Lathams News: DAY 36 – WEDNESDAY 9TH JANUARY 2019

We all ventured out again today. The weather forecast was not good, with rain expected for a good part of the day. We decided to head out a little before dawn to drive to Kerid Crater. This was to be the start of our exploring. It wasn't the best day and along the way we had a bit of misty weather... enough to use the windscreen wipers occasionally.

Kerid is a volcanic crater lake, and one of several crater lakes in the Grimsnes area of south Iceland. It is also one that has the most visually recognizable caldera still in tact. It’s composed of a red rather than black volcanic rock and is approximately 55m deep and 170m wide and 270m across.

While most of the crater is steep-walled with little vegetation, one wall is sloped more gently and blanketed with a deep moss, and can be descended fairly easily. The lake itself is fairly shallow (7–14 metres, depending on rainfall and other factors), but due to minerals from the soil, is an opaque and strikingly vivid aquamarine.

By the time we arrived at Kerid Crater, the rain was no longer a drizzle but had started falling steadily, heavy enough that non of us felt like the walk as it was also very cold, and it was only our jackets that were water proof and wind proof. Also, it was one of the few places in Iceland that required an entrance fee to see it, so we decided to head back in the other direction to Hvolsvollur and visit the Lava Museum for some indoor activity instead.

Iceland's famous Lava Centre Museum

The award winning Lava Centre is an interactive, high-tech educational exhibition depicting volcanic activity, earthquakes and the creation of Iceland.

We had arrived 10 minutes before the movie presentation was about to begin so this was the first thing we did before going through the museum itself....

The walk in gave details of all active volcanoes in Iceland and when eruptions took place.

The centre introduces the Katla Geopark plus Iceland's elaborate monitoring system for surveying volcanoes and earthquake zones. Apart from the marvelous lava features and geology globe, you can look up information on the large interactive walls presenting the main volcanoes of South Iceland and the years they erupted and then in another area the floor shakes in a simulation of an earthquake. All very interesting stuff. I never realized how often these volcanoes were actually erupting and still erupt today..

We spent the bulk of the afternoon wandering around the centre before checking out the gift store. Pete and Maria bought a lovely vase as a memento of their visit to Iceland.

Volcanic salts

Pete and Maria bought one of these little vases as a memento of their visit to Iceland.

It was almost dark by the time we left the centre, but at least we didn’t have far to go home this evening as Hvolsvollur was a little over half an hour from where we were staying.