Buri in Leitahraun-lava fieldOne of earth's most spectacular lava tube caves
Booking
Guaranteed departures: Mondays and Thursdays from the 1st of May to the 27th of September 2012. Difficulty: Only for people in good shape. Max weight 120 kg. (Tour not recommended for people with back or knee problems)
A tour to Buri can also be operated on any day of the year with minimum 4 persons. Such a tour will cost ISK 60.000 for 1-3 persons, but ISK 16.000 per person if 4 persons or more.
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If you don't have enough people, check for guaranteed dates here.
DescriptionThe lava tube cave known as Buri, is situated in Leitahraun-lava field on Reykjanes peninsula. The eruption that formed the Leitahraun-lava field was massive and therefore the lava tube cave Buri is massive. Buri is probably the most prized of all the Icelandic lava tube caves. Bjorn Hroarsson vulcanospeleologist discovered Buri the 7th of may 2005 and that find was considered one of the more remarkable discoveries in Speleology in Iceland for the last 1000 years. Buri is over one kilometer long and has a great width but is difficult to trek. Buri has some spectacular lava formations and it’s size is unrivaled in Iceland, for it runs about 10 meters in height and 10 meters wide in the largest chambers. The last 400 meters of the cave are said to be unrivaled by other similar caves in the world, at the innermost section of the cave, there is a 17 meter high vertical pit made from a lava fall, and is known to be the deepest lava pit on earth. The route to Buri lava tube cave isn’t the easiest one. Starts with an hour drive from Reykjavik which is followed by about an hour walk to the cave’s entrance. The entrance is very narrow, but when inside you stand in a great chamber filled with ice sculptures and formations of all sizes. Those ice formations are most spectacular in the late winter, but Extreme Iceland does tours to the Buri lava tube cave at any season of the year. Going through the chamber of ice and up the ice slope in the back of the chamber isn’t a trek for everybody, especially not for those that have any kind of health issues. After the ice slope has been climbed, follows a wide and rocky tunnel, the rocky part of the tunnel is almost 700 meters long, but after that the floor is almost completely flat and all the way to the lava pit. There are probably few man made structures that can rival the beauty of Buri lava cave visually, so travelers are given enough time to zip in this extraordinary beauty deep inside the Icelandic landscape, after that we trek back to the clean and crisp air of the Icelandic wilderness. |
