Askja.

This Saturday we went for, I think, last trip with our beloved cars. We took Askja as our destination. From the beginning we knew that it can be one of the toughest trips we had here and we weren't far from the truth as it occurred. Askja is a stratovolcano situated in a central part of Icelandic highlands. It wasn't known until enormous eruption which took place in 1875. In the center of the volcano there is a lake - Öskjuvatn - which is also the deepest lake in Iceland (about 220 meters). Next to it there is a smaller explosion crater - Viti. It's filled with rich-mineral water, but unlike Öskjuvatn, it's maintained at the comfortable temperature for swimming. The area around Askja looks like desert. Covered with black sand and pumice, it looked like a moon surface. Actually it's not only me who noticed that - NASA used it as a training ground for astronauts before Apollo missions :) Who knows maybe this "fake" shots of the moon-walking were taken there? :D
To get to Askja we had to cross some rivers, they were actually quite deep. Good that we didn't get stuck there, although we lost a car front plate on one of them :)



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Laboratory in Reykjavik & Landmannalaugar.

This week we had visited Reykjavik again because of the laboratories we had there. I finally had an opportunity to work on a real fuel cell. After 3 days of taking measurements and testing, we had to go back to Akureyri. We decided to take a road through the interior and visit Landmannalaugar on the way. Landmannalaugar area is famous for its incredible natural beauty. Many mountains around come in all the world's colors; pink, brown, green, yellow, blue, purple, black, white and more. Although the weather wasn't perfect and the way was rough (we had to turn back and take another road, because of the river) we got there after 4 hours drive. There were many tourists there, but luckily for us, the sun started to shine and we could experience the beauty of the place. We didn't have much time there, so we left the place and took F35 road back to Akureyri.



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Weekend trips.

Soon we are going to move to a new dorm, to the "city center" of Akureyri. RES will probably take our cars, as we won't need them anymore for transportation. That's why we decided to organize trips each weekend, to just use the opportunity, and see as much as we can.
First one last weekend (Sat. 12.07) was to Húsavík, for Whale Watching and to see Dettifoss, the mightiest waterfall in Europe. The road there is only available for cars couple of months a year, because of the mud from melting snow and rivers, which are becoming impossible to cross.
I decided to change a bit the form of my blog, it takes a lot of time to put all of those pictures directly on the site, I'll just post them as a slideshow from my Picasa web albums along with some movies I record.



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Next weekend (Sat. 19.07) we took a famous and popular F35 gravel road which connects north and south of Iceland through the interior. Nowadays it's even possible to cross it with normal 2-wheel drive car, because of the bridges they built on it. The road, which is also called Kjölur, is entirely gravel and it crosses highlands between two glaciers - Langjökull and Hofsjökull. We decided to have a hike near Langjökull glacier and after that have a barbecue and a bath in hot springs in Hveravellir.



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All the way to the West.

We planned this trip for a long time and we were also told that this is one of the most beautiful regions in Iceland. Because of the distance, we decided to make it over 2 days in the weekend. We booked rooms in a hotel in Ísafjörður and, in the early morning on Saturday, we left our beloved dorm in Skjaldarvik.
Map of the route.












First stop on the way - farmers moved horses from one field to another.













Lunch break - by accident we stopped near, what looked like, a sheep cemetery...













Near Drangajökull glacier. If you look closer you can see a man playing piano carved in this stone. It's one of the most famous Icelandic composers.













RES jump!

































On the way to a glacier.























































Stop by a waterfall.

































































Way to Ísafjörður.























Barbecue in the hotel's garden.
























Ísafjörður by night :P













Our group in front of the hotel - Sunday morning.













It was a foggy day.

















































Near Dynjandi waterfalls.


























































































Airport in the middle of nowhere.





















Sandy beaches :P


















Látrabjarg, marks the western-most part of Europe. It hosts millions of birds, sometimes up to 40% of the world population for some species e.g. the Razorbill. It is Europe's largest bird cliff, 14km long and up to 440m high. On the picture - Atlantic Puffin - symbol of Iceland.






























Puffins weren't scared of us at all, we could approach them very close.


























































"Cucumber" :D











On the way back we chose an "F" type road, which means it's only suitable for jeeps or cars with 4-wheel drive. We had a lot of fun there :)


























Into the valley near Akureyri.