Busy August

Holtasóley (Dryas octopetala), the national flower of Iceland

August has gone quickly. I have a big backlog of things to do that I imagined I´d do tomorrow and tomorrow somehow slipped by. I´ve been west and north and south .. and might go east within the next month. I´ve been to four volcanoes and passed by numerous others. No activity.. nothing .. no explosions or mild sizzles at all.. shame. Kind of. I did though see some holes in the ground made by the June 17th and 2oth earthquakes in 2000 ..

Fracture from the June 2000 earthquakes, magnitude 6.5

and walked on a recent lava flow from Krafla (1980s) which felt and sounded a bit like walking on the crispy caramel of a creme brulee.. exactly the same crunchy noise as you make when you crash through the caramel with your spoon. I crashed through the top of the lava flow.. All the while I kept wondering why there was so much traffic, as the roar of the jet-engine boreholes at the power station crept into my thoughts.

Krafla

I saw the drilling rig for a borehole in a new geothermal power area, where they have just announced that there will be a power station built to fuel another new aluminium smelter if they find enough steam. The town major there says there are no reasons not to go ahead with the plan. I suppose he won´t work there. Imagine working in an aluminium smelter the next time there is a major earthquake there. It was strange mix that place.. green grass and grazing sheep, hot springs and bubbling grey-blue mud.. the mix of smells of sulphur and grass under your feet, and then the drill rig.

I took a dip in Víti at Askja .. "Hell" .. kind of felt like Hell might be close to freezing over. But then we did walk through a mini blizzard to reach the blue-green tinted crater and slid down a mud bank to reach the water. It wasn´t Askja´s most sunny day.

Went for a walk and looked back on a tuff cone in the evening light:

Hverfjall from Dimmuborgir

And what seems months away now, on Menningarnótt, we taught 40 people to dance the Victoria Reel in Ingolfstorg, the square in Reykjavík city centre, and made a few newspapers and first mention on that night´s 7pm news. Classes will start in the next few weeks .. let me know if you want to come.. will be emailing with news and posting notices soon.