Iceland: LAVA!!!

 From Saturday, September 19th

When I got up my first morning in the campground, I got dressed in my campervan, put stuff away, and then headed west.  I knew somewhere west there was an erupting volcano.  I knew roughly where it was and just hoped I would find it.  And boy did I ever!  But before I got there I wandered through Krysuvik Geothermal Area and past Kleifarvatn.  This area what amazing.  Two very different colors: the black of lava and the green of plantlife.  Some of the plants in one area I walked, when I couldn’t avoid them, were very spongy.  Like, if I needed to make a bed out of nature, I’d go with whatever those plants were.  I drove partway up the lake before turning around (because I didn’t want to end up back in Reykjavik). 

Kleifarvatn

On the way back south, I stopped at the Krysuvik Geothermal Area, which I had bypassed on my way up along the lake.  This area had a lot more of the bubbling mudpots and some boiling water just coming from the ground.  There was a boardwalk area to walk around.  I made the decision not to hike up higher on a trail because I still had a volcano to see!  No geysers here.

Getting a good whiff of sulphur at Krysuvik Geothermal Area

I continued east and saw a sign that was literally just a red mountain peak and a “P” for parking.  I didn’t realize what it was until I passed it.  I figured I’d turn around at the next place I could and go back.  But instead I found another parking lot.  I traded my regular coat for a rain coat because it looked like rain was threatening.  I also put my raincover on my backpack and rainpants in my bag, and headed out for the Fagradalsfjall volcano.  I was about half way to the viewpoint when it started sprinkling, so on went my rainpants (good choice on bringing those on the hike, Krystina).  I came around a corner and in my view was red-orange down the side of a mountain.  LAVA!!!  It was so exciting!  I’ve never seen an active volcano before!  

OMG IT'S LAVA!!!

I continued up the viewpoint hill.  It was the steepest hiking I’ve done since coming back from Kilimanjaro.  I just kept going pole pole (slowly slowly, in Swahili) up the hill.  I could have gone farther, but decided I didn’t think the view would change much from higher up (and I’m no longer in Kili hiking shape).  I took a bunch of pictures and just looked.  From where I was standing you could see black at the bottom of the valley, areas of red closer to the top, and mixed areas in between.  Vapor was rising from some areas of hardening lava down at the bottom.  People were everywhere.  It was crazy.  Some were even standing on the cooled lava (I feel like that was a rather stupid thing to do).  

Even in the rain, Trylla enjoyed seeing the volcano.

From the viewpoint I went down to the valley to the lava field.  I didn’t walk on it because I’m not dumb, but I did touch it.  The area I touched was very hard and cold.  It also wasn’t black.  It was more of a blue-grey-black color (heavier on the blue), which surprised me.  I’m not sure why it wasn’t black or charcoal grey like other lava fields I’ve seen.  Some of the hardened lava at what had obviously been the leading lava pushing out at some point recently, had picked up rocks on the way; like it had been trying to shove them out of the way.  In some areas it also had wrinkles.

The blue-grey-black lava.  Definitely more blue than black.

I made my way around the lava field to the other side.  I wanted to go partway up that side.  Truth be told, I wasn’t completely sure I was supposed to or should, but there were a couple hundred other people in front of me so I decided to.  I made my way to near where there was still some fresh lava slowly oozing its way down.  You could hear it.  Part of what I was hearing was it pushing cooling lava out of the way, but I’m not sure that was all I was hearing.  It was neat.  Just as I was leaving It looked like some Iceland patrol of some sort was starting to try to corral some people and move them away.  As I headed back to my car the rain turned from a light drizzle to a more steady rain.  I said after Kilimanjaro I would never intentionally go hiking in the rain again, but here I am.  But it has rained at least some part of every day I’ve been here.  It is just that prior to Saturday it was either at night or when I was inside somewhere.  Good thing my shoes are waterproof, and I have rain gear.

LAVA!!!

After the volcano I headed even further west.  My goal was the southwestern-most part of Iceland.  I got as close to Reykjanesta as I could without paying the 1000 kr fee...which mostly meant I just stopped and took a picture of the lighthouse from the road.  It was raining and windy and I didn’t really think I’d want to get out and explore the point more in that weather, so I didn’t think that 1000 kr would go to good use.  

My last part of the journey was to go to the place that is known as “The Bridge Between Two Continents”.  The reason Iceland is so active is because it sits on the edge of two tectonic plates: North American and Eurasian.  Here the two plates are pulling apart.  The Bridge Between Two Continents is a fancy little bridge that bridges the two plates.  Kind of cool and if it hadn’t been raining cats and dogs, I might have done a little more walking around instead of going, taking a photo, and running back to the car.  

Bridge Between Two Continents (in the rain)

That last point was the turning point, literally.  From there I turned and headed back east.  I stopped at a bakery in Grindavik and got a cinnamon roll.  I was really hoping maybe they’d also have sandwiches or something because some of the others I’ve stopped at in Reykjavik did, but this was just a normal baked goods bakery.  The cinnamon roll was very good.  I stopped in Thorlakshofn for some gas (I’ve already driven roughly 500 km).  That was an adventure, but I figured it out in the end.  One thing to note about Iceland is self-serve gas pumps require a chip & pin card.  Most US credit cards are chip & signature and won’t work.  Luckily my debit card doesn’t have any foreign transaction fees, so it worked just fine (yay for CapitalOne 360 Checking!).  I passed back through Selfoss where I spent last night and finally made it to Hvolsvollur (I have no clue how to say it).  I couldn’t find anywhere to check in, but the campground looked open and there were a few other campers here, so I picked a spot and settled in.  My raingear is drying (inside because it is raining outside again).  No northern lights so far because its just been rain and cloulds at night.

It’s been interesting because some parts of Iceland could be Kansas, but other most definitely aren’t.  Other random observations...their stop lights go green, yellow, red, red/yellow, green.  I think I’ve seen 3 stop signs so far.  They are all about the roundabouts and yield signs.  Nearly every house or apartment has a balcony even though it is cold much of the year.  Also, I noticed in the city where there are a lot of apartments that most had a small window open.  It didn’t hit me until I was at the guesthouse sleeping with a window open that this is probably because of radiator heating making it too hot inside.  It looks as if they build their apartments with a small window, often an upper section of a large multi-pane window (because you know heat rises), purposely for this.  The hot water here comes out of the faucet extreely hot immediately, but also has a very sulfury smell.  So perhaps shower in hot water and then rinse in cold?