Day Twelve

Today was amazing! We checked out of the hostel at 9am and left to meet with our instructors and pack the vans.  About an hour of driving through the rain with a quick Bonus/bathroom stop brought us to the base of our first hike of the day. There was some confusion about who would be going up the mountain, but eventually everyone got on board, and we set out.  I think we were away from the cars for nearly 4 hours as we hiked up to the geothermal springs, past the bathing area (literally just a hole in the river) to some more bubbling mud a ways on, then circled back to the river for a dip! Almost everyone got into the water (after some fun open air changing) which was suppper hot! One of  pools was (supposedly) 44C! We left the hot pools as I at my sandwich around 12h45.  The hike back to the car was permeated with running! As we ran, Luke looked like Gimly (from the Lord of The Rings) while Emily, Sharon, Riley and I ran along with him. The scenery was phenomenal; the sun even started peaking out between the clouds! - Did I mention it was raining this whole time? Our speed and a bunch of layers (yay wool and down!) kept me warm, if not totally dry. I honesty loved running along the trails, and found my self motivated because of trying to keep up with the athletes (and 6'6 Riley). It was really cool to see how the grasses had remained green in the vicinity of the hot/war running water, but was an unwatered/wintered yellow everywhere else! The landscape was one that no photo could do justice.

We next headed off to visit a waterfall that we could hike around behind the falling water. If I hadn't already been pretty damp, this would have done the trick! A combination of wind and falling water means spray for everyone! Poor Daisy got drenched when a gust of wind picked up the falls and blew them towards her. I got some pretty neat shots from behind the falls, and some falling rock made those of us doing the loop run through a section up to the viewpoint before finishing the circuit and heading back to the vans.

Our last stop was a giftshop and small movie theatre at the base of Eyjafjallajokull - best known for shutting down air traffic all over Europe in April 2010.  The movie was quite interesting; it recounted the experience of a farming family at the base of the glacier before and throughout the eruption. They had farmed there for generations, and were prepared to leave at any moment due to suspicious seismic activity prior to the main eruption. The latter blotted out the sun, caused layers of ash to fall on the farm, and required sheltering the animals and evacuation of the families. Now though, the volcanic ash has fertilised the surrounding areas, and they are a self sufficient farm, providing grain for the livestock from their own fields.

We ended at the hostel in Skodar.

Here are some pictures from today.