Leidarendi Lava Tube Gems - Caving Tour

An amazing wonderworld in subterranean Iceland

Shapes made by leaking lava remind us of a hieroglyph Is there a message on the wall?

Incandescent flowing magma shaped this tunnel

A lava tube is not a common view

Shedding light into earth's interior

For speleologists as well as amateurs. Join us in the adventure of exploring a rare world of lava tubes, formed when burning hot magma continued flowing into tunnels of already petrified lava. That's truly entering a volcano's interior.

Price

Adults: 9.500 ISK per person

Children (8-11): half price

Departures

Available: all year

Details

Duration: 3 hours

Departure: at 13:00

Difficulty: suitable for anyone with good health.

Minimum: on Saturdays and Sundays, no minimum is required. On other days, the minimum is 4 persons.

Pickup: at 12:30 your hotel or guesthouse in Reykjavik.

Included: guide, transport, pickup, flash light, gloves and helmet.

Bring with you: warm clothes and good hiking shoes.

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Description

Stori-Bolli is a rather handsome crater (about 150 meters in diameter) south-south-east of the town of Hafnarfjordur. From Stori-Bolli crater came the namesake lava field, Stora-Bollahraun and in it was the lava tube Leidarendi created.

We will enter through narrow cave entrances and find they reveal extraordinary scenery of colors and lava formations. These beautiful, natural phenomena were created when the surface lava hardened and the fluid lava continued to flow in tubes underneath.

It only takes 25-30 minutes to drive to the cave from Reykjavik and the cave's entrance is just a stone-throw from the road. Leidarendi lava tube is about 900 meters long and is considered to be a subterranean wonder world. The entrance is a small pit that leads down into the cave; the cave itself runs in both directions and connects in two parts so it runs in a circle. The cave's ceiling and walls are in very few places broken or collapsed and is therefore easily navigated, although sometimes the cave’s ceiling gets a bit low and in times you might have to crawl a little bit.

The flow lines of the ancient lava can be seen vividly in many places inside the cave and lava formations such as Stalagmites can also be seen around. A peculiar lava formation known as the “chandelier” can be seen in one part of the cave. A skeleton of an Icelandic sheep has been discovered deep inside the northernmost part of the lava tube, it’s not fully known how old the remains are, but we might even conclude that this sheep might be from the Saga period and perhaps came with a settler on a longboat from Norway.

Extreme Iceland offers guided trips to Leidarendi lava tube every day of the year.