An easy morning waiting for our 1pm tour to see the aftermath of the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Pronounced "a ya fat ga yo gul" - the volcano that caused so much disruption to air traffic over Europe in April 2010.
We slept in then had a lazy breakfast in the hotel restaurant. It is raining quite heavily this morning so we hope that it improves for the tour. The weather in Reykjavik can change so quickly and be different here in the city to that in the south west coastal area where we were yesterday and where we are headed again today.
Well, the weather didn't get any better. The drive over the mountain to the coastal area was in cloud, so much so that the visibility was only about 20-30 metres, judging by the roadside markers and the fact that oncoming vehicles were not visible until they had almost gone past.
We were in a high mounted jeep with huge wheels and we soon found out why. We left the main raid and headed around the base of the volcano, across volcanic ash strewn fields, over fast flowing water, across snowy ridges and up towards what had been a lagoon at the base of the glacier. The vehicle was bouncing around, in and out of ditches, across snow/ice drifts. It was still raining and the wind was howling.
When Eyjafjallajokull erupted it blew from under the glacier and caused, as well as the ash, a huge flood as the lagoon was forced up and raced down the valley.
Now driving using his GPS we arrived at what was the lagoon, a large circular expanse like a hollow area. It was easy to see how this impacted on those living on the coastal area down the hill. Driving on and up the side of the volcano we finally came to the area where the eruption surfaced. Not like a crater but in this case a huge crack, like a high gorge in the side of the mountain. This is where the rocks, lava and ash blew up from. It was quite special to be so close to this. We could not get any closer than about 100 metres, mainly because of the snow and sink holes. The guide says that it is possible to hear ice breaking off from the glacier and falling into the heated area and hear hissing, and see steam. However, it was still raining and the wind was blowing very strongly so not today.
Still we felt it a special place and enjoyed the experience and well worth the journey.
The photo shows the opening from which the eruption surfaced, pushing up the surrounding glacier and from which lava, rocks and ash was forced into the sky.