The Underworld Caving at Leiðarendi, Iceland

We all know Iceland is amazing, the landscape is filled with beautiful greens and white snows! Crystal blue ice caves, snow white glaciers and deep blue beautiful sea evidenced a reason why many movies were filmed here in Iceland! Many of us might not know what lies underneath the ground, maybe something that we never ever could imagine! A beauty that hid underneath for million years with most spectacular natural sights we ever seen in Mother Earth!  The Leiðarendi cave in Iceland is a perfect example of an Icelandic lava tube and a unique experience to explore this dark and quirky world beneath us. 

It was a toss between Lava Caving or ride the Icelandic Horse in Iceland that day! I’m sure I didn’t make a wrong choice by making a trip down to Leiðarendi cave at Hafnarfjordur, Iceland (170 meters from main road). It was a great day out exploring the hidden world and did lava caving at Leiðarendi lava tube cave! Just like visiting the glaciers in Iceland, there is absolutely no way I could do a lava caving by myself without a guide. It can be extremely dangerous doing it alone.

 

Anyway, I knew I was going to explore the fantastic and colourful scenery of a lava tube, but getting there to Leiðarendi took about 40 minutes from Reykjavík, the capital city of Iceland.

 

Inside the lava cave I saw some of the spectacular lava formations. The winter adds beautiful ice sculptures to the scene. Walking down into the lava cave was a challenge! The Lava Cave was small and navigating through the cave was not as easy as I thought.

 

 

 

 

Some parts were very narrow and really hard to navigate especially I brought along 2 cameras with a sling bag. We need to crawl, duck squat and prone at some instances. Walking down to the cave was already a hazardous experience! haha It was extremely slippery with many sharp edges of rocks surrounding you! There is no way to go inside the cave if you are unprepared! People with Claustrophobia a BIG NO NO! haha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We discovered the marvels that volcanic activity has created in the past. On my underworld adventure, I saw the magical rock formations left behind in the last volcanic eruption. There was a skeletal remains of a lamb that was found inside the cave when it was discovered nearly 20 years ago. The guide told me, to date, no one can ever can answer why the lamb’s skeletal remain is in the cave.

 

 

As mentioned, people with Claustrophobia is a BIG NO NO! The underworld experience was an exotic and unorthodox trip, and half way through at a resting point, my guide told everyone to switch off our torches. It was pitch dark and absolutely impossible to see anything not even our hands! This reminded me the importance of reliable light source. The feeling of a world without light and visual was something inspiring for me not to take things for granted.

 

So we spent about an hour or two in the lava cave. I hurt my hands in the cave as it was really cold and I totally forgotten about my gloves. I also got a bit of cuts from the sharp edges of the falling rocks. Well bad on me, but still worth it. Because I did this trip, I managed to capture the amazing interior sights of the lava cave! It’s all good! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Important Tips: Caving gear is provided, you need to bring a good hiking shoes. As I recommend on my previous post on Ice Climbing. Timberland Gore-tex Hiking shoe can work that magic in the lava cave as well. DO DO remember to bring along your gloves. It really helps to prevent small little cuts on your hands. If you wear a slipper into the cave, I should say “WISH YA ALL THE BEST!” 🙂

 

Well, after an hour or so, we finally got out from the cave. It was a sigh of relief to see the beautiful world again! Reminded me that we belong to the world on ground, not underneath! haha Took some photos with my new friends before departing back to Reykjavik.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust