The second day of the field trip commences with a visit to the Tazieff Cone,
a scoria cone that was one of the main emission centres of the 2001 eruption.
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The visit begins with an ascent to Rufigio Sapienza, described
to us as "a low quality tourist resort".
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where we leave our busses
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boarding the four wheel drive buses for the ascent to the
Tazieff Cone.
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A last chance to adjust our gear..
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then Gian leads us off on our ascent
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The Tazieff Cone looms in the distance..
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Jens obviously relishing the challenge..
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Ljuba having a bad hair day on Mt Etna...
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How does that look?
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The ascent wasn't really too dificult, except for the gale
force winds which made it difficult to avoid being blown
away...
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At last, we reach the rim and look down into the cone..
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As you can see from the cranial wind speed indicator on
the right, we were being blown into the cone..
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did I mention it was windy?
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on my left, some of us taking what little shelter is avaiable
below the rim of the cone.
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and on my right, more of us taking up position beside the rim of
the cone.
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volcanic ash in the eyes was a bit of a problem..
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Some people just thumb their noses at the conditions..
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If you look carefully, a number of Field Trip Guidebooks
seem to have been involuntarilly sacrificed to the volcano gods...
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Ljuba's hair again
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The view from the rim of the cone.
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Some well wrapped vulcanologists bracing against the wind.
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Jens taking a picture of me taking a picture of him..
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Ljuba seems to have gotten her hair under control at this point..
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A last look back at the busses from the rim of the cone..
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Finally we decide to decend from the rim of the cone.
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