The Big Little VW Camper Tour: Day 72 & 73 Boiling hot pools, lava fields, sulphur smells and volcanoes

Day 72 & 73 Boiling hot pools, lava, sulphur and volcanoes...... 2 wheel drive good, 4 wheel drive better

Day 72

Early morning, Kate and I walked along the beach beside a flat calm sea before everyone woke up and then we were packed and headed off to Myvatn lake and Krafla volcano which last erupted in the 1970’s.

More gravel roads for the van – the noise from the creaking front suspension is now intrusive at any speed less then 30 mph so it just feels better to keep the speed up and pretend everything is OK.

Boiling sulphur pools - my they smell

1970's lava flow

It was properly cold when we set off for a walk around the lava fields which are huge and mightily impressive. Sulphur and steam clouds all around then off through the twisted black lava fields – the rain started on the way back and with a headwind it was a route march back to the van.

Viti Crater and the power plant behind

The collective appetite for another walk up to the Viti Crater (full of aquarmarine water)starting with wet clothes was low so I ran around before driving back down past the geothermal power station ( 60MW).

underground hot pool

Poncho twins

Before we get to the village we make a short detour to a natural hot spring pool found right on a fault line – at 46 deg C it is now forbidden to use it as it is too warm but the reality is that it could be used but the tourist numbers are rising so rapidly they are having to put some controls in just to keep tourists safe. On earlier walks there were multiple warnings not to stray from the paths after adventurous tourists have done so in the past and have found themselves up to their knees in boiling mud at 200 deg C – an unpleasant end indeed.

A wild camp is always followed by a campsite to as 2 nights away from hot water and showers is too much; so after our night alone by the beach we camp at a campsite right in the middle of a lava field above the lake. A good spot for people watching with all sorts of unique 4 by 4’s to ogle at, the usual smattering of BMW GS 120’s ( The Ewan McGregor/Charlie Boardman one form ‘long way down/round), a rogue Frenchman in a rally Citroen 2CV (with roll-cage) and lots and lots of backpackers from all over Europe.

Myvatn Lake - stupendous

The area is one you could spend a whole week in. There is so much to see and it is clear that Iceland is really getting its tourism act together. We are using a 2004 ‘Iceland Rough Guide’ and even on day 3 of Iceland I am finding that each place we go to has changed in some way.....more paths, a new cafe, a new restaurant, a tourist info centre, a campsite, a new tunnel for a new road. Iceland is still expensive but not as it was 10 years ago when it was just ridiculous. Surprisingly petrol costs the same as it does in the UK but a load of bread is £3 and a pack of cheese needs a new mortgage. Most other foods are perhaps 30% to 50% more than they cost in the UK with Alcohol even more ( our multiple duty free wine and beer purchases have come in handy !) but all in all it is not the prohibitive place it was once made out to be. Tourism is clearly taking off and they have so much to show off - it is akin to a massive Scotland but on a grander scale, with glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes, hot springs, fjords, etc, etc....

I knew I would love it here and I do more than I could have imagined. If you have driven the 70 miles up the A82 from the top of Loch Lomond to Ballachulish ( just before Fort William) over Rannoch Moor and down through Glencoe then you will know that it is a route that you cannot drive without a smile on your face – a fast long open road with supreme views and stunning scenery. Iceland has that road, but there is less traffic on it and as it is such a big island there are probably 100’s of them or more, all magnificent, all supreme and all different in their own way.

Day 73

Hverfjall Crater

Next morning we all have hot sulphurous showers ( communal......nice) before packing up and driving just a few Km before taking a 2 hour walk up and around the full top of an almost perfect shaped 1 Km diameter circular volcano caldera.

Selfie time

normal

not so normal

We do our final stop off at some ‘pseudo craters’ which are just like mini versions of what we had just walked around; only 50m across they are formed from a steam explosion when the area was volcanically active.

We head off further westwards and call in at Akuyeri which is the 2^nd largest town in Iceland on a quest to get some camping gas. There is no real way of knowing how much gas we have left and as we have not filled up since Albania, back in early June, then I know we must be close to running out. We have not seen any LPG for sale in Iceland to date and after asking at a garage as to where we can get a cylinder exchange or fill up the options looks unlikely. Our cyclinder is, and I quote, ‘a weird size’ and therefore an exchange is not going to happen, in addition all filling of gas bottles and selling of LPG to cars was stopped a few years ago after an accident. I try 3 different garages and they all advise that I can only get it filled in the one place in Reykjavik.......we will be passing through in days so hopefully it will last out until then.

the river was noisier than expected

We start to look for a wild camping area and find one late on up a track a couple of Km outside of Siglufjordjur, a mecca to Herring fishing back in its heyday. I almost get the van stuck down a too steep hill which requires Katie, Jack and Susan to help push the van out with wheels spinning and clutch burning...we were really lucky we didn't get it stuck.