Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 3h

I had no idea it’s been 1.5 months already 🫣

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 4h

Hoffe du hast nicht versehentlich Screenshot gemacht

1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

After we decided to check out the area around Fagradalsfjall and Sundhnúkur volcanos, we went back to our hostel near Reykjavik and finished the day with a perfect vegan menu at the Loving Vegan in Hafnarfjörður. 5/5, if you ever make your way to Reykjavik broader area it is soooo worth the trip

1 3

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

The flat lava dike was built there to direct the lava away from the blue lagoon. It was all a very surreal experience, the smell, the colors mixed in the rich black of the cold lava, and overall the knowledge that all this came up and out of the earth suddenly within hours some months ago

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

We did no really expect that the road towards Grindavik went through the lavafield of the very recent eruptions of the Sundhnúksgígar crater row. Here is a short video I took after we stopped there to look around. This was basically fresh lava.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

In hindsight, I would rate the climb down to be more dangerous than up.

After we reached the foot of the volcano at 3.30 pm, we still had to hike back to our car. For some reason we still had adventurism in us, so we drove towards Grindavik, to scout the area we wanted to visit the following day.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

While we carefully always tried to keep the backpack aimed towards the mountain, to never loose balance downhill, we lost balance quite a few times but towards the mountain, leading to short slides. You can not believe how much dirt and stones I had to shake out of my shoes

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

After resting for half an hour in the warm sun, we made our way down again. We choose a path downwards the south flank of Keilir, which was a bit shorter but also even steeper than the climb up.

The view from the southern flank of Mount Keilir. The flank is made of gravel, with some bigger stones sparked within

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

I find it really tragic that the final blow to this species was started by museums, which, trying to collect and preserve the skins of this bird, made it valuable to hunters, which inevitably resulted in the extinction of the species.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

Eldey is an absolutely ridiculous island. Just look at this picture from wikipedia: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

It is home to thousands of birds, and was the last retreat of the flightless bird species Great Auk. The last of this species was killed on Eldey in June 1844.

The island of Eldey. It is made of high and very steep cliffs, with thousands of bird living on it.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

To the south-east, one can see the clouds of evaporated water over the blue lagoon, and by looking even farther beyond the coast line, the tiny island of Eldey. I tried to mark it with a red box in the picture here, hope it is not lost in compression.

View from Mount Keilir towards the east, where water evaporations from the blue lagoon are visible. Also, a red box was drawn around the island of Eldey, which lies some 12 km of the coast of the Reykjanes peninsula.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 17h

To the east lies Litli-Keilir, which is a cute tiny volcano right next to Keilir

View from the top of Mount Keilir to the east, where the smaller Litli-Keilir is dominating the landscape

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 17h

To the north-west one can see the peninsula Snæfellsnes with Snæfellsjökull being the most visible landmark there. The distance from Snæfellsnes to Reykjavik is around 120km, so the view on this day was quite amazing.

View from the top of Keilir towards north, were the peninsula of Snæfellsnes with the glacier Snæfellsjökull on top is barely visible.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 17h

Some minutes later, we finally reached the summit at an approx. height of 380 m. At least, that was what the compass app on my phone said.
From up there, quite a number of landmarks are visible. Towards the Keilisbörn hills at the foot of Keilir, one can see Reykjavik in the north-east

View from the top of Keilir towars the north-east, with the Keilisbörn hills at the foot of the volcano and Reykjavik visible in the distance.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 17h

Somewhere on the way up, I turned around to look at what we accomplished already, which was not disappointing. The path through the greener part of the lava field is roughly the same we took, meaning there is slowly but surely and established way to Keilir!

View from two thirds up the climb of the south-east flank of volcano Keilir towards the south-east. Clearly visible across the lava field is a path generated by the hikers who walked there.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 17h

One really important lesson learned was to bring special gloves next time, as the stones we tried to hold on to were quite sharp.
Quite fascinating to see were the tiny dust blows everywhere. This is a testament to dryness and bareness of the entire area.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 17h

The hard part about this climb was the combination of steepness and loose ground. Every step we took, we also slid a little bit down again. We leaned forward as much as possible, and also tried to help with grabbing every lug available.

1 1 1

Reposted by Bekki

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 17h

Well I finally found time to write again so here we go, continuing.

2 1 1

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

After we decided to check out the area around Fagradalsfjall and Sundhnúkur volcanos, we went back to our hostel near Reykjavik and finished the day with a perfect vegan menu at the Loving Vegan in Hafnarfjörður. 5/5, if you ever make your way to Reykjavik broader area it is soooo worth the trip

1 3

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

The flat lava dike was built there to direct the lava away from the blue lagoon. It was all a very surreal experience, the smell, the colors mixed in the rich black of the cold lava, and overall the knowledge that all this came up and out of the earth suddenly within hours some months ago

1 1 1

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

We did no really expect that the road towards Grindavik went through the lavafield of the very recent eruptions of the Sundhnúksgígar crater row. Here is a short video I took after we stopped there to look around. This was basically fresh lava.

1 1 1

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

In hindsight, I would rate the climb down to be more dangerous than up.

After we reached the foot of the volcano at 3.30 pm, we still had to hike back to our car. For some reason we still had adventurism in us, so we drove towards Grindavik, to scout the area we wanted to visit the following day.

1 1 1

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

While we carefully always tried to keep the backpack aimed towards the mountain, to never loose balance downhill, we lost balance quite a few times but towards the mountain, leading to short slides. You can not believe how much dirt and stones I had to shake out of my shoes

1 1 1

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

After resting for half an hour in the warm sun, we made our way down again. We choose a path downwards the south flank of Keilir, which was a bit shorter but also even steeper than the climb up.

1 1 1

Bekki @rebexter.bsky.social · 16h

I find it really tragic that the final blow to this species was started by museums, which, trying to collect and preserve the skins of this bird, made it valuable to hunters, which inevitably resulted in the extinction of the species.

1 1 1