Iceland review - 2012, Page 52

50 ICELAND REVIEW
It’s more valuable than biodiesel but if we
had used all of it for biodiesel production,
we could have powered the entire farm plus
two cars for a whole year,” states Ólafur,
who is very enthusiastic about alternative
energy. “Icelanders have to ask themselves:
on what fuel will we run in the future?”
SmoKinG SPoTliGHT
While posing for a portrait, the wind ruffles
Ólafur’s white hair and he jokes that it
matches the look of the glacier. Next, he
kneels by a large urn placed by the drive-
way to his farm and scoops up the black
volcanic ash inside—his curse and blessing.
Beside the urn a large sign documents the
Eyjafjallajökull eruption, which ran from
April 14 to May 26. Those interested in
learning more about it can visit the exhi-
bition across the road opened by Ólafur,
his wife guðný and their children on the
eruption’s one-year anniversary. “We had to
do something because people kept crowd-
ing the farm, asking about the eruption.
We welcomed them and showed them
pictures but needed proper facilities. We
wanted to show people that it’s all right to
live under a volcano. When it erupts you
step aside but then life returns to normal,”
Ólafur says of his motives. At a distance of
only nine kilometers from the crater by air,
Þorvaldseyri became the spotlight of the
international media and a frequented tourist
destination during the eruption. Pictures of
the farm appeared in the world press and it
will forever be associated with the awesome
‘Ay-yah-FyAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl,’ which
emitted as much as 750 tons of ash per
second during the peak of the eruption and
brought air traffic in the northern hemi-
sphere to a halt for almost one week. The
world looked on as the ash cloud turned day
into night, pastures were flooded by glacial
meltwater and covered in ash, and farmers
had to lock up their animals and temporar-
ily abandon their homes.
ouT oF THe aSHeS
Two and a half years on and the events are
still fresh in people’s minds. “People have
saved newspapers and compare the pictures
to what they see while looking at the farm
and glacier from the driveway. Then they
give the newspapers to me,” says Ólafur. His
exhibition center, conveniently located by
the Ring Road, 140 kilometers (85 miles)
from Reykjavík, has proven a major hit,
with the total number of visitors nearing
60,000. The highest number of visitors in
one day was in August when 600 people
had to be let in and out in groups because
of the limited capacity in the former car
repair shop. Inside, visitors can read about
and see pictures of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull
eruption along with other major events in
the farm’s and country’s history, and watch
a documentary shot at Þorvaldseyri during
the eruption.
“We just wanted to document the events
for ourselves. A filmmaker we knew, who
had filmed at the farm on previous occa-
sions, arrived at our driveway when the
eruption started and we just asked him to
film it all,” explains Ólafur. “After watch-
ing the documentary, people realize that
the family they just saw in the film is also
working in the visitor center and exclaim:
‘Hey, it’s you!’ I like meeting people and if
Left: Ólafur scoops up the black volcanic ash that threatened to suffocate his farm in 2012.
Right: the Eyjafjallajökull Erupts exhibition.
fARmING