Visiting the Fagradalsfjall Volcano
The Hell you’re not expecting
In your mind a volcanic explosion is something terrifying yet exciting (if you image yourself surviving), hot, really hot and full of dust. Yet from all of these premises I can confirm only a couple: exciting and dusty.
Let's start from the begin, like mid July, a couple of months before our departure for the Laugavegur Trail we heard about the incredibile event and obviously we decided we would pay a visit. So we gather information and I prepared all the equipment I'd have needed. Then we started the trail and lost contact from the world from about 10 days... When back, we saw that the volcano was getting close to the end of its life so we decided to rush there to witness the majesty with our own eyes.
Getting to the eruption site is relatively easy if you have a car. It’s about a 55-minute drive from the capital of Iceland, Reykavik, and only around 45-minutes from the main international airport, Keflavik. When there, the ‘parking 1‘ is the best spot to park for ‘Path A’. There was 3 path to choose but, from the line we saw from the begin, we get that Path A is the hands-down the best. I know that Path B is used if gas cover the Path A and Path C is used as "second visit viewpoint". The hike itself is rocky, uneven and slippery at points and it's around 15 km to get there and back but it's pretty manageable by anyone with a couple of working legs.
Since we just came back from a 10 days trekking we prepared for the Iceland incredible weather, so baselayer+fleece+rain jacket and some waterproof trousers on the backpack. I strongly suggest you to always be prepared, especially in such situations, as you don't want to get wet or cold in the middle of nowhere near an active Volcano.
For the trail, we easily followed the line of people in front of us and wowed at some guys facing the trail just with a plain shirt and some slippers... Anyway after a couple of hour walking between big rocks, rainfall and strong winds we arrived in the Volcano valley.
We were really blow away. I mean, we expected something bigger and more powerful, but it was its last breath. It was incredible crowded and we were at the top of this incredible ridge with all the black lava below us and the volcano itself spraying lava strongly in the air.
So we decided to give us some rest and have a snack sitting and watching it: that's when we start feeling it. The cold. The wind was blowing really strong and after all the rain, even in summer, even in front of all that lava, even with all our layers on, we started to feel uncomfortable. So we, as many other, decided to walk closer to the lava field and at least this give us 10 minutes of comfort.
We stayed there watching it for about a couple of hours and I even fly over it many times with my drone. We enjoyed yet suffered every second of it and I still think it was worth it. After that, a couple of hours again back to the car in the darkness of the night with some light rain. And what a relief for the flesh to get to the warmth of the car...
