A late start today, so a lie in and a leisurely breakfast. We took the Eldá Travel Volcanic Wonders tour. They collected us from the hotel carpark and headed off past the steaming earth where we walked yesterday to a huge fissure in the lava field. Within the fissure are two caves found by English tourists in 1938. In both of the caves there are warm water pools although increased geothermal activity has recently made the water too warm to swim in.
Don't fall in!
'Cos it's deep
After the cave the tour moved on back past the diatomite factory to a sulphur mud pool.
Bubbling and smelly
This one's whistling and smelly
Another place that sounds hollow when walked upon - the tour guide took great delight in jumping up and down
We then were driven up to the crater of the 1724 volcanic eruption. The crater is named Viti, meaning "Hell". A lot of volcanos in Iceland seem to share the name.
Bright sunshine yet there's still snow inside the crater
Looking down the valley to the 60MW geothermal power station that supplies the area with electricity
The lava fields created following the 1724 eruption. The field stretches several miles down to the village and the lake
Lava still steaming and warm from the 1984 eruption
The darker lava is more recent
Lava and snow
On the way back to the hotel the tour guide treated us to some lava bread which is cooked by burying it in warm earth. Today's tour (and tomorrows) were the best we did during the entire holiday. The fact that they were small helped; just a minibus; also that the tour guide was local - in fact he's from one of the five families that own the entire area!
This evening's meal in the hotel was mushroom soup followed by a salmon and vegetables.
11 o'clock at night