A deadly cloud of ash

Source: BBC news photo
Today’s big news story was meant to be an inaugural television debate between leaders of the nation’s major political parties. Instead, headlines are dominated by another unprecedented event. For the first time in living memory the nation’s airspace has been closed to all non-emergency flights. Similar restrictions are also in place for the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and France.

This unprecedented action was taken after an erupting volcano in Iceland blasted clouds of deadly ash more than 16,764 metres into the air. The eruption under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajoekull area is the second such event in less than a month. As it continues, a growing ash cloud is progressively making its way across northern Europe. As you can see from the Met Office's warning map below, by morning the entire UK is forecast to be covered. As a result, from noon today, all flights in the UK’s airspace were cancelled and will remain grounded until at least 1.00pm tomorrow.


Volcanic ash has proven deadly to aircraft in the past. Perhaps the most famous incident in 1982 involved a British Airways plane flying to Perth, Australia. As it flew through a fresh ash cloud high above Indonesia, all four of its engines failed and the aircraft began losing attitude. The pilots struggled for more than ten minutes to restart the engines. A similar incident occurred above Alaska in 1989. Again, all four engines shut down and disaster was narrowly averted when one was successfully restarted minutes later.

Tonight’s news reports claim that more than half a million passengers have been affected by the grounding of an estimated 5,000 flights. Ash has already started falling on the ground in northern Scotland. The eruption under the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier is still intensifying, and the wind direction is expected to bring further ash clouds into UK airspace until the weekend.


In 2008, Garry and I stayed a hotel least than 20km away from Eyjafjallajoekull. From our hotel room we could see the massive ice field crowning nearby mountains. You can see this spectacular sight in the image above. It's hard to imagine this pristine scene being dominated by a enormous black ash cloud.

Nature at its best

Finally, a series of posts on our adventures in Iceland. Do come back and revisit these posts as I'll be updating them with appropriate photos at a future date. This post covers off the events of our first day in Iceland - then scroll down to read about subsequent days...

We reached our hotel shortly after midnight following an uneventful flight to Keflavik, Iceland’s main international airport. The airport is some distance from the capital, Reykjavik – at least 48 km west. Given this distance and our late arrival I had booked us into the Northern Lights Inn, a simple bungalow-style hotel located about 12kms from the airport. The hotel also offered a free shuttle service, making the late night transfer quick and simple.


Complimentary breakfast the next morning was offered in sunlit atrium. We dined while overlooking jagged lava fields and snaking pipes feeding searing hot water to the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power plant. In the distance steam could be seen rising from the island’s famous Blue Lagoon, a bathing complex filled with hot milky blue geothermal water. The hotel also supplied a free shuttle back to the airport for us to collect our rental car, and towels for to use at the lagoon itself.


We decided to take a leisurely drive along the southern coast toward a hotel we’d booked for our second night – about 120 km east of Reykjavik. Our first stop was Bláa Lóniõ, as the Blue Lagoon is called in Icelandic. The complex itself is nestled in amongst barren mounds of purple-grey lava. You reach it by walking along a meandering path laid in trench dug through the lava itself.

The water is kept at a constant 38C making a cosy, relaxing respite from the cold, local climate. Buckets of pure, creamy white silica mud can be found around the bathing lagoon. Guests are encouraged to smear on the mud for a refreshing spa experience. We gave it a go. Our skin was left tingling with fresh exfoliation.


From here we made our way to the coast, experiencing the first of many stunning scenic moments. Before us the bold southern coast stretched out into the misty distance, rugged, snow-capped and wonderfully desolate. We one point we drove down to the shore to witness Atlantic waves sweeping across a gravel beach at Selatanger.


The road then wound inland towards a series of frozen lakes. We stopped briefly to enjoy a remote, one-room wooden chapel perched on a hill overlooking a vast, snowy plain. Its simple red roof stood in stark relief against the blue skyline. Garry commented that it was probably the first time he’d ever been to church on Good Friday.


We stopped for lunch on a deserted bluff looking out across Kleifarvatn, a dramatic lake filling a barren volcanic fissure. Ice on the lake shore had begun to crack, creating the most stunning picnic vista I can ever recall. As sunlight glinted off the ice as we quietly communed with nature. Our next scenic stop was Urridafoss, powerful waterfall just south of Iceland’s island-circling main ring road. Here a mighty, roaring 360cu metre of water flows per second, tumbling over a short 6 metre drop.


