Super Indeed!

OK, so that was about the coolest thing ever. A driver, two guys from Holland and myself took off for some 11 hours of driving thru steaming streams, over hills of pumice and finally up to the top of Mt. Hekla. Not really a mountain by our standards, Hekla is only about 1100 meters tall. The bonus is it's the tallest thing on the island and you can drive within a 100 meters of the summit. We had exceptional weather and the driver kept noting how unusually far we could see. I took an inordinate amount of pictures of waterfalls, steaming rivers, and volcanic craters. I was having too much fun with the binocular camera.

At one point we stopped the tour to track down some sort of rare icelancid grouse that darted across the road. Due to it's popularity as the main course at xmas dinner, this bird has been hunted to extinction. Environmentalists have helped passed laws protecting the bird much to the dismay of the locals who see hunting and eating the bird as part of the xmas tradition. I guess every place has it's spotted owl.

On the way home we were informed that "conditions were perfect" to see the northern lights.

When I asked the driver what those conditions were, he carefully explained there are three conditions: 1) darkness; 2) clear skys; and 3) coldness. But that last condition is arguable and a good topic for debate. I'm not really sure if he was trying to be as funny as he was, but he´s either a comic genius, thought I was a complete moron, or both.

We never did see the norther lights, but I understand they are commonplace and all I need to do is "look up periodically" to catch them. I'll keep my eyes on the sky.

All in all it was the highlight of my trip so far and I'm really glad I took the time away from the music fest to check it out.