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Then I drove up to a low pass and the scenery changed. I was overlooking another plain but here almost fully covered with low but evenly green vegetation, probably supported by the lake at the southern end of the hollow. The horizon now was dominated by a mountain range. I drove through the hollow and along the ridge at its eastern side and up to another pass. Up there I parked the van besides the track and walked up a little hill to have a better overview on the surrounding landscape. What I saw from up there absolutely stunned me.
To the west stretched the hollow with the Frostastaðavatn lake and the desert behind where I had come from, and this already was a mysterious landscape. Right in front of me lay a landscape seemingly from another world. The cone of the Stútur volcano was the most obvious sign, that this was a very young landscape. On a closer look plenty of apparently just recently solidified lava streams were covering the surrounding area.
All this was covered by a thin layer of moss shimmering in pale green and yellow in the dull light of the overcast sky. In some areas the moss lay upon the hill flanks like a protective fur, only occasionally interrupted at cracks in the surface very much looking like deep scars. I had visited other volcanic active areas on the Canary Islands and seen some fascinating lava landscapes, but this was something different. There was nothing comparable to be found on mainland Europe and it seemed barely earthly.
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