Last night the area that I'd been driving through went seismic!!!
A known and well observed fissure blew! It's closed down the area and all roads to Grindavik and the blue lagoon!
Sadly I'm too far East and behind a mountain range to see the glow!
I have to make do with old eruptions today!
A lazy start the time zones adjustment is only marginal but it makes me want to chill for a bit, most of the morning!
Still I get going eventually taking routes 42,38 and 39 to the Raufarholsollin lava tube!
Turning up without appointment worked ok and I only waited 10 minutes to join the 2pm tour!
If id understood the cost 8900 Icelandic kroner I'd probably have not bothered £49!!!
But how often do you walk through a lava tube? Experience is better than the expense.... Just!
A short walk and we're in the tube! In a few places the ceiling has collapsed allowing the winters snows to gather in huge cones! Makes for interesting photos!
further in the tube waking along a raised platform the floor is thick with ice stalagmites!
then passing red rock where the iron rich stone has rusted!
Passing on further you can see the last layers of volcanic glass that still layer the walls
onto a platform all lights are off and pure darkness.... And silence not even an echo!
Meaning bats don't live in the tube.. No echo location no flight!
The only constant life form here is white bacteria in patches of the roof
occasional birds nest in summer and mice... But that's it
Literally that is it! The tour goes no farther! Back over the platform
And into the ice stalagmites is have a play with using my head torch to illuminated the structure of the ice...
rather Easter egg like that last one!
Back through the 400 meters of tunnel that had been created by an eruption over 6 miles away thousands of years ago, and I'm back at the center and into the van.
An expensive short walk!!
Off again along routes 38,1 and 35 to Kerid crater where three craters are in a line the major one
And to the south two considerably smaller ones!
A nice little visit, but after Vesuvius not so long ago it fails to impress! But that's just me! It shouldn't stop anyone with fresher eyes having a look.... It's pretty cheap to visit, so worthwhile!.
Back down route 35 and 1 to Selfoss a small town with a campsite and I'm cooking pork chops and pasta for dinner! Bloody lovely!!
That keeps me warm all night!
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