Six weeks today......

.... we should be all checked in and waiting to board our flight to Iceland. If you are one of those people who likes to see the view from the plane, then try to get a seat on the right hand side of the plane on the way out (seats D, E and F - F is at the window ) and on the left hand side of the plane on the way back (seats A, B and C - A is beside the window). The flight to Iceland will take us up the west coast of Scotland and then on to the south coast of Iceland. On a clear day you will get spectacular views of the 3 huge icecaps in the south of Iceland - Vatnajokull (the largest in Europe), Myrdalsjokull and Eyafjallajokul. If we are lucky we may fly over the island of Heimaeay and get a view like this one sent to me by Ian Hardie.

If you look carefully, you should be able to pick out the volcanoes and lava flows in the north east corner, the runways at the island's airport and the town of Heimaey with its long natural harbour which was almost blocked by advancing lava in 1973. Just think - we'll be standing on top of one of those volcanoes (Eldfell) in a few weeks time! Here is a photo of it when it erupted in January of that year. If you click on the photo, you will link to a page of information about the eruption.

See you all tomorrow evening!