2009
29
lip
Lakagigar
Islandia, Laki
Przejechano 3996 km
Our journey is getting closer to it's end and now, after seeing Lakagigar tomorrow, I think we left one of the best places for the last day. Let me tell you...
Lakagigar is a gigantic lava field created by the biggest lava flow in written history of the world. It took place in 1783 and was disastrous: one fifth of Icelandic population was killed (not by lava itself, but by the poisonous gases), some 70% of all animals, the dust covered the whole northern hemisphere for a few months, affecting harvest in Japan and Alaska significantly. In a leaflet they even wrote it might have help the French Revolution to start, but you know what they write if they want their region to be the very special. In my humble opinion, it's very special even if it wasn't connected to French Revolution at all.
Surprisingly, the whole area is very green. I suppose that moss have had enough time to spread and now it makes the place just... perfect colored. The first point to stop is Fagrifoss, which means "beautiful waterfall" in Icelandic. The falls are indeed exceptional - the water is kind of splitting in two parts on the top, sliding gently on a brownish rock and merging again at the bottom, letting us see the beauty of its color. Then it is forming an eerie canyon, another miracle. Do not even try to omit Fagrifoss!
The road to Laki is in quite good condition but still inaccessible for smaller cars as there are a few rivers to cross - not deep though. After 30 or 40 kilometers it brings you to the starting point for Laki hike. Laki is the biggest of craters that were erupting - actually the Earth opened a great chasm 25 km long, so huge was the amount of lava to throw away. Laki is more or less in the middle of the row which makes it a perfect scenic point with 360 degree view. It's not really a hike, it's just walking half an hour on a quite steep slope. As the scenery is truly breathtaking, the price (I mean walking) is very low. However, I must admit that I hadn't expected so many people but I think we had bad timing - after an hour, we were almost alone there. There are three more paths to follow from the parking: two short (20 minutes) and one long (around Laki). We took shorter ones and again I must strongly recommend them: they both take you into the smaller craters where you feel... I don't know, maybe a bit like in Hobbiton but more mysterious: the craters are small and very green and there is a lot of tiny holes and caves to hide from creatures that could obviously dwell in a place like this.
Then there's a choice: you can either go back or take a 10-20km loop North. The road is worse than before and there's one deep ford to cross (compared to the former ones, but still passable for 4WD cars). The whole trip took us around 6 hours (starting and finishing on the ring road). 
Lakagigar is a gigantic lava field created by the biggest lava flow in written history of the world. It took place in 1783 and was disastrous: one fifth of Icelandic population was killed (not by lava itself, but by the poisonous gases), some 70% of all animals, the dust covered the whole northern hemisphere for a few months, affecting harvest in Japan and Alaska significantly. In a leaflet they even wrote it might have help the French Revolution to start, but you know what they write if they want their region to be the very special. In my humble opinion, it's very special even if it wasn't connected to French Revolution at all.
Surprisingly, the whole area is very green. I suppose that moss have had enough time to spread and now it makes the place just... perfect colored. The first point to stop is Fagrifoss, which means "beautiful waterfall" in Icelandic. The falls are indeed exceptional - the water is kind of splitting in two parts on the top, sliding gently on a brownish rock and merging again at the bottom, letting us see the beauty of its color. Then it is forming an eerie canyon, another miracle. Do not even try to omit Fagrifoss!
The road to Laki is in quite good condition but still inaccessible for smaller cars as there are a few rivers to cross - not deep though. After 30 or 40 kilometers it brings you to the starting point for Laki hike. Laki is the biggest of craters that were erupting - actually the Earth opened a great chasm 25 km long, so huge was the amount of lava to throw away. Laki is more or less in the middle of the row which makes it a perfect scenic point with 360 degree view. It's not really a hike, it's just walking half an hour on a quite steep slope. As the scenery is truly breathtaking, the price (I mean walking) is very low. However, I must admit that I hadn't expected so many people but I think we had bad timing - after an hour, we were almost alone there. There are three more paths to follow from the parking: two short (20 minutes) and one long (around Laki). We took shorter ones and again I must strongly recommend them: they both take you into the smaller craters where you feel... I don't know, maybe a bit like in Hobbiton but more mysterious: the craters are small and very green and there is a lot of tiny holes and caves to hide from creatures that could obviously dwell in a place like this.
Then there's a choice: you can either go back or take a 10-20km loop North. The road is worse than before and there's one deep ford to cross (compared to the former ones, but still passable for 4WD cars). The whole trip took us around 6 hours (starting and finishing on the ring road).
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