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#11
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volcano tourism
On Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:20:15 +0000, Jack Campin
wrote: So what is there comparable in Europe or thereabouts? Iceland has lots but it's more expensive to get to and travel around than New Zealand, with next to zero public transport to get you anywhere interesting. Iceland isn't expensive to get to from the UK. Easyjet flies out of Luton for the discount option, while Icelandair flies for a bit more from several UK airports, including Glasgow. £250 will go a long way. You can't go to New Zealand for that kind of money. In Iceland there are volcano tours. Not cheap at over £100, but not unreasonable either. Certainly much cheaper than going to New Zealand. |
#12
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volcano tourism
So what is there comparable in Europe or thereabouts? Iceland
has lots but it's more expensive to get to and travel around than New Zealand, with next to zero public transport to get you anywhere interesting. Iceland isn't expensive to get to from the UK. Easyjet flies out of Luton for the discount option, while Icelandair flies for a bit more from several UK airports, including Glasgow. £250 will go a long way. You can't go to New Zealand for that kind of money. In Iceland there are volcano tours. Not cheap at over £100, but not unreasonable either. Certainly much cheaper than going to New Zealand. I said "get to and travel around". Compared with NZ, accommodation costs in Iceland are sky-high and public transport is next to nonexistent (over much of the country it only operates in high summer). The saving in fares getting there from Europe would be taken up in a couple of days by the extra costs of eating, sleeping and travelling. I looked into this a while back and the costs of getting to Laki (the volcano I was most interested in seeing) were prohibitive. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland mobile 07800 739 557 http://www.campin.me.uk Twitter: JackCampin |
#13
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volcano tourism
On Mon, 12 Dec 2011, Jack Campin wrote:
Where in Europe or nearby can you walk into accessible mildly volcanic activity? Etna seems to do nothing interesting between major eruptions. Nevertheless it is a 3000-m huge mountain with nice scenery. I suppose some parts of it are accessible all over the year (it's also a skiing resort). Stromboli looks like a hell of a slog to reach (boat trip and a serious long scramble). They arrange evening boat trips (*) to see the lava falling down into the sea through the "sciara del fuoco". Nice but not extremely active when we did it. (*) while regular ferries should connect Lipari with Panarea and Stromboli (as well as Vulcano and the mainland; not sure about Salina, Alicudi and Filicudi, never been there). The Aeolian islands are definitely worth a vacation. They are all of volcanic origin, but only Stromboli and Vulcano are active, and the latter very moderately (smoke no lava). Of course you shall be prepared to boat trips (so no good with rough sea). I do not know the situation about public transport on the main island (Lipari) which is large enough not to be walkable (I was on a tour with a minibus, or hired boats). Nice landscape and also archeological sites (on Panarea, and nice museum in Lipari old town). On Vulcano there is an open air thermal pool very close to the ferry pier (if was free access when I was there, but I heard they wanted to fence it). I had no time to climb on the top of the main mountain, but it will be a longish walk, possibly there are accompanied tours by 4WD cars. Campi Flegrei near Naples looks like the best bet to me. Other nominations? I'm not aware any of the volcanoes there have been active since at least 400 years. Also the landscape is severely spoiled (Averno lake, which according to mithology was the entrance to hell, was a delusion). The Solfatara near Pozzuoli is accessible, and show some phenomena (mud vulcanoes, steam, mofete [the "dog grotto" so called because a dog would die because of CO2 near the ground level], but is not extremely impressive. Iceland would definitely be the place to go. The geyser field at the place which gave it the name (Geysir) is moderately touristy. Nice fields also in the Myvatn area in the north. Both are much better than Solfatara. But lots of volcanic landscape everywhere (there are gya, large fissures in the ground, both at Thingvellir, the "parliament valley", and near Myvatn, some of them smoking), interesting even if not active (for instance the hexagonal basalt column at the Svartifoss waterfall, or the "church floor" at Kirkjubaejarklaustur (did I get the spelling right ?) and other interesting landscape (e.g. a lagoon full of icebergs with a bus-boat going into it) ... all near the coast and the main ring road. There are other active fields, and volcanoes inland, but that requires special cars and skills (I did not go there). I do not know if the prices are now (after the financial crisis) as high as they used to be. |
#14
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volcano tourism
