I Love Lava

I had intentions of either taking a small hike or maybe playing nine holes of golf before hitting the road this morning but it was a dreary cold morning and neither of those ideas sounded good to me. So I just hit the road instead. The nice BS restaurant about 20 minutes down the road was a good way to set the day on pace with it’s reminder that “Life is Wonderful – You are Important.” Thanks BS!

I had about three hours of drive time before getting to my first stop for the day. The unfettered time to think on the road and the lack of excitement in the landscape for the first couple hours of my drive gave me time to get lost in my own thoughts. I thought a lot about how odd it feels to consider my self out here on the road, totally causal, living super simply, happy to be throwing a day pack over my shoulder instead of a purse and the contrast to how I live at home with my love for the finer things in life. For some reason it’s hard to reconcile these two parts of me. But really, do I need to reconcile them? I can have my casual nature side as well as my somewhat snobby side right? It just brings me back to considering the fact that we are functions of our environment. My thoughts were all over the map in the car. At one point I was thinking about the book idea again and thought of the chapter titles my friend Nicole and I once put together for our dating chronicles almost a decade ago. Now that would have been an entertaining book.

Then I started thinking about my dad for a while. He and I had a moment of reckoning a couple months ago, finally addressing the elephants in our lives about 30 years of hurt since my parents divorced and I didn’t get to grow up with him as much I’d have liked. I thought a lot about the conversations my father and I had this summer and realized how much those talks freed me up emotionally and got me to a point where I felt like he finally understood my point of view and we have the opportunity now to be closer than ever. And then I thought about his health. He is in questionable health right now. I felt so much guilt, even though I know it’s not one-sided, that I haven’t been there more or forced my way into his life more. And then I started to cry. There’s nothing like driving along with tears streaming down your face to really get out the fear and pain that’s been deep down. This is the first time I’ve really cried over my dad being sick and the possibilities. Fucking time alone with my thoughts. At home its easy for me to be tougher, it’s easy to distract myself. FYI – It’s hard trying to be strong all the time, I probably need to remind myself of that more.

I got it all out, pulled myself together, and realized the landscape was starting to get interesting again. I pulled over for the first time during my drive and damn it was cold. A strong, gusty, ice cold wind was relentless. I could barely pull the car door closed again. The further I made my way down the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, the more intriguing the landscape began. I had not yet seen the sun yet today, and it never did come out. While it made for gray skies I was happy to not have it blinding me while I drove along. Some more sheep tried to play chicken with the car and I laughed as I watched one run across the road -it’s giant fluffy butt wiggling back and forth made me think of my friend Karen’s obsession with little corgi butts running! (Karen – if you’re reading this – I totally made the little corgi butt signal with one hand while I drove along.) The sheep are always in groups of three. Do you know why? I do now, sheep usually have two offspring each year so it’s the ewe and her lambs always together. I just realized that doesn’t explain where the rams are… hmm. More to figure out.

I finally arrived at my first destination of the day, the Sugandisey Lookout. It’s pretty, it’s a lookout with a little trail. Most notably, it was the first time on this trip I’ve had to bust out my scarf and wrap my face to protect from the cold.

A teeny bit back inland, I found myself at the Holy Mt Helgafell. It is believed to be a sacred place. There was once a monastery at its base and a prayer chapel at its peak. There is much lore around this spot, you can read it here, no need for me to repeat it all. BUT, as legend has it, you are supposed to hike up the hill to the prayer chapel ruins, without looking behind you or speaking at all on the way up, and then you make three wishes that should come true. There are two ways up the hill, one obvious one and then there is supposed to be a track up the hill from someone’s grave behind the little church that sits at the bottom of the hill. Starting from the grave is supposed to be the proper way. To get onto the hill, you actually have to cross a swath of a farmer’s private property. And that enterprising farmer sets up shop and charges you to walk by, he even takes credit card. I paid the farmer to cross his land and asked if I could walk across his property to start from the church instead of starting from the more obvious western entrance he directed you to. I think we had a bit of a language barrier but he repeated the word church and nodded so I went with it. I headed off down to the church to take the “proper” way up. Well, I tried to. I coudn’t find any obvious trail or simple way up the little mountain. It’s the thought that counts right? I headed back up to the west side and made my way up. It is really hard not to stop and look behind you when legend says you aren’t supposed to. I found the ruins of the prayer chapel at the top, walked inside them, made my three wishes, admired the views, and headed back down.

