Iceland: The forbidden island of Surtsey really appeals to tourists

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VTwelve years ago, Kristín Jóhannsdóttir almost made it: her place in the helicopter with a group of scientists was reserved, and departure was imminent. Then the authorities in Reykjavík intervened. “You can’t go there,” it was said, says the 62-year-old. Since then, it has not even been enough for a reservation.

As a museum director, she would have good reason to visit the island of Surtsey, which emerged from the North Atlantic 60 years ago as a result of a volcanic eruption off Iceland’s south coast. But there is no exception. Surtsey, the second largest of the Westman Islands after Heimaey and the southernmost point of Iceland, is a nature reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008.

Here the colonization of new land by animals and plants can be observed better than almost anywhere else in the world. In order not to disrupt this process, only a few scientists are allowed to enter the island. And nobody else.

Source: Infographic WORLD

Like all forbidden places, this one also has a special appeal – especially for tourists. At the port of Heimaey, 24 travelers from all over the world and four guides are putting on red and black overalls and life jackets for the forthcoming island safari, which, as always, is fully booked.

Spread out on two yellow inflatable boats with monster-powerful Yamaha engines, they race out into the ocean shortly afterwards. Your route: past all 14 of Heimaey’s neighbors, some of which rise out of the waves like fortresses. The highlight: Surtsey.

A volcanic eruption created the island of Surtsey

It was November 14, 1963, when an undersea volcano erupted out there and just kept ejecting lava. The next morning, amateur pilots flew over the area and saw land where there was none before.

Black and white amateur footage shows how a few weeks later French journalists approached on a sailboat in rough seas and dared a few steps onto the black, steaming lava. They are said to have briefly considered hoisting the French flag, but then left the new territory to the Icelanders.

Iceland: View of a volcano on the south coast of Surtsey in 1965;  the eruptions on the island lasted for years

View of a volcano on the south coast of Surtsey in 1965; the eruptions on the island lasted for years

Source: Getty Images/Ernst Haas

When Kristín Jóhannsdóttir talks about Surtsey today, she does so as a Westman Islander and director of the Eldheimar Museum, which opened in 2014 on the outskirts of the port town of Heimaey, the group’s only permanently inhabited island. ‘Eldheimar’ means ‘Fire Worlds’ and the entire top floor is dedicated to the Fire Island of Surtsey.

Maps showing the island in 1967 at the moment of greatest expansion at the end of the eruptions show Surtsey today as a 1.4 square kilometer apple shape with a north-east facing style constantly gnawing at the tide of the Atlantic waves. And they show Surtsey as scientists say it will be in 2050: quite green and half a square kilometer in size, populated by seabirds like all its neighbors.

A unique place in Iceland for researchers

Borgthor Magnússon is one of the few people whose seat on the helicopter to Surtsey has never been canceled. Now 70 and retired, the Reykjavík-based biologist has been to Lava Island dozens of times. Magnússon and selected colleagues researched how flora and fauna colonize new land, how biotopes develop, how species interact – completely undisturbed by human influences. The thing that science needed the least was: tourists.

Iceland: The hut on Surtsey is rarely used by explorers

The hut on Surtsey is rarely used by scientists

Quelle: mauritius images / ARCTIC IMAGES / Alamy / Alamy Stock Photos

Magnússon no longer considers the strict isolation of Surtsey’s nature scientifically necessary. In the beginning it was certainly important: the first seagull, the first guillemot egg, the first washed up seeds, the first insects blown in, the first mosses, the first simple orchids. In 2009, he says, bumblebees were a public holiday on Surtsey for the first time!

But now his colleagues are staying less and less in the wooden hut on the east coast. The constant video recordings, transmitted by automatic cameras, are usually sufficient.

Iceland: On Surtsey, researchers were able to observe how flora and fauna colonize new land, how biotopes develop, how species interact - undisturbed by human influences

On Surtsey, researchers were able to observe how flora and fauna colonize new land, how biotopes develop, how species interact – undisturbed by human influences

Quelle: Getty Images/Stone RF/Arctic-Images

At the Eldheimar Museum, Director Kristín Jóhannsdóttir has her own thoughts on Surtsey. She, the rich Russians years ago, offered millions for little Bjarnarey because they thought she could give them the island as a private island. She, who is promised tens of thousands every now and then to organize an illegal trip to Surtsey. Of course she doesn’t do that, but: “What speaks against auctioning off at least a few helicopter seats per year?” she asks, also on behalf of the chronically clammy island community.

Wind and waves gnaw at the Westman Islands

Meanwhile, the tourists pass the famous Elephant Rock in their inflatable boats, squeeze their way under lava arches, into deep caves. All 16 islands were once formed like Surtsey, the oldest around 12,000 years old. Wind and waves gnaw at all Westman Islands, piece by piece they are eroded away. Difficult to access simple huts are enthroned on some of the green cliffs. And all are colonized by seabirds: puffins, fulmars, gulls.

After about an hour of breakneck driving, the engines suddenly fell silent. The rubber boats are bobbing in front of Súlnasker. It stinks of gannets, but that doesn’t bother anyone on board, because everyone is now gazing reverently at the black landmass that has just appeared on the horizon, almost within reach: Surtsey. The Forbidden Island!

Iceland: View of the island of Surtsey from the water

Awakens longings in tourists: a view of Surtsey from the water

Quelle: Getty Images/Stone RF/Andrew Peacock

When a tourist asks if you shouldn’t, guide Emilia Eir interrupts him in a friendly but firm manner and explains that there will be no exception today either. Despite the good weather and the only 20 minutes it would take to drive to Surtsey from here. And besides, what is this black behemoth compared to all the other natural beauties? “Just another volcano,” she says – just another volcano.

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The sentence resonates with the fact that the other Westman Islands have very different problems than popular Surtsey. How big these are can be seen on the lower floors of Jóhannsdóttir’s museum on Heimaey, which only has a few visitors. It is built around a house that was buried by ash in the great Eldfell eruption of 1973 and then dug up again.

400 buildings were destroyed at that time, the entire island population had to be evacuated. Only about two-thirds, including Kristín Jóhannsdóttir, have returned. She would prefer that many more people would be interested in her “Pompeii of the North”. If Europe’s youngest island, celebrating its 60th anniversary, can help, why not?

Tips and information:

Getting there: Flight to Keflavík, by bus or rental car to Landeyjahöfn, from there by car ferry to the Westman Islands.

Tours: Speedboat trips through the islands with a view of Surtsey can be booked at ribsafari.is and islandboattours.is (from 155 euros).

Information: visitwestmanislands.com; de.visiticeland.com

Iceland: Who knows - maybe tourists will be allowed to enter Surtsey at some point.  Until then, they have to be content with photos

Who knows – maybe tourists will be allowed to enter Surtsey at some point. Until then, they have to be content with photos

Quelle: Getty Images/Digital Vision/Arctic-Images

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