Trausti og Fagrifoss

Trausti og Fagrifoss

The visit to the Lakagígar, or Laki lava fields, was simply miserable.  I don't mind rain and gray and wet socks, but it was a gale and I hate drafts.  Trausti, our guide, his name means loyal and trust, told us as we started, that he had one thing to show us at the end of the day, which he said was the most beautiful waterfall in all of Iceland. 

And at that he certainly kept to his word.  Fagrifoss  ('fah gri foss, roll the r) means "Beautiful Falls".  I've since browsed the web for other photographs and videos and frankly, none are as dramatic as these that I was able capture, this all due to the amount of rain south Iceland had been inundated with this summer, the wettest in 50 years.  This day was seriously miserable weather (thanks Guðmann) but this made Fagrifoss all the more beautiful (thanks Trausti).

Fagrifoss, in the Lakagígar

Having a lot of fun learning video editing!

Earlier, we visited a lava cave⁄tunnel, which I have no pictures of and no idea where in Laki park it is, but the family with a 10 year old also on the tour with me were keen as I to explore it.  As I'd visited the lava cave near Húsafell, I was able to give them quite a nice geologic explanation of what we saw, how they form, why the smooth walls, the lava stalactites, and blobs on the floor of the cave, and always especially fascinating the curled up chocolate shaving of lava along the sides of the tunnel.  We didn't have helmets nor torches, but did have iPhone flashlights, but we didn't linger as it was a bit claustrophobic.  The boy was able to get pretty much further along to where he could stand up, so I had to do the same and trust I'd not split my head open on the rough roof.  It was there that a whole lot more proper examples of what to find in a lava cave could be found.