The next day, at the Blue Lagoon retreat, we relaxed and swam, then had breakfast and decided to hike to the spectacular lookout point of the newly erupting Meradalil volcano.
As some of you may remember from this post, we actually did this hike and ended up at a not-so-ideal viewpoint of the volcano.
The next day we tried to do this hike on the correct path, but due to changing weather the authorities had to close the volcano hiking trail.
Well, today when I looked at the news online, the hiking trail was open and the weather looked great.
So we had an early lunch and went to the supermarket to stock up on hiking essentials.
This time I ate a bit too much snacks, unlike the first time I didn’t even plan to bring water as I thought it was just a short hike.
Thankfully, Lloyd brought water for us at the time, but neither of us had brought any snacks.
Yes, we prepared all our luggage, went to a parking lot suitable for hiking and started climbing towards the volcano.
Now, this hike was tricky, but not what I expected.
It starts with a relatively steep uphill climb, but not as steep as other routes.
Then zigzag until you reach the top of the mountain. Although it’s flat, this is actually the really difficult part.
You see, this entire path is littered with huge boulders blown away from previous volcanic eruptions, and it’s mentally exhausting to weave your way through them while trying not to fall.
At first everything seems fine, but as you go further in, the structure becomes more complex, and although there was active work being done by the government to create a road here, it really hasn’t gotten this far. I wasn’t there.
The scenery along the way is spectacular, and thanks to the rain, you can see the lava flow just steaming in the distance as you pass. It’s a little surreal.
Eventually, this rocky area gives way to flatter terrain, followed by a few more uphill climbs and then a few downhill climbs. And before you know it, the volcano is right in front of you, but still far away.
The last part of the climb is a bit muddy and sometimes I wish there were more rocks earlier to keep me from sliding down the hill.
Once you’ve done this, you can easily travel to this viewpoint overlooking the volcano.
At this point we were so thankful that we stuck with our stubborn determination to return here. Because the view of the volcano from here is exactly what we saw on the news and was the reason we did the hike in the first place.
It’s especially surreal to see lava just flowing like water when you know it’s mostly solid soil.
and a sound will be heard.
It’s just a weird combination of loud humming and consistent rumbling.
After taking some time to take it all in, we decided to head down the valley to the edge of the lava flow.
It is important to note that Icelandic government safety authorities were monitoring the situation here, particularly the gas levels from the volcano, and there were people concerned about safety on that front.
Randomly, and I don’t know how wise this was, some people showed up with fish and started grilling them using the heat of the lava flow.
When it started to get a little dark, by the way, it got dark not because the sun completely set, but because it was mostly covered by clouds, so some parts of the lava field started to glow, and you could see the lava field more clearly. Now it looks like this. A volcanic eruption caused molten lava to flow around the valley.
It was unbelievable!
We ended up spending much longer here than we had originally planned, and decided it was time to start heading back to the car, well after midnight.
Our flight home was just a few hours away and we hadn’t yet checked into the hotel where we would be spending the night.
So we started to go back, but it was cloudy and dark, and there was fog.
It was an “adventure” to try to get back into those conditions, to say the least, but the adrenaline and excitement I still had from witnessing the amazing sight of the volcano was more than enough to carry me through the entire hike. did.
And of course, once you get over the rocky parts of the mountain.
The rest is very easy!
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