Back in 2018 Craig and I almost made our dreams of visiting Iceland come to when we arranged to volunteer on a sheep farm in the Eastern Highlands – it was a budget option to visit a notoriously expensive country. 

But we soon changed our minds when we realised it was the lambing season and we’d be working the night shifts, swinging lambs around our heads to awake the lifeless ones. Or at least that’s how I pictured it. 

In 2019 we applied for a job in an Icelandic cafe, but the pay was awful as the hosts offered the occasional horse ride to compensate for the low wage. 

We turned the job down as we figured it was better to get a normal wage in England and use our savings to choose what we spend our money on. 

Then Brexit happened, which poo-pooed any plans of working in Europe. So with Iceland being such an expensive country we ended up putting it on the back burner – until now as we’re about to rent a camper van and travel around Iceland for 11 days. 

Two weeks before our arrival news spread around the world that a volcano was erupting in Iceland and I was desperately hoping that it would continue until our visit. 

We arrived at the start of August – peak summer holiday season, yet an arctic wind hit us in the face as we exited the airport. The cool air made me smile and I was relieved to leave the muggy British summer behind. 

After filling out a few documents we were handed the key to our little Renault Express camper van. While some people would find it too small to live in, it was perfect for us. 

We hit the road, driving towards a black landscape of lava fields where steam rose along the edge of the asphalt. A series of volcanic cones was to our left and it felt like we’d been transported to Mars. 

As we looked east we spotted the smoking volcano and suddenly lava spewed out of it before our eyes. We couldn’t believe it. 

Just 20 minutes ago we were at the airport and now we were staring at an erupting volcano. It was quite far away, yet we could clearly see the lava with our own eyes in broad daylight. 

We noticed a busy car park offering a good view so we turned around on the old road that ran parallel to us. I’m not sure when the old road was closed off but thick black lava, up to a meter high, had solidified across the tarmac and created a very apocalyptic scene. 

When we reached the car park we saw lots of people walking across the lava field towards the cone to get a closer look, so we did the same. Some people were getting unnecessarily close though, their tiny bodies only visible through the zoom lens of my camera. 

We had a pretty good view of the cone from afar, with the occasional glimpse of red lava, but it wasn’t the best angle to view the eruption from and the smoke kept hiding the activity. 

So we decided to head back to the car and drive to another location, not far from the village of Grindavik. 

The Reykjanes Peninsula, which is home to Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, has sat peacefully for 800 years without any volcanic activity. But that all changed in December 2023 when a series of earthquakes and tectonic movements caused the volcanoes to wake up. 

Like a Mento added to a bottle of Cola, the lava began spewing out of fissures and cones, spreading towards Grindavik. 

Since then, the locals in Grindavik have been threatened by nine eruptions. The second one caused a fissure to open up just 100m from the village where the lava breached the defence system and caused an evacuation. 

It wasn’t a typical eruption like most people would picture – lava bubbling out of a conical volcano, instead, there was a 1.2km long crack in the ground, projecting lava into the air. 

One of the eruptions covered an area of 15.8 km2 with lava which is just wild to try and fathom. That’s 3200 football fields, or 32 times larger than the Vatican City. 

Most of the time there’s enough warning to evacuate locals, but on one occasion a man disappeared down a 40-meter deep fissure and was never recovered. Remarkably though that was the first volcanic-related death in Iceland since 1973. 

The car park was almost full when we arrived, which was understandable, who doesn’t want to witness an erupting volcano?

An extremely muddy track led us towards the crater, occasionally offering glimpses of what was to come and causing us to squeal with excitement. 

There was a huge monster truck driving the route for people who didn’t want to do the two-hour walk – for a high price of course. The vehicles made the track even worse, with deep squelchy gulleys carved into the mud.

The weather was grey and gloomy with occasional heavy downpours that would cause tourists to put on their plastic ponchos which flapped frantically in the wind. 

