I’m going to start this off by saying that this was never on my original itinerary. I planned to spend Friday enjoying the reborn Laugarvatn Fontana, which is now revelling in saying “steam by the lake” to the point that I wonder if they’ll just take that as their new name. It was supposed to … More I went back Inside the Volcano
This is a really old adventure that’s had two or three posts over the years but deserves a new write-up and a new place at the very front of this blog rather than being buried in its bowels: the day I swam in an active volcano, got stranded for hours in a lava field and … More One really simply does not walk into Mordor: swimming in a volcano & getting stranded in a lava field
“The Cave” is a ludicrous way to start this but it’s the way the landowners are marketing their lava caving trip into Víðgelmir, Iceland’s biggest lava cave – or at least, the biggest one discovered that it’s possible to go inside. I have a hypothesis that a lot of things in Iceland are very self-explanatory … More Visiting The Cave, Iceland’s biggest lava cave
Grábrók is one of my favourite attractions in a country full of incredible things to see and do, and I can’t quite believe I’ve never written about it before. Technically Grábrók is “they”, not “it”. “It” is a little cluster of moss-streaked red craters beside the Ring Road: Stóra Grábrók (Big Grábrók), Litla Grábrók (Little … More Roadside Volcanoes: Grábrók
I’ve done Askja before. Twice, in fact. In 2013, I went in a huge black jeep and swam in Viti, the warm flooded crater. In 2016, I returned because I wanted to visit Holuhraun. It was a beautiful day but the guide didn’t mention swimming until we reached Viti and I left my swimming stuff … More A (possible last) visit to Askja
When I first wrote this, it was with the intention of being equal parts “I saw a live volcano!!” and “no one’s talking about the hike, only the exciting firey bit” but between visiting and… well, not even publishing. Two or three days after I visited, the volcano ground to a halt. You can still … More I hiked to the new volcano!
Yes! At long last I have new travel content – and new Iceland content at that! I got on my first plane in over two years and we’re starting with a bang: I visited the new Icelandic volcano! It still hasn’t been officially named, to the best of my knowledge, but it’s usually called Fagradalsfjall … More I visited the new Icelandic volcano! | Iceland 2022
After my post the other day about the big rescue in OFD, I thought it was about time I did some more cave content. I picked this particular trip because it involved a nice “bimbly” trip with photos – underground photos from my caving days are spectacularly rare – but it also, and completely coincidentally, … More A long caving weekend in the Mendips
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a volcano in Iceland still going strong. It’s a great tourist volcano – it’s fairly small and it’s pretty but mostly not dangerous. It’s producing a bit of gas and every now and then it has to be closed because of the volume of gas builds up but the lava … More Inside the Volcano
Nearly two weeks ago, Iceland’s new eruption started (I wrote a blog about it last week) and half the country flocked to see it. I don’t blame them, I’d be among them if not for the plague. But a similar eruption happened in 1973, the birth of the volcano Eldfell, and things worked out very … More Eldfell: the people who fought a volcano
I Am A Polar Bear 