Iceland 2.14: The end days, Part II

     The next morning was still windy, but it was not as strong.  Knowing that I had a four hour drive ahead of me, I decided to just go for it and begin the hike.  People online recommended going onto the route to Sjonarnipa and to going into a circle so you can stop at the Svartifoss waterfall.  The uphill part of the hike, to Sjonarnipa, was much easier than they indicated online.  The first half of it had me blocked from the wind by high ground and shrubbery to my side.  There was a great view behind me.

    The second half was in the open, and extremely windy.  There were two wonderful views, the second one being what they called Sjonarnipa, before the path turned west and the hike was downhill for the rest.

    Being bored of waterfalls, I took a quick picture of Svartifoss from a distance, and continued to the end.

    After the hike, I began the four hour drive back to Grindavik, the town nearest to the volcano and close to the airport.  While nearing Grindavik, the wind was blowing me off the road.  The next day's weather, however, was showing to be without precipitation and without much wind.  I decided to see the volcano again.

    

    Lava had gone over the trail that I used on my first hike, so they added a longer trail to reach the volcano.  Additionally, there was now a flat and short hike to see a freshly made lava field.  I had just missed it being a river by a few days.  I was excited to find parts with lava still coming through.

    After taking the shorter route, I took the longer route up the mountain.  Near the top, they had a long rope going through stakes, to help people pull themselves up.  This path brought me much closer to the volcano than the first time I had gone up.  Unfortunately, aside from smoke, the volcano was silent.  

    After returning to the van, changing, and driving to the supermarket, I went back to the cafe in town that I had visited with Stephanie.  Here they had a live view of the volcano, which was already starting to show activity again.  It turns out that the volcano had gone quiet for about twenty four hours before starting up again.  While I was lucky with the weather this time, I had been unfortunate that it coincided with the period in which the volcano stopped erupting lava.

    I flew home the next day.