After about 45 minutes we walked around a bend and the volcano came into view. A few people were standing on a hill that looked like a lonely green island surrounded by a sea of black lava, but it was a fantastic vantage point so we headed up.

The grass around the hill was all scorched and scattered with pieces of lava that had caused a fire across the landscape. The lava was so light, like little pieces of black foam that shimmered a beautiful metallic purple colour. It was crazy to think that just a week before the ground surrounding us was covered in molten lava, slowly creeping down like thick treacle. 

We had a fabulous view of the volcano so we sat down and got comfortable, ready to watch the best Netflix documentary available. 

The colour of the lava was mesmerising, like melted traffic cones mixed with glitter and we watched in awe as it projected into the air. 

When the lava exploded close to the rim it would fall on the black cone, causing it to glow with fluorescent orange lava for a few magical seconds. 

We ventured to a few different vantage points until we met the end of the official trail. The weather had been a little temperamental all day with on and off showers so when the next downpour came we decided to call it a day. 

But the volcano was still on our mind. 

“Imagine how good it will look at dark…” I said to Craig.

A seed was planted in our minds so we did some calculations. Sunset wasn’t until 10:30pm aka our bedtime, and we’d already been up since 4am for our flight so we were shattered. But, we were also very tempted. So in the meantime, we did some more sightseeing along the peninsula. 

We ended up walking across a very different volcanic landscape. Instead of black lava we were surrounded by terracotta coloured hills and bubbling mud pits. 

Steam billowed across the boardwalk, wrapping us in a warm, egg-smelling blanket as we walked through it like a couple of celebrities stepping onto a smoke-filled stage. 

Once we finished our stroll we drove to a hidden hot spring that I’d read about. At the top of a grassy hill lay a small pool of water that was gently steaming under the cool air. 

The spring wasn’t particularly warm but as long as we stayed in the water we were comfortable – the problem was getting out and the brisk wind hitting our skin. 

It was a nice way to end the day though and it was almost 10pm when we began drying off. Sunset was approaching and our eyelids were getting heavier – but there was a niggle in our minds saying ‘GO BACK TO THE VOLCANO!’

The niggle won and we had to return and see the eruption again, so we walked as quick as we could along the horrendous muddy track, occasionally sprinting to get us to the viewpoint as quickly as possible. 

Eventually, we made it to the main area and decided to gain some elevation, scrambling up a mountain made of old lava. 

The colour of the molten lava was intense as twilight swept over us, causing the smoke to glow pink like a vibrant cloud at sunset. From our elevated position, we could see a line of glowing lava along the floor which we hadn’t seen in the daylight.

The main cone was mesmerising, we just sat watching it in awe as the lava bubbled up like an overcooked pan of tomato soup. 

Before midnight we frantically ran back to the car to avoid overstaying our time in the car park. But it was a hell of a challenge as the darkness hid the obstacles and puddles along the track causing us to stumble and squelch our way back to the car. 

By 1am we were pulling into a campsite, trying to be quiet so as not to wake up the other campers but a huge swarm of arctic terns seemed to reside on the dirt road. 

As soon as we rumbled down the track they began squawking and flying chaotically in-front of us, a bit like the gates of hell had briefly been opened and a swarm of bats had escaped.

What a day though – we ended up walking 25km, and it felt it too. We were wiped out but full of gratitude for the incredible memories we’d made on day one. 

The eruption started on the 16th of July and most of the early footage online was filmed from drones or helicopters until a path was opened and deemed safe to use. 

We visited on August 3rd and the very next day, after 20 days of spewing lava, the activity all died off. By the 5th of August, it was announced that the eruption was over – at least for now. 

If we arrived one day later or did a different activity on our first day we’d of missed it. 

Watching an erupting volcano was the one thing I was most hoping to see in Iceland, even though I knew the chances of it happening on our short trip were slim. But luck was on our side, and we finally got to witness an erupting volcano in Iceland.