Episode 5We though of visiting the Westman Islands, the main one of these, Heimaey was partially overtaken by a lava flow in 1973 when a huge great fissure opened up right beside the town in January of that year. the eruption continued for around 6 months. Heimaey was and is once more the home port of the largest of Icelands fishing fleets; the whole fleet along with most of the towns people were evacuated off the island and it took a couple of years to get the place back functioning as it was. Only one person lost their life due to the eruption which is rather good considering people trying to save buildings etc were continually showered by hot ash and cinders with some toxic gasses mixed in for good measure. Up to 15metres of ash buried the town and the lava overrun most of the good farming land. Somewhat late in the lava flow high pressure water pumps were brought in from the USA and used to stop the lava from filling the harbour. The lava took years to cool and for that time it was used as a source of heat for heating the towns houses by running pipes through it then around the houses.Anyway, my lot had old information (like them) and thought that the ferry left from Thorlakshofn, so when they called into the Tourist Information at Hveragerthi they were told that the ferry now goes from a new harbour at the nearest point to the islands so they would have about an 80k trip back along the coast to that point. So we went off down there one evening and camped not far from the ferry terminal. Next morning we went along to the terminal, there were many cars in the car park but not a soul around. After waiting a good while someone eventually turned up and we found out that the ferry had been cancelled for the day because of strong winds. Not having any idea when the wind might abate we abandoned the idea of going over to Heimaey for the time being.Instead we made our way north again and toured around the Reykjanes peninsular. We came across three thermal fields, one at Hveragerthi, another one called Seltun and the last called Gunnuhver after the name of a woman who lived near here. there is a geothermal power station near the last one. Each were quite different; at Seltun sulphur had been extracted to use in the manufacture of gunpowder for more than 300 years and the smell of sulphur is strongest at this field. The largest steam/hotwater vent it at Gunnuhver, this vent seems to be getting larger too, we could see that it has almost consumed the old viewing platform. In the 1930’s a Danish journalist moved here and started growing flowers using the steam for heating his greenhouse. It couldn’t have been very successful as he up stakes and went back to Denmark just before WW2 broke out. A little of the foundations of his house remain.The main airport is on this peninsular near the town of Keflavik, it’s really a flattened lava field. Alongside the small harbour is a museum that houses a replica Viking ship. It is said to be identical to the one Leifur Ericsson sailed to Greenland, Newfoundland and probably mainland USA in 1000AD. A direct descendant of Leifur, along with a crew of 8 others sailed this ship over the same route in 2000 to mark the 1000th anniversary. The community in Greenland that was founded by them may still be there, L can’t be sure, but the place they stopped in Newfoundland has been excavated and is now well documented. It seems that is was not really meant to be a permanent settlement but a staging post and somewhere to repair their ships. Only one child was born there as it was mostly men living there. The thing to bear in mind is that all these regions were not as cold then as they are now, and that’s without the global warming that we are experiencing. L wished that would have more effect here as it is just 2-3C degress as she writes this, the wind is howling fiercely, and icy showers are frequent, brrrrrrrr!Spent a day in Reykjavik too, well a few hours anyway. We visited the Hallgrimskirkja, the big modern church that sits on top of the hill and overlooks the city. There is a small old town area but it’s nothing special really, a few older houses with some more modern stuff thrown in. The modern concrete and glass Townhall looks a bit of a monstrosity from most angles, however, when seen from across the ‘pond’ it almost appears to be floating on water. We took in the Volcano show while here too. This was a couple of films on the volcanos and where L learnt some of that info she imparted to you at the start on Heimaey. One of the films was on that eruption and the other covered the Eyiafjallajokul eruption of 2010. that”s the one that grounded air traffic across Europe for 5 or 6 days while jet engine experts debated whether or not the volcanic ask would harm such engines. It seems that the ash form this eruption had a particular compound in it that most other eruptions don’t have. My lot were stranded in Seoul during that event, that was BM (before me).To finish a tiring day of street walking we retired to the thermal beach nearby and partook of the ‘hot pot’, well not me, i’m not allowed to get wet. Now we are venturing into the north west of the country. We did try to visit some lava tubes en route but the roads are still closed. We did see a quite unusual waterfall, and that’s really saying something for this country that has so many of them. It is several hundred metres wide and the water comes out from under an upper layer of lava, then flows over a cascade of different levels into the rushing river below. Just up stream of that the same stream drops into a narrow canyon over a series of cascades, it churns it’s way through that canyon in a tumult of white water called the ‘cauldron’, an apt description. There is one stone arch over the water that we could see but there used to be another, that is until it was destroyed because two children were apparently washed off it on one Christmas day in the 1800’s. No-one can say for sure that that is exactly what happened to the children as no-one saw what happened. It seems they were left at home by themselves while their parents went off to Christmas mass and were found to be missing when the parents returned. Nothing says whether or not the bodies were ever recovered but from the look of that stream that seems quite an unlikely outcome, but further downstream it is quite shallow so they may well have been found there. No ages were giver either.Our weather continues to be inclement. L read