Day 42: Lava caves, crashed planes, black sands oh my!
We have arrived in Iceland! we woke at 4:20am, checked out of the Radisson Blu and walked across the street to get our bus to the airport. We were there within 20 minutes, bag tag printed and through security within 10. We had a nice 1hr flight from Tromsø to Oslo. And then a 3hr flight from Oslo to Reykjavik. Iceland is 2hrs behind so it’s as if we have been up since 2:20am so I’ll do the best I can here!
We took a shuttle bus to our car rental and within 15 minutes or so we were up and running. Mark rented a Jeep, please let that be stated for the record :)
It has a camper van on top. Will he fit? What is everyone’s wager?
Once we got in our Jeep today around half 11, we hit the ground running! We drove about 120 miles today. We headed a bit SE and our first stop was a lava cave. It was soooo cool! ;) We learned that there are two kinds of volcanoes: erupting and effusive. There is a volcano currently erupting in Iceland. We plan to see in on Weds, before our flight, if conditions are still safe. The erupting volcanoes are the typical pointy ones everyone’s mind conjures up. The effusive volcanoes are flat, their lava spews and creates veins on lava running from the volcano. When the lava is exposed to the cool environment it cools, hardens and becomes black. But there is still lava flowing under that black layer. Our guide was hilarious and needs her own standup!
The below caves were made exclusively from lava from an effusive volcano that erupted for 3-6yrs 5000 years ago. Crazy!
The red marks are iron, the gold sulfur and the white volcano bacteria! NASA studied this very cave a few years ago because that bacteria may be the life we potentially find on Mars as it is volcanic. So cool!
Next, we stopped at a gigantic, ginormous, high, spluttering waterfall! It was beautiful but I know nothing about it hence the excessive use of adjectives.
Then, we drove 20 minutes to a crashed plane. It was a US plane that crashed her in 1973. Other details are varying online so hang tight till we get to the bottom of it. It was a 4mi hike out and back to it. We arrived to the parking lot at 5pm. We were hungry and tired but we wanted to see this plane so we power walked and got it all done with 1hr 10mins. We were impressed with our timing and accomplishment. Now it was dinner time!
We drove another hour to dinner and had a lovely meal at Systrakaffi. One of the best mushroom tagliatelle in cream sauces I have ever had. Each mushroom was different and bursting with flavor. Mark got a burger and the fries were perfectly seasoned.
We had one more hour drive to our campsite, arriving at 9pm. Our 6hrs of driving today have been absolutely majestic. The landscape has already diversified so much. Some green hills make me second guess that I’m not in Ireland. Other mountains are jagged and gray or dark black. There are glaciers that ascend above the cloud cover and it’s impossible to see where they end. It’s spiritual and awe inspiring. Caol Ait (pronounced kale oct) in Gaelic, meaning thin veil. That’s a place where the space between us and divinity is just a thin veil. I love that.
I hope everyone else is well. We miss you, and think of you often! Looking forward to sharing the rest of our stories in person! Night night!
M+D