We based ourselves for two nights at Hotel Ranga, a luxurious log cabin hotel set in an isolated rural location. The hotel boasted a classy restaurant, outdoor hot tubs and a cosy loft bar. Each morning we woke to a back drop of snow-capped mountains and sunlight glinting off the nearby river.

Click here for more Iceland adventures.

The Golden Circle

It’s almost impossible to visit Iceland without experiencing the popular Golden Circle. This route takes in the country’s three most popular tourist destinations; Gullfoss, Geysir and Pingvellir. We spent our second full day on the island completing this near-compulsory tourist pilgrimage. Despite the hype, each sight genuinely delivered on expectations.


Gullfoss, Iceland’s most famous waterfall, was our first stop. This fall plunges over an awe inspiring double cascade before disappearing into a narrow ravine. The surrounding landscape was coated in a smooth white blanket of snow, while the fall’s rocky outcrops and opposing shore were layered in the remains of frozen spray and mist. I braved the icy conditions to make my way out to the edge of the falls where the sun, deafening sound and snow made for a truly memorable moment.


From here it was on to Geysir, a compact thermal zone of bubbling mud and hot water spouts. Geysers worldwide actually take their name from this location. Garry and I were captivated by Stokkur, an impressive geyser that explosively erupted once every ten minutes, sending scalding fountain of water 30 metres into the air. Surprisingly, the entire geothermal area was accessible free of charge.


Our last stop of the day was perhaps the most dramatic of all. Pingvellir is an immerse rift valley where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly drifting apart. The landscape is littered with fractured, rocky fissures; created as the land literally tears itself apart. The largest of these fissures is Almanagja. For almost a kilometre this narrow rock alley slices its way through the plain. Here stark, vertical rock walls soar more than 50 metres overhead bearing silent witness to the jaw-dropping power of relentless tectonic motion.


The scene was made all the more dramatic during our visit by a blanket of snow. This soft white cover made the surrounding dark lava cliffs all that more dramatic. Even better, we had the entire scene largely to ourselves. The image of our walking track zig-zagging through the snow, between ever narrowing rock walls will remain with me for the rest of my life.


One final sight completed our classic tourist day. As darkness fell, Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights came out. We were presented with a dazzling display than can only be described as a shimmering curtain of green light dancing across the sky from horizon to horizon. This proved to be the last clear night we had in Iceland and thus were lucky to see the aurora in action.


Click here to read about our magical ice cave experience.

Water and ice

Day Three in Iceland saw us make our way east towards Vatnajokull, the nation’s largest icecap. The vast frozen zone covers more than 8300sq km, almost 13% of Iceland’s total landmass. To reach its southern edge we had to drive across several desolate, flat deltas of grey, snow-flecked glacial sand. These vast plains have been created by a web of glacial rivers and the occasional Jokulhlap, or glacial flash floods. These violent floods occur when volcanic activity melts a portion of the icecap sending unfathomable volumes of water rushing towards the sea.


The last such incident occurred in 1996 when the Grimsvotn eruption swept away much of the main road and three long bridges in a matter of hours. We stopped to explore a memorial of twisted bridge girders located a few miles from Skaftafell National Park. Once again we were reminded of the humbling power of nature.


This memorial was only one of several highlights during an invigorating scenic drive. After two days of being constantly awed nature’s beauty, it was difficult to imagine the sights getting any better. How wrong we were. Our first stop was Seljalandsfoss, a delicate high fall cascading over the edge of a rocky scarp that rises from the surrounding plain. I recall this fall featured as a checkpoint for the television reality show, Race Around the World.


This was one of many falls we encountered that day. Perhaps the most dramatic of all was Skogafoss. A 62 metre curtain of water set in narrow, rocky crag. At its base the fall’s frigid spray had settled as a rugged plateau of ice across the departing gravel bed. Once again, we had much of the scene to ourselves for much of the time.


Perhaps the day’s most dramatic experience was something neither Garry or I had foreseen in all our months of planning for this vacation. A few kilometres past Skogafoss we turned off the highway onto a bumpy, gravel road that wound its way up a river valley towards Solheimajokull. This is a narrow glacier carving off the nearby Myrdalsjokull icecap. I recalled walking to the edge of Fox Glacier in New Zealand more than 15 years ago and was keen to repeat the experience.


We parked our four-wheel drive about 200 metres short of the glacier’s edge. As we retraced the path of a rivulet flowing from the ice, we came upon a icy-blue cavern that had been carved from the glacier face. We just had to explore it. Translucent blue walls led us into a larger cavern where large, smooth blocks of ice sat brooding while rays of sunlight shone down through an opening in the ice above. As was becoming the norm we had the entire scene to ourselves. Pure magic!

