I am so mad because of the sleepless night I have had, but I try to see the bright side and I decide to see the sunrise. It is fantastic to see the moon , the sun rising from the sea and then see its red trail left on the still morning water .
We leave the refuge around 9, we walk past the wood as described in the page dedicated to Cubanìa path, with the only difference that we do not go towards monte Rinatu. We get to the start of the path of Sartorius mounts, and we walk on its western side, as described on its page. We observe the craters and the volcanic bombs. We get to what for me is Etna's tallest pine tree , together with the forest ranger that shows to us the old incisions in the ancient trees . The path continues to the west, towards the CAI refuge of monte Baracca and once we cross the torrent "40 hours" (locally called "Sciambro") we continue towards the north, until we reach the skiing area in piano Provenzana, this is a sign that we have almost reached the refuge. We are halfway and we have walked for 12km and gone up 500m.
We leave Piano Provenzana soon after lunch. Unfortunately, like yesterday the most difficult part of the track is done under the scorching sun, walking on the flows of the still forest . We follow the signs to the Timpa Rossa refuge, crossing the wood and encountering a few "pietrecannone" (holes left in the lava by trees which have been covered and burnt by the magma). We reach the refuge Timpa Rossa , where we stop once again.
We start on the red earth which gives the name to the mount, we cross the “altomontana“ track at the grotta dei Lamponi height and we continue towards the monte Spagnolo refuge. We go past the "rope lava" of passo dei Dammusi (unique on Etna) and the refuge Santa Maria .
When you look around you notice that a few old craters are hosting one type of plant only:
- Beech
- Pines
- Broomx
I wonder what this might be due to: the winds, the type of lava, the age...
It starts to get dark and this time I want to set up the tent withouth being in hurry. At the fork we turn left (to the right you would go to the Saletti refuge) and after a while walking on an old lava flow , we reach the refuge. I ca set up the tent and also tonight enjoy a nice dinner prepared by the forest rangers.
During the night I finally manage to sleep: after 2 days and almost 60 km i sleep for 6h, until some animals in the wood wake me up. I suppose it is ok, we are the intruders in their house!Difficulty: high
Difference in height: 1200 m
Maximum height: 2000 m
Length: 20 km
Duration of journey: 7 - 10 hours
Suggested season: spring
Technical equipment : required