The famous British TV show, Top Gear is in Iceland filming an episode at the eruption up on Fimmvörðuháls. As you may have read in recent articles from Icelandic Mountain Guides there is an eruption going on in Iceland at the moment. The eruption has caught attention worldwide and now most recently the attention of the Top Gear crew.
In the episode James May drives a modified Icelandic super jeep across the Mýrdalsjökull Glacier to the top of Fimmvörðuháls to reach the eruption. In a typical Top Gear style they made an attempt to “Volcano-Proof” the super jeep by water-cooling the tires to drive on hot lava and placing an aluminum shield on top of the vehicle to protect it from falling ash. The water cooled tires however did not withstand the heat and as soon as James May put a wheel onto the lava it blew.
Icelandic Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson escorted the film crew along with Icelandic Search and Rescue Teams, in case Top Gear went a little over the top.
Driving up to the eruption is however no novelty. Icelandic Mountain Guides and Iceland Rovers have been guiding tours up to the eruption nearly since the first week of the eruption. Iceland Rovers offers three tours that go along the same route as the Top Gear show did. The “Volcano View Bus and Super Jeep Tour” and the “Eruption via Mýrdalsjökull Glacier 4x4 Tour” drive on similar super jeeps along the same route as Top Gear did. For a slightly different method of reaching the volcano you can take the “Eyjafjallajökull Volcano Eruption on Snowmobile” tour along the same route but in the open air style of a snowmobile.