesuvius<\/p><\/div>\n

Reaching the crater we peered over the edge expecting to see, well, a crater, but we weren’t prepared for just how big or strangely beautiful it would be. Hues of browny red earth\/ash\/rocks formed layers down into the pit below (somewhat reminiscent of a sarlacc from Star Wars – the one they feed people into), grey rock formed a semi-circular wall and steam billowed from the sides. Hang on a minute, we thought this thing didn’t steam any more, and there was lots of it – gulp!<\/p>\n

\"Jay<\/a>

Jay looking into the smoking crater<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Err,<\/a>

Err, should there really by that much steam coming out of this volcano?<\/p><\/div>\n