Adventures with Julia

Heading out to the Blue Mountain Volcano. It is the mound on the right. The one on the left is 50,000 years old and the middle one is 10,000 years old. The cavern volcano has been dormant for only 4700 years.

The small opening above. The cage was built to fit.

An interesting iron formation in the volcano cavern.

Rising out of the volcano.

July 18, 2017

For those of you who wanted more info on the volcano on the 16th, it is called the Blue Mountain Volcano.  The colorful walls are made of iron, copper and sulphur that oxidize into the many colors you see.

Hay fields with covered bales. White and green plastic is usual for cows, sheep and goats. Black to warm horse fodder. Pink and blue plastic, when used, is purchased as a donation to cancer research.

Typical low land scenery with grass, water courses and volcanic hills.

Pretty bridge along the way

The next day, yesterday, July 17th,  we headed out early on a round trip adventure to the highlands, an area called Landmannalaugar.  Near sea level, where we started, the land was lush, green and full of recently cut hay all baled and wrapped in plastic material.  We learned that white and green plastic were commonly used for animal fodder, except horses.  Horse fodder is wrapped in black plastic so it will get warmer.  Does it sweat more and get mushy?  If you horse friends know the answer, please tell the rest of us.  Now and then we saw pink and blue plastic and learned that farmers buy plastic in those colors as a donation to cancer research.  I have included a couple more pictures of the landscape to give you a better idea of the place.  Where the ground is level, the soil is lush and creeks and streams are everywhere.  The hill sides are generally volcanic rock.  Gradually we began to climb and the grasses gave way to exposed rock and volcanic ash.  Here and there we saw small forests of planted evergreens.  Here is a small cluster near a charming one lane bridge.  As time goes by there will be more and more forest as there is a push toward environmental consciousness.  For example, we have seen no disposable plastic water bottles.  All the water is potable here, and in Greenland, and is served from glass carafes.

Along the way we stopped at a Viking Chieftain’s farm from circa 950AD.  It has been painstakingly reconstructed from foundation and other materials found under many layers of ash from a huge eruption in 1004.   Think Pompeii.  The structure is sculpted from many layers of sod and requires constant care to keep it from rotting away.   There was also a chapel near the house, as the Vikings converted to Christianity in 1000 AD.  Inside the building were several rooms: an entry chamber for removing working clothes, a large room for sleeping, hanging out and staying warm, a similar, but smaller room for the women to weave and make clothes, a food preparation room, a storage room and a large lavatory with drains along the side walls.  No one bothered with doors or privacy.  In addition to the Chief and his family, there would be workers who lived in the house with the family.  There was not enough room to lay down, so everyone slept sitting up with their clothes on.  Can’t imagine living that way.  There was no running water.  No way to be warm or clean and dry.

The reconstruction of a ninth century Viking Chieftain’s sod home. Created from eleventh century volcanic ash ruins, much like Pompeii.

The reconstructed chapel next to the sod house.

The charming Farmer’s daughter, who is studying to be a bio-chemist and works at the Viking farm in the summer.

The main room in the sod house was used for the men to sleep and hang out. The women had a separate room for themselves, weaving and making clothing. A side room was used for cooking and storing food.

Carefully placed sod layers in the walls of the reconstructed house.

Very near the Viking house was a small waterfall called Hjalpparfoss.  It flows through solid basalt rock.

Hjalparfoss Waterfall near the reconstructed Viking Chieftain farm.

Then we began to climb more until the ground was more dirt and rock than green grass.  When we were almost at the Landmannalaugar camp ground, we saw that we would have to ford a river to get there.  As many cars had already made it, Mark moved ahead and forded the stream without trouble, while others watched and wondered if they could make it.  The alternative was to park and walk across a foot bridge.  We had an all-wheel drive car, so felt confident.

The scenery was spectacular and other worldly.  My photos do not do it justice as we had fairly flat light.    The terrain was extremely rugged and the basalt rocks very sharp.  We hiked only 3 miles on two trails (one delineated by white markers and the other by red ones), but it seemed like more as we had to pick our way carefully to avoid stumbling and the path was not always obvious.  We eventually climbed to an elevation of 2281 feet.  As in the volcano, it was step a few, stop, look around and step a few more.  We started the hike from the parking lot without thinking about getting information, a map, water or anything except our fleece.  We expected a short walk about, but once we got into the trail, we thought it would be shorter to keep going than to retract our steps.  Man were we wrong.  We passed many people going the other way, but they were mostly tourists who spoke little English and did not know much more than we did.  By the time we got back to the car, we were very thirsty and hungry.   Never mind.  It was a very interesting hike that topped out at a large thermal steam vent.  Heading down hill on the red trail, we felt more confident that we were headed in the right direction.  In the camp ground were hundreds of people camping all together in tents, buses, RV’s.  They were mostly European tourists.  We crossed back over the river and looked for a quiet place to picnic, marveling at the scenery we had just experienced.   As we headed out of the highlands we stopped at one more scenic spot, Lpotipollur Crater.  It had the same wonderful colors on the side walls with deep blue water in it.  Reminded me 0f Crater Lake in Oregon only much more colorful.  By the way, in case you are wondering how to pronounce these Icelandic words, I cannot help you.  They are impossible to say even when an Icelander says them slowly.   I have given up trying.   After the crater, we headed for a restaurant by the ocean we had heard served great langoustinos.  It took almost 2 hours to get there from the highlands, but we enjoyed the meal, a good Icelandic beer and headed for the barn, about 2o minutes away.  The rain was just starting as we went to bed.

Driving into the highlands.

Snow remnants in the highlands above 2000 feet.

Very interesting rock formations.

Hiking up the white marker trail into the Landmannalaugar lava fields.

Landmannalaugar – colorful lava and ash fields.

Hiking the red trail through Landmannalaugar

Landmannalaugar – red trail through lava fields

Landmannalaugar-colorful lava fields

Fording the river to depart the Landmannalaugar camp ground.  People on the other side are trying to make up their mind about making the crossing.  Water came up higher on the car than we would have liked on the way in, so Mark took a different line on the way out and we fared well.  Others jumped in their cars to follow suit.

Pjotipollur Crater, another colorful sight.