Read on for more private moments in Iceland.

Reykjavik

Our last 1.5 days in Iceland were spent exploring the capital city. Reykjavik is an odd place. It’s surprisingly cosmopolitan, yet still has the look and feel of a quaint, simple fishing village. We based ourselves at Hotel Reykjavik Centrum located in the heart of the city’s oldest district. From here most sights were within easy walking distance.

We dined at the Fish Market on our first night in town. The restaurant, housed in the basement of an old wooden building, offered a delicious tasting menu of local delicacies prepared in an Asian fusion style. This was one of many fine dining establishments, complimented by an equally impressive array of cosy cafes throughout the city.


On Wednesday we wandered through town and eventually stopped outside Hallgrimskirkja, an imposing concrete church that sits on a hill above the city. The church’s radical design is based on volcanic basalt, a rock formation of sharp-edged rectangular pillars that can be found throughout Iceland. Earlier in the week we’d stopped at a beach near Vik to marvel at these rock stacks stepping their way up a wind-swept cliff face. I couldn’t resist the urge to scale such an unusual formation.


Hallgrimskirkja’s profile is dominated by a central 75-metre high tower. A quick elevator ride takes you to an observation deck offering stunning, panoramic views of Reykjavik and the surrounding countryside. Permission to build the church was granted in the early-40s on condition that its design included a tower able to contain a radio mast for the nation’s new national broadcaster. However, by the time it was completed 34 years later, this requirement longer mattered.


A bleak plaza in front of the church is broken only by a statue of Leifer Eiriksson, the Viking considered the first European to discovered America. The statue itself is a gift from the USA. This is one of many statues and public artworks dotted around the city.

After lunch at the popular people-watching locale, Café Paris, we made our way to the Culture House. This building includes a display of original vellum manuscripts that represent the earliest known record of the Viking Sagas and settlement in Iceland. The Sagas are popular folklore stories of Viking life in the middle ages. Until the 20th Century they were near compulsory bedtime reading for Iceland families everywhere.


The Culture House also contained a fascinating exhibition about Surtsey island. This landmass off the south coast of Iceland was created between 1963 and 1968 by a series of continuous subsea volcanic eruptions. The exhibit included dramatic video footage of these eruptions, as well as tracing the steady spread of plant and animal life in the decades since.

Our last day in Iceland was spent ticking off a diverse range of final sights. First up, was a museum literally located in the basement of our hotel. Reykjavik 871 +/-2 contains the preserved ruins of a 10th Century Viking turf-wall constructed long house. Its remains were discovered by chance when our hotel embarked on a major restoration and expansion project. The ruins are now the earliest known building in Iceland.


Next up was a visit to City Hall, a modernist building on the edge of Tjornin, a small lake in the centre of town. It contains a detailed relief map of Iceland, painstakingly built from layers of cardboard over four years by a team of local surveyors. The island’s rugged coast, towering mountains and bold icecaps can be witnessed in all their glory.

The map is constructed from a 1 mm thick cardboard sheets, cut out along the height lines of the cards. The cardboard blocks are mounted on wooden plates which are screwed onto the aluminum frame. The model is in the scale of 1: 50,000, with the elevation scale doubled to 1: 25,000. The total area of the model covers an impressive 76.4 square meters. Incredibly, it can be wheeled off into a neighbouring storage room to make room for events.

We then stopped for coffee at Perlan, a complex wrapped around towering hot-water tanks on Oskjuhilo hill near the city’s inner boundary. It was then on to the Blue Lagoon for a final soak before heading back off to Keflavik and our flight home. Iceland had proven a memorable destination – one that met and exceeded almost every expectation we’d brought with us. This remote, quirky island had delivered on the promise of a truly unique vacation.

Iceland update

We are back from six wonderful days in Iceland. We were incredibly lucky with the weather. Our first three days were largely filled with sunshine and light cloud, while the final three were punctuated by gentle, almost atmospheric snow flurries. It seems we got lucky. The UK experienced an Easter weekend of appalling weather, including a heavy snowfall in London on Sunday.


I'll post more on our vacation over the next few weeks as time permits. You'll hear about our picnic lunch on a desolate bluff overlooking a frozen lake; our exploration of a dramatic, ice-blue glacier cave; the Northern Lights and tours of more mundane highlights like waterfalls and geysers. Consider this initial post a brief photo teaser. As I said to Garry yesterday, "If we never get to Antartica, I won't feel as if I've missed anything special."