Iceland would definitely be the place to go. The geyser field at the place which gave it the name (Geysir) is moderately touristy. Nice fields also in the Myvatn area in the north. Both are much better than Solfatara. But lots of volcanic landscape everywhere (there are gya, large fissures in the ground, both at Thingvellir, the "parliament valley", and near Myvatn, some of them smoking), interesting even if not active (for instance the hexagonal basalt column at the Svartifoss waterfall, or the "church floor" at Kirkjubaejarklaustur (did I get the spelling right ?) Yes - well done! and other interesting landscape (e.g. a lagoon full of icebergs with a bus-boat going into it) ... all near the coast and the main ring road. There are other active fields, and volcanoes inland, but that requires special cars and skills (I did not go there). I do not know if the prices are now (after the financial crisis) as high as they used to be. I've just been having a look and I would say that prices have probably never been lower. For example, you can book a double room in a 3-star hotel (with breakfast) in Reykjavik (in June next year) for under GBP30. When I went some 20 years ago, I remember paying something like GBP60!! You can now get flights (again in June - start of the summer tourist season) from London for as little as GBP189 return. The Full Circle bus pass (hop on, hop off, wherever you like, valid for 2 months) currently costs something like GBP190 and it will take you to the vast majority of sights in Iceland. Yes, I would say that Iceland offers exceptional value for money at the moment. Gerry |
#15
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volcano tourism
On 2011-12-12 07:20:15 -0600, Jack Campin said:
Campi Flegrei near Naples looks like the best bet to me. Other nominations? I looked and looked and could not find that place! Could you tell me how to get there? (next time I'm in those parts) Mount Vesuvius has a reasonable hike up and along the crater rim and there is a little smoke Similar for the volcano in the caldera at Santorini -- there is a ferr out there and an easy walk around with fuming holes. A travel agency in Fira can arrange to be a part of this. The volcanic glass formations there are really interesting. -- Dan Stephenson http://web.mac.com/stepheda Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too) |
#16
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volcano tourism
I was looking up White Island in New Zealand - you get to it via a 30-mile boat trip and walk straight into a crater full of steaming fumaroles and boiling mudpools. The greatest effort required is climbing up the landing stage. No Lava, but the Wangerei volcanic area on the North Island has lots of fumeroles and mud pots. -- Dan Stephenson http://web.mac.com/stepheda Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too) |
#17
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volcano tourism
On Thu, 15 Dec 2011, Dan Stephenson wrote:
Campi Flegrei near Naples looks like the best bet to me. Other nominations? I looked and looked and could not find that place! "Campi Flegrei" (i.e. more or less "fiery fields") indicates an area immediately NW of Naples, wikipedia is your friend, from a search for "Campi Flegrei" I got to the italian page, and clicking on English you can get this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegraean_Fields The last eruption was Monte Nuovo ("the new mountain") in 1538. For the rest the only activity, rather mild, is at the Solfatara of Pozzuoli (and of course there is slow sismic activity). |
#18
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volcano tourism
Better geological map on the site of our sister institution INGV
http://www.ov.ingv.it/OV/en/storia-e...i-flegrei.html |
#19
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volcano tourism
I was looking up White Island in New Zealand - you get to it
via a 30-mile boat trip and walk straight into a crater full of steaming fumaroles and boiling mudpools. The greatest effort required is climbing up the landing stage. No Lava, but the Wangerei volcanic area on the North Island has lots of fumeroles and mud pots. I grew up in New Zealand and I've been to most of the volcanic spots - Whangarei isn't one of them, its last volcanic activity was 40,000 years ago. (There is no such place as "Wangerei"). They all lie in a wide belt stretching from Mount Taranaki (Egmont) in the south-west to White Island in the north-east. The biggest areas of boiling mud and fuming vents are around Rotorua, particularly Hell's Gate and Whakarewarewa. The noisiest place I've ever been to was the Wairakei geothermal power plant. Miles of pipes coming out of the ground with the steam creating a shattering roar. Clouds of steam billowing up all over the landscape. Anywhere in that part of the country gives you an impression of the forces below your feet that you will never forget. Campi Flegrei is on a similar scale to the big New Zealand volcanic hot spot, and will probably go off with a mega-eruption sooner, but there isn't much to see at ground level at the moment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland mobile 07800 739 557 http://www.campin.me.uk Twitter: JackCampin |
#20
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volcano tourism
On Fri, 16 Dec 2011, Jack Campin wrote:
The noisiest place I've ever been to was the Wairakei geothermal power plant. Miles of pipes coming out of the ground with the steam I forgot to say there are geothermal fields in Tuscany, near Larderello (so called "soffioni boraciferi"). Around Mount Amiata which is a quiescent volcano. Campi Flegrei is on a similar scale to the big New Zealand volcanic hot spot, and will probably go off with a mega-eruption sooner I believe Campi Flegrei are on a lesser scale than anything in New Zealand or Iceland, and quieter, and not high on the risk scale (although I realized this morning on the INGV site there were ignimbrite ('fire rain') events some 300,000 years ago (I thought this sort of truly catastrophic events are rather rare, I heard of the Katmai in Alaska last century, and possibly Deccan in India in geological times). The real risk area (near Naples) is Vesuvius, which is in the middle of a very populated (and "built") area, and it is known for explosive pyroclastic activities (the famous Pompeii eruption), and for which there is regular monitoring and even evacuation plans. Another volcanic risk in Italy is represented by Mount Vavilov and Mount Marsili, under-sea (quiescent) volcano under Thyrrenian Sea, which however could collapse in a landslide and cause a tsunami. |
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