Climb into purgatory.

He hisses, puffed, and gargles prustet: The Stromboli is a very active monster - and his ascent is not for timid. blogs-ONLINE-author Annette Langer fought in more than 900 meters above sea level to a fiery gala event.

 

There are tourists like my friend Bela, on the Kamchatka from a military helicopter and raises hopes that the parachute opens. And there are travelers like me who like to sit around in cafes, drinking cocktails, and the idea Aktivurlaub to have to do it, get shortness of breath.

The second category, people like to go to Italy, where they meet many like-minded, who prefer her over the edge sunglasses a freshly grilled swordfish examine, as their lives for a bit of muscle be put in jeopardy. Nevertheless, even in the land of the "dolce far niente" sporting challenges possible - if one wants high and the evening gala event "volcano spits fire" on the island of Stromboli has posted.

"Asthmatic prefer to stay at home" I read in a travel guide to celebrate the 926-meter factories - and begin immediately to hüsteln nervous. A total of six hours will the adventure take you during descent sink so deep in fine ash dust that his hand before your eyes no longer see, they say. I see myself with breathing mask and schweißnassem T-Shirt halbblind stumble over rocks, and decides, with the threat of total disgrace vorauszuschicken a dress rehearsal.

Vulcano, the aliens

In Sicily Milazzo I climb into a boat to Vulcano, the third largest of the Aeolian islands and named all the fire mountains of this world. Here waits the little brother of Stromboli on me - the only 391-meter-high Gran Cratere, by the Romans as a forge of the fire god Vulcanus revered. The advantage of this crater must climb alone, without a dynamic leader or gemsenhaft nimble Swiss, annoyed at the lame-eyed stragglers. Here there is only me and the volcano, the biting me welcome sulfur vapors blow into his face.

It rains a little, as I am from Porto di Levante on the road doing. In the Palm Gardens glow fuchsiafarbene flowers, gorse bushes push falteringly First flowers. Looks really harmless from the mountain. Shortly after the vegetation boundary, however, fairly steep climb quickly. My old hiking shoes on the rubble of the first meter final on their minds. I begin to sweat terribly at what I rarely do otherwise and somehow find undignified. Already I regret, for lunch ordered a red wine to have, because now my face is red and the legs are as heavy as an overdose after autogenic training.

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But few minutes later waves, the first reward: For a careless glance over your shoulder all appear Aeolian Islands - Alicudi, Filicudi, Salina, Lipari, Panarea, and even the distant Stromboli - the most beautiful sunlight beneath me. Like on the side is a sleeping giant in the Tyrrhenian Sea and deceive the fact that under the sea occasionally blogs the hell is going on.

I Trabe continue through the ash-gray sea, when suddenly a red-white glowing, semi-arid rocky landscape before me. The eruptions of the past have deep furrows in the soft stone withdrawn - today carve love couples car keys with her initials in the tuff.

Only a few meters, it is up to the goal when suddenly a fierce wind like a wall before me and I almost umwirft. So angry he tugs on me that I am on all fours crawling on the crater rim in order to take a look at the depth to be able to throw. The dust is everywhere - in the eyes, ears, nose - and the lens of my camera.

I look down into a brown hole ödes, long look at an almost magical pull unfolded. About the crater snake white vapor, volcanic gases, which rise from so-called fumaroles. The sulfur has the landscape lemongrass green color, so that one has the feeling that an alien planet landed on his. I pinch the eyes, to the unforgettable experience on the retina burn, and then join the retreat. Phew, I can tomorrow for the premiere.

Respect, not fear!

"Everyone has his own personal mountain, he must conquer," said Zaza, since 20 years on Stromboli and a legend among the local leaders of the volcano. "And it is unimportant how much is," he added smiling.

Behind the bearded, he is original, my fear of mountain, Stromboli, and puffed and prustet, gargles and groans - "just like a living being," says Zaza. In December 2002 caused the most active volcano in Europe for terror, as a part of his cone demolition after an eruption, and crashed into the sea
meter high tidal waves triggered. A year later there was another serious outbreak, in which huge Lavageschosse many houses destroyed. Access to the crater was closed for two years. Today, the summit only if accompanied by an authorized officer to be climbed - and take their job seriously.

"One must have respect but no fear," says Mario Pruiti, studied political science and for years local leaders volcanic organizer "Magamatrek". Accidents so far there have been only if safety precautions were ignored. That
National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania (INGV) monitors the seismic activity of the volcano, the Civil Defense and the Interior under standing "for high-risk" attempt to assess risks as precisely as possible.

Pruiti lives in the tiny village Ginostra in the southwest of the island, the only by boat to reach is: "I is not about the spectacle," says the 41-year-olds. "For me, the volcano is fascinating, because he has more than 1000 years, is constantly in motion and changed." The Stromboli is the perfect combination of four elements: "The magma is the synthesis of everything."

Against 16 clock spin trekking the first candidate to the office of
Magamatrek On. It sits on the stone wall, watching the sea and chat. Motorized tricycles rattle over, everyone greets everyone, because everyone knows everyone. The 500-soul village of Stromboli, despite glut welcoming tourists and manageable. They indulged the myth of the beautiful Ingrid Bergmann, the 1949 here for the recordings to Rossellini's melodrama "Stromboli" ungelenk on the cliffs räkelte.