The fee collection has gone well but rainy days have caused trouble in some parking lots

"Wet weather conditions have caused some trouble but one of the parking places, or fields, is now nothing but mud. Landowners would have wished they could start building a new parking place but it takes time to get a project like this through. Traffic has already been led to other fields to meet the demand", says Sigurður Guðjón Gíslason representative landowners' association Hraun.

Now, when more than three months have passed since the eruption in Geldingadalir started, 151 thousand people have walked to the eruption site. Landowners were forced to be quick to respond to demand. Fields transformed into parking lots in a blink of an eye and it wasn´t long until the mandatory parking fee was added. All guests are now asked to pay 1000 ISK ($8) for each car through the app  Parka or the website parka.is but the fee will then last for the next 24 hours. The fee is necessary to make access easier and guarantee all hiker´s safety as well as to protect nature in the area.

The fee collection has gone well 

According to landowners, the fee collection has gone well in most cases. They encourage people to use the Parka app but it is very user-friendly. It is also an option to pay online before departure. If the payment is not going well then it is always possible to pay afterward when a good wifi connection is accessible.

Sigurður then adds, there have been few incidences when it was not possible for one to pay. Most of the time it is due to a bad connection, It could also be because of the many different safety settings of credit cards in the world, and sometimes it is just a phone problem when it is enough to restart the phone.

Is it possible to book parking ahead of time?

Each and every parking is not labeled so it is not possible to book parking ahead of time. Like before, guests can always pay for the day, for example, it is possible to pay in the morning even though the hike won´t start until the afternoon.

Mother nature will always be in charge

In the end, landowners converge the message to people to stay safe in the area where an active volcano is in the picture with its poisonous gas types. Therefore it is important to familiarise conditions in the area before heading to the eruption site.

More safety information can be found at the eruption site of Visit Reykjanes.

 

Gunnhildur Björg Baldursdóttir