We checked our email first thing when we woke up to see if our Katla Ice Cave excursion was canceled. It was miserable outside, with wind gusts up to 95 km/h, rain, and a wind chill of -18C. Luckily it was still on!
We had a nice breakfast and then tried to figure out appropriate clothing layers for the excursion. The departure point was at Black Crust Pizzeria, 500m down the street. We probably could have walked if it wasn’t so windy. We barely made it from the hotel to the car without being bowled over by the gusts.
We booked through Katlatrack cause of their safety focus and small groups. There were only eight of us in the group, and we left right on time at 11am. (I think we were the last to arrive out of our group at 10:40am!)
We all got in a Super Jeep. It reminded me of a monster truck demolition derby vehicle, with its oversized tires. Our guide had a Nordic sense of humour, and seemed to really like his job. He also was into his tunes, and cranked Icelandic bands most of the trip.
We headed east on Hwy 1 for about ten minutes, and then cutoff to an F-road. In Iceland, this denotes a mountain road, the F is for fjall which is Icelandic for mountain. The F-road was closed due to the weather conditions, except for Super Jeeps. Our guide stopped briefly to deflate the tires for broader contact with the volcanic sand.
After a few minutes we off-roaded, although I couldn’t tell the difference as the road wasn’t all that great.
The scenery (at least what we could see of it in the poor visibility) was not anything I’ve seen before - a combination of snow and black sand, with volcanic peaks and hardened lava flows. Apart from monitoring the weather, our guide also had alerts for earthquakes and volcanoes. Katla is active every few years. The danger is not just from an eruption, but also the lava melting glacial dams and flooding the surrounding area.
We drove on towards the Kötlujökull glacier. Our guide pointed out where various film shoots occurred, including Star Wars (Episode I), Game of Thrones, and Interstellar.
We reached the glacier and parked on a raised area (in case of flash floods). Luckily at the glacier it wasn’t raining, and was somewhat sheltered from the wind. Our guide handed out helmets and crampons. We geared up and were on our way!
It took about 20 minutes to walk to the cave entrance. The coolest part was the view - it was all monochrome, with the grey cloudy sky, and mix of snow and black sand peaks.
The ice caves are natural and constantly changing. For our visit, the cave was only about 20m deep, which is about normal. Creative pics make it look much more spectacular.
We retraced our path back to the car. Took some more pics before our hands froze completely, and then boarded the Super Jeep for the drive back to Vik.
The excursion normally includes a visit to the black sand beach of Reynisfjara and its basalt columns. However the wind and waves made it too dangerous.
We got back to Black Crust Pizzeria around 2pm. It was a worthwhile excursion, just for the views of the interior landscape!
Heather and I split a pizza for lunch which was mmm good, although any pizza fresh out of the oven tastes good. They didn’t do coffee, so went to Lava Bakery for an espresso.
That was it for the day. It was quite a successful touristing day, considering the weather conditions.
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