Beautiful morning today in Hveragerdi, we drove into Reykjavik today to get our tests done for our trip home. We also made a small detour to pick up a package at the local Reykjavik airport. This is not to be confused with Keflavik International Airport that is outside of the city.

There were many places along the way that were belching out steam from the earth below. In some places it hugged the mountain tops and others trailed and clung to the landscape in a long stream, reminding me of an old stream train.

Leaving our campground, we can see some of the steaming streamers escaping from the earth
This cloud over the mountain top is a steam cloud. It went for miles clinging to mountains and the lowlands.

After that, we excitedly headed in a southerly direction to visit the Fagradalsfjall volcano, about an hour away. As we drove, the weather took a turn. The low gray clouds started to cover the blue sky. But not yet completely; that came about 15 more miles down the road. As we approached Grundavik, the closest town to the volcano, the clouds became much lower and thicker. It wasn’t long before we were covered in cloud which is to say not being able to see too far in front of us on the highway.

Bob leads the way as we approach the thick veil of cloud cover.
Bob begins to disappear in the cloud.
As we entered the cloud, this was the last bit of landscape I could make out.


It was easy to find the parking lot in the cloud cover as the place was packed and all those parked cars help define the otherwise unmarked trailhead. Once we got ready to head out, we found a park ranger waiting by a park vehicle near the path that lead visitors to volcano watching. She informed us how far we would need to walk (abt. 30 mins.) and that an exciting new batch of hot lava was slowly bubbling away and very nice to see. However, visibility to the actual volcano with it’s gaping mouth, spitting fire and melted rock into the air, would not be visible due to the obvious cloud we were all standing in. The ranger said that weather reports were not specific enough to plan for volcano viewing. Today was a perfect example: the local weather report indicated it was sunny and clear in Reykjavik; but it was foggy with low visibility 30 miles away at the volcano.

This image Paul captured with his phone at the head of tail/head of the flow.
I zoomed in on some hot bits so we could see the cooling lava’s outer crust texture. Maybe you can see the crust is not too deep yet. In the thinner parts you can still make out some hot spots.
Viewers of the lava get very close to admire it and feel its heat. I did not get as close at the guy in front. But we did go as far as the people standing in on the left. The tractor in the back is on top of the dam they are building to slow down the flow towards the road.

The government has a live web cam you can visit to see just how much you can view at that time on any given day. 
We headed up the rocky path like mountain goats where after a short while it became a more manageable track. There were a number of little hills and joining paths on our way up to the viewing area. Once we got there, we could see they were building a kind of dirt dike to break the river of hot moving rock, let it fill in a valley, and help protect the roadway. 

You can see the men working on the dike, its pretty far up from the Lava. They also seem to be laying some cable. It looks like it is coming from the shiny object center right. Which might be the live image feed the government has set up to monitor the flow.

We are camping in another city campground, this time in Reykjavik. It’s beautifully hidden with trees and shrubs right off a main road. There is a huge community pavilion with kitchen, showers, bathrooms, a garden like terrace, all in a central location. Tents are in a different location to the left of the kitchen.

Campers and vans are to the right of the kitchen. There is also an International Hostel here as well. And a bonus for tomorrow: we ended up camping right next door (just a few steps from our camper) to Laugardalus Outdoor Thermal Pool.