During the summer in Iceland, you can only visit one natural ice cave. Katla is a volcano that last erupted in 1918 and all Iceland's volcanoes are monitored constantly so it's safe to go to Katla Ice Cave with a guide. It's a half day trip that includes the drive to the area of the volcano in a special transport vehicle, putting on safety helmets, walking across the black volcanic sand until you reach the cave entrance, then putting on crampons over your boots before you go inside. Since we went in September at the end of the summer season, it was actually more of a big tunnel than a cave but that meant we got to hike through the ice tunnel and to a waterfall on the other side so we considered that a bonus.
The tunnel is completely made of ice that is laced with ribbons of ash from previous eruptions. There are ropes to hold onto as you walk and also plank bridges to cross. Some of the planks were really chewed up from all the hundreds of crampons digging into them all summer and looked pretty shaggy. Our guide Ollie made a point of repeating to us to keep one hand on the ropes at all times and he regularly checked to make sure the anchor points were tight. This is important because there was a glacial river running under and through the tunnel. If you fell in there, I have no idea where you would come out or if you would be trapped under the ice somewhere. Needless to say I kept hold of the rope! The photos of the tunnel are deceiving because it makes it look smaller and easier than it really was but there are videos on Youtube that show it pretty well. It was tiring and exhilarating at the same time and we were thrilled to have done it.
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