Mountain Biking on Mt. Etna

We left the port of Civitavechia on very rough seas, but sometime during the night the sea calmed so we enjoyed our 11 a.m. arrival in the port of Messina, Sicily.

Our excursion for the first day of our cruise was Mountain Biking Mount Etna with Canoli Tasting.  This was the first excursion we chose and we were really looking forward to riding on an active volcano!  Not many brave souls joined us - a total of 13 cruisers were in our van with our guide, Sarah, and driver, Salvatore.  It was about an hour drive, and Sarah was a perfect mix of sharing information but not talking endlessly.  Salvatore was an excellent driver in spite of traffic and a very windy mountain road.  During our drive, we saw smoke on Mt. Etna and knew an eruption was taking place.

The top of Mt. Etna is an elevation of just over 10,000 feet.  We drove almost half way up and met our cycling tour at  Rifugio Ragabo at 4600 feet.

We were shown our bikes and told to give them a test ride in the parking lot.  Most of us needed a seat adjustment, but then we were ready to go.  As ready to go as we could be...

Our two guides, Una and Sergio, are mountain bike racers and they greatly overestimated our abilities.  We started riding and it was like watching a bunch of toddlers run around in a circle. As soon as the first one goes down, they all go down - like dominoes!  Nobody actually went down, but there were many false starts before we got spread out and into somewhat of a rhythm.

We quickly started climbing.  Up, up, up.  At one point everyone but our guides and Les were walking our bikes!  We regrouped and starting climbing again...

Hi Una!

When we took off again, Les made sure he was at the front to avoid the dominoes.  I tried to stay close to him and actually got in a good climbing mode.  At our next regroup, only Una, Les, and one other guy were there before me.

Unfortunately, several of the group were back to walking their bikes again so the decision was made to turn around and look for an "easier" route.  Riding downhill?  No problem, right?  Wrong!  Remember, we were on an active volcano.  While no lava was currently flowing our way, the terrain was very tough.  It started with small gravel, then we made a turn to our "easier" route and the trail was full of large rocks and roots.  I had to walk for about half a mile and could barely stay upright just walking my bike!

The remainder of the ride was full of starts and stops for me.  I am a cautious rider and try to keep space between me and the rider ahead of me.  Unfortunately, it became crystal clear that most of our group had never actually ridden a mountain bike before.  They had no awareness of those around them and would just stop in the middle of the trail, which meant whoever was behind them would have to stop because there was no way to safely ride around them.  Once again, the toddler domino effect!  We were very fortunate that no one was seriously hurt.  As far as I know, only one person actually went down but she was okay.  I will say, Una and Sergio were extremely patient with all of us. 

After 5.18 miles and a little over 800 feet of climbing, we were back to Rifugio Ragabo.   Una, Sergio, and the bike company owner, Daniello, were very open to our comments and helpful criticism.  I think the real problem was how the ride was described on the cruise website.  "Enjoy an exhilarating mountain bike ride on Mt. Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe."  Sounds fun, right?

Here's where the problem came from.  Every excursion that Les and I booked was labeled "strenuous," including this one.  All of our other tours were walking tours that included walking over "varying terrain."  One of the riders coined the phrase "cruise strenuous."  I think that's what we all were expecting, not real life strenuous!  We told Daniello they needed to look for a slightly easier route and the description needed to say something like "technical, rocky trail" so people would really know what they were getting into. This is the first time they have worked with a cruise line - most of their tours are people who are there on cycling trips.  I think most of the riders expected to be on paved roads.

Daniello, Una, and Sergio

We survived!  And we were rewarded with amazing canoli - chocolate and pistachio.

No regrets for me.  I didn't crash and it really was fun. Tough, but fun!  I hope they will be able to work the kinks out and make this a great adventure for future groups.

Do you mountain bike?  Are you a single track rider or do you prefer smoother trails?  The trail we have at home is not super technical but I would have been fine on this ride with a group of cyclists who had a little more experience.