Iceland 2.25: Landmannalauger 3

The drive back to Hrauneyjar from Landmannalaugar took us through the Fjallabak National Park, which is a truly astonishing volcanic landscape.  There are cones and lava fields everywhere, and looking down from the top of one of the hills gives some sense of the upheaval which the area has suffered in the recent past.  Possibly the most impressive sight was a "glacier" of lava which had flowed down a valley and into a lake.

I was delighted to see that Icelandic buses still seem to be sponsored by that well known maker of vegetable fat...

The weather cleared for a while, so we decided to go on a slight detour to see if we could find anything interesting.  This took us behind one of the larger volcanic cones and into an area which was used by the locals for grazing sheep.

It's the kind of place which attracts Testosterone Tourism too, and several large vehicles passed us while we were admiring the scenery.

The closer we got to Hrauneyjar the more the weather closed in, and by the time we reached the hotel it was pelting down.  This was a common sight on our previous trip to Iceland in 2013, but we'd got off remarkably lightly on this holiday.  Possibly something to do with the unseasonably cold summer?

Iceland 2.19: Krafla 2

The closer we got to the site of the Krafla Fires, the bleaker the landscape became.  As well as barren and broken rock as far as the eye could see, the whole area was steaming quietly to itself.  It was also very grey, and the only real colour was provided by green moss and the occasional pinky/orange rock which looked for all the world like buried house bricks.  Every photographer should have a spouse with a red jacket, and the first image demonstrates that I am no exception.

Every so often we found a solitary plant clinging to existence among the lava, but this was the exception rather than the rule.  In most areas it was moss or - usually - nothing.

The next few images include people, and hopefully give some idea as to the scale of the place.  Talk about post-apocalyptic...

The last few images are of some of the people we met while walking around the lava fields.  The lady with the camera is clearly not Russian - partly because she wasn't travelling as part of a herd, but mainly because she knows exactly how to use a lens hood.  As for the little boy with his hand over one of the many volcanic vents, his sense of wonder sums up everything I felt in visiting this place.  It was exactly how I imagined Iceland would be when I first saw news footage of Surtsey and Heimæy as a child back in the '60s and '70s.  Truly magical.

Iceland 2.18: Krafla 1

The following day dawned dull and grey, but thankfully it was no longer tipping down.  Mývatn was like a mirror in the calm conditions; and, because there was no sun to prompt them to hatch, the lakeside was mercifully free of midges.

The plan for the morning was to visit Krafla, which is only a short drive from Reykjahlíð.  We'd visited the main volcano caldera and power station on our previous trip, so this time we decided to go for a walk to the large geothermal area which was the site of the Krafla Fires: a series of fissure eruptions and magma movements which happened between December 1975 and September 1984.  Not very long ago in geological time, in other words.

Some of the older lava is now covered in mosses and lichens, but there are still plenty of places consisting of bare rock.  A few straggly plants had managed to gain a foothold in the hostile environment, but nothing of any size.

Evidence of volcanic activity was everywhere, and the ground was steaming in places as we approached the site of the most recent eruption.

We were expecting other visitors at a place as famous as Krafla, but it soon became clear that the number of people wielding expensive camera equipment was rather higher than normal.  They turned out to be Homo photographicus rutheniensis - a bunch of Russians on a photographic tour of Iceland.  Very well equipped, but they all had one thing in common: not one of them seemed to know what a lens hood was for...

The rather ominous pall arising in the distance is not an impending volcanic eruption, but steam coming from the nearby geothermal power station.