My next stop was the Berserkjahraun Lava Field. I had seen plenty of lava fields so far this trip so I was prepared to be unimpressed. But it was awesome. There is actually a dirt road that you can take to drive through the fields. I got excited as I found myself among the volcanoes and scraggly lava flow. I was so eager to get out of the car to investigate up close and snap pictures that I didn’t even bother to layer up and froze my butt off instead.

I drove out of the lava field, continuing on to Kirkjufell Falls. As I approached the falls I could see them right off the road. They were little and surrounded by a ton of people. I quickly decided I was not interested and kept driving to the western most tip of the peninsula and the Vatnshellir Cave – a lava cave beneath the Snaefellsjokul glacier. Well actually, a lava tube that has crashed in and opened as a cave, originating from the Snaefellsjokul Volcano. The Snaefellsjokul Volcano is that which they descended into the crater of in the tale “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and is predicted to erupt again in next 200-300 years. In volcano time, 200 years is not much and could be a rounding error so that definitely set in my mind, but nonetheless I descended down a special spiral staircase and 35 meters below the surface. You entered the staircase on land via a special little chamber that looks like a porta-potty.

Being inside the cave was awesome. Seeing the shark-tooth looking stalactites piercing through the walls where the lava suddenly cooled and froze in time was fascinating. Unlike in a regular cave where the stalagmites and stalactites continue to grow, in here there is no growth. They remain exactly as they where when the lava tube was formed, 8,000 years ago, by rushing streams of lava cooling. Due to the porous nature of lava, there is no echo in this cave. None. It is freezing cold in that cave, literally between zero and one Celsius. No wind makes it in and the air is still but the temperature was frigid nonetheless There are no lights in the lava cave. The guide hands you a helmet and small flashlight as you head down and that’s it. At one point in the lowest chamber the guide instructed everyone to turn off their lights and remain quiet for a moment. The silent complete darkness was like nothing I have ever experienced before. The cave sung a beautiful melody of drips of water into puddles and rocks, with no echo, and nothing else. And the darkness, your eyes can never adjust to the dark in there because it is so complete. You can hold your hand an inch away from your face forever and your eyes will never adjust to see it. Crazy. I loved that moment.

The day remained dreary with gusty winds and I froze every time I stepped outside. I made a couple stops at the black sand beaches along the coastline (oh yes, that lava cave was less than a mile from the coast), including the Djupalonssander Beach, and watched the fiercest waves I’ve seen so far in Iceland attacking the shore. Though it was beautiful and there were some hiking trails I decided to forego the hiking and head out get some dinner and get settled into my AirBnB. I should have done that hike. And there was a little crater hike I passed as well that I should have done. But I was done being cold. It was also starting to rain and there was no way I wanted to be wet and cold at that moment. I’m glad this trip isn’t much longer because I am sick of being cold and ready to get back to my tank tops and flip flops.

Tonight is my last chance to potentially see the Northern Lights. The aurora app I downloaded is telling me I have about a 25% chance of seeing them. There is a lot of cloud cover but I can see some clearing so perhaps there is a chance. Tomorrow night I’ll be back in Reykjavik and too close to the city lights to see them. A damn shame, my app is also telling me that where I stayed three nights ago is one of the best places in the world to see them right now! I’m not sure how much effort I’ll put into this. It’s raining and I want to try to get to sleep early tonight. Tomorrow is my last full day in Iceland. I’ll leave the Peninsula and head back towards Reykjavik and stay a final night there in the “big city.” Unsure what is on the itinerary tomorrow aside from one crater. My AirBnB tonight is an adorable cabin with wonderful ocean views. And it even had some sheep grazing against the deck to welcome me when I arrived. The gusty winds and rain are playing a gentle song outside. I think I’ll sleep well tonight.