Days 15 and 16 - A hot, wet and windy ending

 I woke up on Day 15 in a wet and slightly cold campsite in Reykjavik... I had booked a trip out to see the volcano and the omens... specifically the cloud layer, the mist and the drizzle were not the best conditions if one hoped to see the volcano crater...

I waited at the bus stop outside the campsite, getting impatient when we were almost an hour beyond the pick up time... apparently some of the other punters weren't where they were supposed to be. Anyway, finally in the coach and on my way to Grindavik for the second time in 2 weeks. The drizzle became a downpour, became torrential and it became less and less likely we were going to see anything.

The guide was also of this opinion because he basically said, there is no point going up to the viewpoint, you won't see anything. We will just go down to the old lava fields... At this I piped up..

 I know I'm generally the shy and retiring type, but weather changes here quickly and just not bothering to try and see  the crater when I had paid to try and see the crater rankled slightly... after I spoke up, the guide agreed to climb up to the first viewpoint and as we got out of the bus, one of the other punters said thank you for speaking up... we had all been thinking the same thing.

It didn't look good however... I was very glad I'd brought my rain trousers because within minutes everything was soaked... gloves, coat, and every layer under that!

We climbed up the steep side to the viewpoint... unfortunately the guode was correct and the volcano crater, whilst there somewhere, was not within visibility range, i. e a few feet... so we trudged and slid back down and headed towards the old lava field. The guide was content to just hang around this point but fortunately. for us a lovely lady who had come back from. further up the lava field was grinning away and showed us photos of red flowing lava and told. us where to find it. If it hadn't been for her I don't think our guide would have helped us much, he seemed content with the old black lava!

Without waiting to hear from him, many of us took off like jack rabbits and bounded down the path to where the lady had come. from... it wasn't that far, maybe ten to fifteen minutes of walking. alongside the black. lava.

Steam was hissing off the lava rising in. great clouds, reminding us that although it was black, it was still pretty bloody hot. The hissing as the rain hit the black lava and turned instantly into. steam was prwtty impressive but not as impressive as the sight that greeted us a bit further up the trail...

Real, flowing, hot, red, lava!

It was impressive and hot... very hot, extremely hot.

I know Lava is by definition hot, but nothing quite prepares you for how hot. Even froma few feet away it burned any exposed skin so we had to move further. Steam was coming off us as our wet clothes immediately dried in the face of such heat... and the Lava itself. was mesmerising! The way it slowly bubbled and flowed and broke up and collapsed and then flowed a bit more... oozed out of the darker bits to flow down the hill only to darken as the rain cooled it a little bit then to ooze some more.

The shapes and the patterns within the lava were spectacular and I could have stood there all day... as it was we probably were staring at it for over an hour, transfixed at a sight that we may never be lucky enough to. see again. I wasn't even disappointed that we hadn't seen the crater bubbling as we had been able to get far closer to the lava this way and it's not. often that you can say you. were a few feet from actual Lava!

Eventually we had to go, trudged back to the bus, soaked through. All my clothes that I possessed were now wet through and  I sat on the bus trying to dry off. It didn't work and I got back to the campsite still wet through!

I grabbed a coffee and some coins for the dryer, changed into my cycling trousers and then threw everthing else into the dryer! Eventually it was dry and I could warm up again. I crawled into my tent and snuggled into my sleeping bag...

The next day, I awoke to more rain, wind. and generally unpleasant coldness... Iceland in its true glory, unlike the blazing sunshine of last week. I packed up quickly and headed out onto the road. Getting out of the city and going towards the airport in Keflavik.

I was hoping for a bike path that was like the one. going northwards... and I wasn't disappointed. It wound. along the river and then next to the main road for a bit and generally was fantastic... and then I lost the signs and the way a little but found  myself in a charming town just south of the city, with lots of sea birds and geese hovering around near the river.

I left that and got back on route... cycling. alongside the 41... and then the path disappeared leaving. me. with little choice but to get on the main road... it was fine. Not. huge amounts of traffic, nice wide hard shoulder to cycle on... the one big problem was the wind.

I had left the shelter of the city and was now at the mercy of the wind which was slightly head on but mainly side wind and battling that took everything I had left out of me. Mile after mile, I leaned into the wind.. until a truck went past, temporarily removing the side wind, sucking me. in towards it and then spitting me out of the back... good fun.

I was going through the old lava fields and after yesterday had a greater appreciation for how they were formed but it was flat and there was nothing to stop the wind battering me. There was a rainbow though which made me smile! Eventually I reached my campsite for the night.

Then the fun began. The wind was literally howling across the campsite, with absolutely no shelter in which to pitch the tent, so I'm trying to put it up and as fast as I can put the poles in and start stretching over the flysheet, the wimd had ripped it out of my hands and pulled the poles out. Eventually I decided to pitch the inner part of the tent first. in the hope that that would give the tent some wind resistance until I could get the outer bit over it... it kinda worked and eventually I had a standing tent... how long that would last with the wind battering it, I wasn't sure.

And so I spent the night being kept awake by the howling wind and my tent withstood it exceptionally well (thank you msr).. the only. downside is somewhere within all the battling to get the tent up, the bag to put the tent in seems to have disappeared, presumably carried away by the wind when I wasn't looking. I may find it when I pack up but otherwise the zip ties I brought with me will come in handy for sure.

And thus endeth this adventure. Thank you for following along, for your comments and questions. I will do a quick kit blog for anyone interested in the near future... otherwise...

 Fight the Fear

Embrace the Randomness

but above all...

Go With The CraZy!