Day 3, 30th June 2008

Today we are off to climb Mt Helka (1491m) this is Iceland’s best known volcano and most active. The journey to the start gave our vehicle its first off road drive of the trip and some excitement for us all. The driver advised that the American’s had used this area to test and develop the lunar landing craft, we now know why.

Our route followed the edge of the newest lava field formed in 2000. Walking up snowy slopes
with large lava fields over 2m high at our side was very strange.

The temperature from the volcano had melted large areas of snow on the summit and steam was continually rising from the ground. The clouds cleared just as we summited and we were given our first views of some of the massive glaciers, including Vantnajokull (Europe biggest), all of the Fjallabak mountains and strange lava fields that cover large parts of Iceland.

The team were again all successful in summiting and we headed off to the hotel to relax in a hot tub feed from a natural spring