Onion River Exploration Project: Volcanoes, Glaciers and Waterfalls

From behind Seljalandfoss

Day 10 (8/9/13)

When we get up the next morning it is hard to say what the day is going to bring. The sky seems to be clearing in some areas but the wind is still rather persistent. We start by heading back across the wasteland I had mentioned yesterday. It is hard to imagine what it must be like living in this area, having had one major flood in 1996 and knowing there is more to come in the undetermined future. They know of at least one more volcano that is to erupt in the next ten years and Grímsvötn is a constant threat. In the 1996 flood Grímsvötn, one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes erupted. The biggest problem is that it lies under Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest Glacier. The combination is devastating. Grímsvötn sent melted glacier water racing to the sea producing for two days a river second only to the Amazon in volume. It carried with it chunks of Ice, some weighting over 200 ton wiping out everything in its way. Much of Highway 1, Iceland’s main road, was destroyed. A testament to their resilience is that they had it up and running again only weeks later. After we make it back across the flood plain we head to the lower end of Vatnajökull National park and Skaftafell farm where we hike up to the end of Skaftafellsjokull and see the end of a glacier up close and of course build some cairns. From Skaftafell we drive through the lava fields of Eldhraun “fire lava” the results of the year long eruption of Laki in 1783. This eruption was devastating to Iceland and left it covered in a cloud of ash for years after, which Icelanders refer to as the “misty times”. If the name Eldhraun sounds like something out of the “Lord of the Rings” the landscape does more so. The lava fields in some areas are covered by a layer of moss leaving a landscape that is out of this world. We then make our way through the small village Kirkjubaejarklaustur before coming to the black sands of Myrdalssandur. Here I finally get a picture of a puffin. We then head to Skogar folk museum and water fall. At the museum we get to go inside some of the original turf houses of the Icelandic settlers and view how their buildings changed through the ages. We then view another spectacular waterfall at Skogar before heading on to Seljalandfoss, one of Iceland’s most spectacular falls not because of its size but the fact that you can go behind it and view it from all directions. To continue our “hobbit” motif we spend the night at Hotel Ork in Hveragerdi.