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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