Day 7, Part II (it was a long one)

After lunch, we were off for another drive for a bit. I later asked Valdi about the cave locations, and he explained that they have a different one in the summer very near the Silfra site, but it is not accessible in the winter. So we drove in a vaguely south-westerly direction to the other side of Reykjavik, into lava fields nearer 2000 yrs old than the 10, 000 around the fissure. I have no idea how the guides locate these sites, but driving up a remote gravel road through what looked to us like untouched moonscape again, Valdi stopped, turned, and pulled up near another van. He handed us helmets with headlamps and marched us to a trail that was utterly invisible from the road, heading for a spot where a few steel posts had been driven into the rock, marking the cave mouth for the "Into the Black" part of the "Black and Blue" day.

I am sure as caves go, probably even lava tubes in Iceland, this was a pretty easy walk, but it was still very neat and a little bit spooky. We had to carefully step our way in down what could have been an ice slide, and for the first hundred meters or so, were walking over what looked like wet, coarse sand and larger rocks but was in fact ice-encased coarse cave floor and larger rocks. Luckily, for the most part, the sandy-appearing parts were rough enough that good boots still kept a grip. The cave narrowed and widened several times, and at the first narrowing, again, everything was so slick with crystal-clear ice coating that sitting on our butts and sliding through was the best way.

Valdi had quite a lot of information on this site and the geology of it, and the lava tubes in general. We saw an number of what looked like what we would call stalagmites and stalactites, and he did not have a different word for them, but in these caves they are formed differently. Though it LOOKS like the water dripping through and off them is leaving deposits, they are actually iron-rich rock that was either melted off the roof, or bubbled up from the floor through the molten lava flow and hardened as the flow of lava in the cooling tube re-melted parts of the cooling walls.

The current state of the cave was as interesting as the geology. A man named Arni is a caretaker of sorts, a volunteer though he has received grants for materials and stewardship work. Arni has carefully placed signs and chained-off areas of the cave to protect particularly notable rock forms, and Valdi went over with us the 'take only pictures, leave only footprints' philosophy that applies in much of Iceland's environmentally and culturally significant land. To a Canadian who grew up camping, a very familiar philosophy. Sadly, not everyone has respected it, and one of Arni's works in the cave is a small monument to one of the largest stalagmites, broken off and taken some years ago. A few others have been re-fixed to their pedestals, though it's unclear if they were deliberately or accidentally broken. Unlike true stalagmites/stalactites, these forms are NOT dynamic and will not re-form. Valdi explained that it is believed that the life of a lava tube cave is about 5000 years, after which it will have collapsed into just a fissure, so a relatively short lifespan in geological terms. Already the tube we were in is believed to be about 400 m. shorter than it originally was, as the far end has collapsed.

Valdi took us to a spot where he told us he would stop, and ask us to go on about 15 paces and then see if we could understand why the name of this cave translated roughly to "End of the Road". We did so, and came up on a chained-off area in which a hazy white scattering of.. something... could be seen. It was ghostly-white against all the black and iron-rust rock and took me a moment to parse... my first thought was that it was a grave! It was, of a sort, but not human. A closer look revealed an elongated skull, jawbone, small lower leg bones and the shape of hooves - a sheep. Once I stood back and looked at the whole scene again, the outline could be parsed as a wooly body. Valdi explained that while Arni has marked off the area and no one has touched the remains, they believe this was a stray sheep from ~900 years ago, which fell or ran into the cave mouth to escape earthquake or volcanic activity, and just could not find it's way back out in the pitch blackness. I felt for the poor thing - I certainly wouldn't want to be in there alone, with no light!

Just past the sheep was a step down into the chamber at the end of the passable tunnel. There were flat rocks to sit on, and a few more of the not-properly-called stalagmites to admire, and then Valdi had us turn our lamps off and wait and listen for a bit. The darkness did seem to magnify the dripping of groundwater through the cave. Before we turned the lamps back on, he told us a story of how Iceland has more zombies officially on record than anywhere in the world - and we realized we were getting an actual history lesson, and it struck me as he explained, how sad this really was! He said the legend of the lava fields were that one should never wander off, as there were spirits and demons and trolls, but occasionally someone would be lost. When they were found later, lifeless, out in the fields, custom dictated that they be taken to a churchyard for burial quickly, as otherwise they might rise and "eat your brains" (I'm not sure that wasn't modern embellishment) and hunt your family through all generations. When the churchyard was days away, though, the deceased would have to be sat with and watched at all times, in case they woke from the dead - and if that happened, they were to be beheaded with an axe or clobbered with a hammer or such. Some cultural archeology in our modern time has show that there were hundreds of documented reports of this happening. Well, to a 21st century wilderness guide and a couple of science-educated tourists, we can quickly recall stories of hypothermia - and revival from hypothermia!!!! - which likely explained the "zombie" revivals. Adam then mentioned to Valdi the "saved by the bell" expression and Valdi made a knowing acknowledgment, mentioning that claw marks had been found inside coffins exhumed from a relocated graveyard, and his grandparents' generation had a terrible fear of being buried alive. To the point where one grandmother had a deal with the doctor to slit her wrists after he pronounced her dead - just to be sure. Another had explicitly dictated her remains were not to be disposed of until she had been dead a full 2 weeks. Funny story became a sober commentary on a harsh land.

Valdi then said one more thing - "Before you turn your lights on, let me leave you with this thought - would you rather find that the party had LOST a member in the cave, or gained one?" That actually lightened things up a bit, as he went on to explain how that is something they ask of groups of teens they take through the caves, and he has a colleague who actually bought a pair of glow-in-the-dark skeleton gloves which he will whip out at that point and wave at the kids. He then got Adam going with the legend of a vicious Icelandic cave animal, the Manana, which is very fast and slippery - size of a squirrel, head of a cat, half man and half banana. :-) We had a laugh and carefully made our way back out of the tunnel.

From there it was back to Reykjavik, thanks and goodbye to our guide, and the discovery at the hotel reception that a Northern Lights Hunting tour was on for the evening - so on a whim we bought a pass for that. Ultimately, nothing to tell of that. A couple hours bus ride chasing the little bit of clear sky, a couple hours standing in the cold and a near-casualty for Adam's camera as it got blown over, and no lights. The good news is that the tour company offers a free retry if the lights are not seen on one of their tours, so we can call to claim it if the lights are likely tonight or tomorrow. We're very tired this morning, though, with stiff necks from the bus and from craning up at the skies, so I don't know if we're going to claim this. I'd like to, as it seems a shame to be here and not see the Aurora, but it's not been a brilliant week for that weather-wise and I'm not sure what our chances are again.

Today we've slept in, had a dawdling breakfast, I'm finishing this blog, and then the plan is just to explore the city some more. I'm angling for a swimming pool, Adam's not so sure, but we'll pick a direction when we get going. More later!

By the way, Adam does have the first few days of photos up. in an Iceland section of his gallery.