that the average temperature for May is 10C, so either we are getting a very cold May or the last few days are going to be really hot because we have only got to 10C one day and that wasn’t for long. 5-7C seems to have been about our average. It was a bitterly cold, wet, windy day when we headed out along the Snaefellsnes peninsular. When it came to long walks to see things then my lot opted to give them a miss. We saw the high lava stacks from a distance, if they had opted to walk there they may well still be trying to do so, coming back would not have been a problem. We all did venture onto the black sand beach where the ‘lifting stones' are to be found. these lifting stones, there used to be 4 of them, a 5th one has now appeared. They weigh 23kg, 54kg, 100kg, 154kg and fishermen used to use them to test the strength of would be crew. There are lots of bit of rusting metal strew around here, they are all that remain of the English fishing boat the Eding that was wrecked here in 1948 with the loss of 14 of its 19 crew.In Stykkisholmur there is a lovely harbour and a ferry from here that services an island in Breithafjordur, Flatey, but it wasn’t the day to go exploring historic islands either. We did go and have a look at the very modern church that sits on a hill top overlooking the town.As we travelled around the coastal roads we kept a look out for seals in the skerries but have yet to spot any. There are a great many geese and/or swans in fields, the really white thing in the fields are these birds, the sheep, mostly ewes with lambs range in colour from a dirty grey to black. Grayling geese often fly overhead and are very noisy. Very few cattle in this area but there are plenty of Icelandic ponies. Just what all these ponies are used for is a total mystery.On the last day of May my lot had booked a trip to go down into a volcanic crater. this trip had cost a great deal of money and so expectations were high. We had to return to Reykjavik because the trip left from there to a crater on the Reykjanes peninsular. finally the weather had a change for the better and it was quite a lovely morning with some cloud but only a light breeze. The temperature finally reached the average of 10C, perhaps it will warm up a little more in June.Off we set on the bus at 10am on Sunday morning, 9 tourists, 2 guides (both young girls) and the bus driver, Oh me too. We headed out of the city and up towards the ski fields. The ski lift is still operating, possibly for the last time, however, it usually closes around the end of April, so our guide told us. It was at a ski hut that we got off the bus and met the other 6 tourists who were to make up our group, they had made their own way to this meeting point. Four lads from Texas had planned to do so, the other couple had missed the bus back in Reykjavik so had made their own way here fortunately they had a hire car in which to do so.From this point we had a 3k walk across wet slushy snow through a lava field to a base camp where we could have refreshments and get kitted up for our descent. L says it was dam hard work that 3k walk. The snow is mostly more than ankle deep and because it is melting it’s very soft so you sink right in with each step. I was with L urging her on, though we nearly ended up face down in the snow, just as well she was using her walking pole otherwise we both would have come to grief I fear. We all felt we’d earned a hot cuppa by the time we’d reached the base camp. Our guide kept telling us how lucky we were because only the previous day it had been raining and very windy and that walk would not have been near so easy or pleasant under such circumstances.Every one was required to wear a harness and a helmut so thus equipped (I hid in L’s coat) we walked up to the top of small crater where there was a platform and lift. The entrance to the crater is quite small. Each person’s harness was attached to a rope on the walkway, then changed to another rope on the lift. The lift was just large enough to carry 6 visitors and the lift driver. And so we descended the 120m into the ‘bowels of the earth’, an empty magma chamber. Such a chamber is extremely rare.The most striking thing about it really is the colour of the rock. To some extent they are created by the oxidisation of the minerals in the rock but also by the heat of the magma when the volcano erupted about 4500 years ago. We all hoped it wasn’t about to wake up just now. Also the rocks were very heavy relative to their size.Those colour were blues, reds, greens, purples and lots in between. L fears that the photos didn’t come out very well at all. Using the flash drowned out the colours and without the flash everything was blurred.. Also D was in charge of the camera and he seems to ration its use according to L. L had her hands full trying to negotiate her way around in the bottom. It wasn’t flat, it was very steep on one side before dropping off another 83m to the bottom of a deeper hole. We could walk around without going too near that edge but it meant scrambling over rocks both large and small.The melting snow on the top was almost like a waterfall here in the bottom, so I got a little wet despite all efforts to keep me dry. It really is quite awesome to be in such a place and we thoroughly enjoyed our 30 minutes down here.Upon return to the base camp my lot enjoyed a bowl of lamb stew that had been prepared by one of the guides, they needed it to give them the energy for the 3k walk through the wet snow back to the car park and the bus. The patchy snow covered mountains are really pretty. Our bus driver had lived on the Westman Islands, his parents and grand parents homes are both under around 15m of lava.I have made some new friends with the guides. One of the girls had spent a year in Victoria as an exchange student, and another had been to Queensland, Brisbane and Cairns but we didn’t get to hear more from her.We arrived back in the city around 4pm and the place was extremely busy, my lot have never seen it so busy. It seems that everyone comes into town on a Sunday.We asked about some of the interior roads, about when they would be likely to open. It seems that perhaps not until late June. This year Iceland has had the coldest May for 36 years. the first day of June started out lovely, with bright sunshine and no wind. We enjoyed cornflakes for break instead of warm porridge. The lovely weather didn’t last the day:© Lynette Regan 1st June 2015