ICELAND - day 9

23.08.13
We woke up under rain and force wind gale… We moved on after breakfast heading East and we stopped around noon at the Vatnajökull National Park Info Centre – the day had turned a bit better, so we decided to have a spot of lunch and then we did a walk to the glacier tongue (about 3 km) – well, at least, we went as close as we could get.

The day had even turned sunny, so we could see the immense glacier and the icebergs in the river. At the info centre we saw a short film detailing the events of the 1996 eruption and the flooding that ensued, and so we could take in the imposing size of this mountain of ice – litterally: its thickness goes from 300 to 500 metres!
 
Soon after leaving the centre we stopped in a few consequent places to take in the Jökulsarlon Lagoon with its floating icebergs and outstanding beauty. Shame the weather had turned cloudy again, so we couldn’t see the glacier reaching the lagoon on the far side.

 
The tide was rolling in from the raging sea and it was quite something seeing these blocks of ice rolling to the sea, only to be pushed back and never managing to leave the lagoon. We also spotted a couple of seals in the water.

 
Through barren, ashy countryside, we finally reached Hövn for the night, at about 9:00pm. Obviously, after a brief glimpse of the sun, the weather was back to its usual rainy self. We filled the petrol tank, cooked some cous-cous for dinner, coffee and bed. It’s been quite a tiring day as we drove constantly with the wind trying to blow us off the road, so it was a constant effort…

The scenery we came across today was really grand! We could really feel the power of the elements. A good day, in spite of the rain.

TRAVELLED TO:  Kirkjubaejarklaust – Jökussarton – Skatafell – Höfn

ICELAND - day 8

22.08.13
The night passed quite smoothly, if not for the wind blowing fearcefully. The sleeping bag and thermal clothing proved worth it. I may add a pair of socks tonight… The weather this morning is better – it’s not raining and there are glimpses of blue sky here and there. [6:00am]
 
We had an early morning walk on top of the ridge facing the infamous Eyjafjallajökull of air traffic blocking fame (2011). The view was astounding. All the mountains thereabout look spectacular, very “Voyage at the centre of the earth” or even “Middle Earth”. No wonder there are all these legends of Elves and Trolls…

We managed all the river crossings back alright, we didn’t remember we passed so many on the way up, but the water was much less deep this morning, just as the chap at Kuku’s predicted (“it’s best to cross rivers in the morning” he said).
We carried on along the road towards East, stopping near a farm in the same area to see a short film about the eruption of 2011 – really impressive! The film showed the life of a family of farmers during the eruption, with all the problems it brought on. You could also see how life and land were before the eruption and what happened afterwards, all the work that had to be done to put everything back in order.

We then reached past Skogar, and stopped at an extraordinary set of waterfalls. We’ve already seen quite a few now, each one more spectacular than the other.

After a morning in the summer we were plunged into winter again by early afternoon… By late afternoon we reached Vik, and we stopped just before the little town, in Dyrholaey, where we battled the fierce winds and pelleting rain to see some spectacular cliffs, battered by a raging sea, a black sand beach and… a small colony of puffins! totally unexpected. I managed to take a few pics, although they’re nothing like those I took in Mykenes a couple of years ago. Still…

We’re stopping for the night at a service station, lulled into sleep by the wind.


TRAVELLED TO:  Selialanolsfoss – Skogar – Dyrholaey – Vik

ICELAND - day 7

21.08.13
Day one with our camper van – and already we’re crossing rivers (well, Rosie is)!

The van behaves brilliant! It’s really nice to have a hot meal while outside is rainy and windy. It drives well and it’s very cosy. Already we traveled some 200 km and we saw some pretty waterfalls.
Some of the river crossings had to be tackled on foot first, to check the depth – since Rosie was driving I did the footing… chilly! A nice warm risotto was our dinner choice – a cup of coffee and off to bed into our warm sleeping bags. Today’s been drizzling and raining on and off. I hope tomorrow’s a little better.

TRAVELLED TO: Sellfoss – Eyrarbakki + Stokkseyri – Thorsmörk

ICELAND - day 6

20.08.13
Museum round-up today, with a beautiful sunny weather. We made the 24-hour Welcome Card so we had a free entrance to all the museums we visited + all the bus rides, and we can use it also for tomorrow’s bus ride into town. It’s been sunny all day – the best museum so far has been the Open Air Museum we saw yesterday, and the Settlement Museum, 871+-2, we saw this morning.
We had a coffee in a nice cosy cafe’ in the town centre, then off to museum #1, followed by the Culture House, where they have a collection of ancient written documents. We saw a collection of old and new coinage in the Bank of Iceland, then lunch in a cafe’ on the harbour, then on to the Maritime Museum, a very interesting account of the life at sea of the local fishermen through the ages.

After that we caught the bus and popped off at the Botanical Garden – a chaotic ensemble, quite hard to find to start with. The idea behind it is good, the layout too, it’s just that lots of plants were crammed together and, as most of them were not in bloom, you couldn’t actually make much out of it. It’s probably better seen in spring or early summer, when most flowers pop up.

Altogether it was a pleasant day, sunny and cool. Lots of things seen and lots of miles walked…

ICELAND - day 5

19.08.13
Today I had a real bad knee so we decided to take it easy… somewhat. We started off walking to the Open Air Museum – a very interesting reconstruction of a village of the late 1800 – early 1900. The original settlement was a farm and other period buildings were added to the site from different parts of the island. The result is really great, so much so that it’s the nearby road that seems out of place.

We then caught a bus to Perlan, where we had a nice meal in the restaurant on the top floor (excellent views on the town) before visiting the Saga Museum – a reconstruction about the Icelandic saga of the first settlers. It was good, but not as fascinating as this morning’s, although more expensive…
Today it’s been raining on and off, but thoroughly enjoyable – shame about the sore knee (I needed my cane to help me walk!)
We stopped at the local shop for some pasta and groceries to cook something veggie tonight, but our host is not very convinced she’ll have a decent meal – of course it’s a bit different from her usual frozen fare… ;p

ICELAND - day 4

18.08.13
On yesterday’s tour the landscape was at times Svalbardian (flat-top mountains) and at times Patagonian, although on a much smaller scale. Today we travelled East towards Gullfoss and Geysir, and the landscape was more Lanzarotian, only here the lava fields are covered in lichens and heather – quite amazing!
   Gullafoss

Overall, both days I found lots of similarities with the Faroe Islands also.

ICELAND - day 3

17.08.13
Toured the Western peninsula, with our host who took us around in her car. We saw plenty of great scenery, including an underground lava cave where we had a guided tour.

The day was overall quite tiring, but we did see a lot of things that we surely wouldn’t have had the chance to see otherwise. The last bit was a really narrow creek, by which time my knees started to give in…

NOTE — we past a causeway that I named “the bridge of the foul herring” – the story goes like this: after they built the causeway there was very rough sea and lots of herrings were litterally thrown over the bay closed off by the causeway. Now, as the builders hadn’t left any underwater passage wide enough for the fish to swim out, they found themselves with the bay full of dead herrings, rotting away…