Watch out for volcanic mud pools

My left leg has vanished into the mud
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During our tour of the Hengill central volcano area on 10 June, I was told to stay on the trails, but I reached an area where there wasn't a trail. I saw some people walking on the other side of this field, so I thought I'd walk over towards them.

It was a very muddy field. I tried to step carefully, but ended up sinking knee-deep into a volcanic mud pool. In my defense, there aren't really "official" trails in these valleys. There are paths that seem to have been tread on before, but they tend to disappear unpredictably... I don't know, maybe you shouldn't be going that way, but it's where the coolest stuff is.

At first, I was very, very scared as once my left foot sunk, I couldn't pull it out and I thought I would continue to sink if I moved around at all. There was no one nearby that could help me get out.

After minutes of easing back and forth, nothing happened and I was sinking a little bit deeper. I was able to get my right foot out, because it wasn't as deeply in the mud. My left foot, however, was really stuck. I wasn't really getting anywhere with slow movements, so I just lunged forward and grabbed some grass (which also began to slowly sink as I put my hands on it) and tried to move my left leg forward and pull up at the same time very quickly. This seemed to do the trick as I was moving fast enough to suck air into the space around my leg faster than the mud could fill in that space.

I was very lucky that the mud was not boiling hot.

Quite an adventure.

view more photos of the Icelandic horse tours