Day 4-29Nov19
South Iceland
We were staying for another night at Mountain Queen Angelica and toured locally following the tourist trail down to Vik. It really was a tourist scrum. Reading the stats the Iceland population in 2018 was about 450,000 and tourist numbers were 500,000 by 2018 the tourist numbers had risen to 2,400,000! It must be quite a challenge for the locals. We first visited the Skogafoss waterfall and it was really cold with the wind blowing off the cold water. We climbed the stairs to the top of the waterfall and I discovered that my office worker workout was ineffective as a fitness regime and was puffing like a steam train even with regular stops. The view was worth the effort.
The next stop was the Svartifoss glacier. The 1km walkin was a little precarious with ice on some parts of the walkway due to ice but the glacier and icebergs in the lake were reward for the effort. We walked as close as we could to the glacier then walked back along the lake encountering a small frozen puddles worthy of a rock or two. One of them shattered sounding like someone dropped a dinner service.
The drive along the south of Iceland is stunning. The snow capped mountains; the glaciers; the red roof farm buildings and yellow cut crops; the ocean rock formations; the bird life. It is simply stunning.
One of the great aspects of hostel and guesthouse accommodation is the interesting people. We ran into an American, a military veteran, who was traveling around with a drone and getting some excellent footage. We also met an Irish couple who also ran a farm stay who were running away from their kids for the weekend . It only was 2.5 hrs flight from Dublin airport to Reykjavik!
Day 5 – 30Nov19
South Iceland to South East Iceland
Leaving out lovely accommodation at Mountain Queen Angelica and heading towards the south east. We probably should have a better plan on our travels but we are content to just look around and find places. It helps as the tourist routes, while highlighting many amazing places, also chose to leave out some less travelled places. We use our eyes and ears to guide us. Not totally true. We use a map and a GPS and information from locals and other travellers.
We drove to Vik and found a bonus supermarket: a bonus as there were toilets as well. We stocked up on vegetables and fruit but not fuel as we have a discount token for a certain outlet. We haven’t been able to find powered milk yet. I tried back in Reykjavik but got strange looks when I said dehydrated milk in a powder form. The vehicle had about half a tank which we expected would be enough to get us to the next major town. It was not long after leaving town that I started to doubt the fuel decision and was back calculating the point of no return: the point of empty tank embarrassment and walk of shame.
Something that is real pleasure in Iceland is the distinct geographical differences. It is a natural beauty that provides enough surprises to be constantly interesting.
We found some more Icelandic ponies. Neigh. incorrect. Icelandic horses. Just short horses and sturdy. Height challenged. Apparently Icelanders are offended by calling their horses ponies. So no more talk of ponies. Actually just one more point the Icelandic horse is most closely related to Shetland ponies. They are a tough horse. We found it cold outside taking photographs but they are outside all weather and winter. They have velvet like coats and long manes. Nice hair style Fabio!
Icelanders do eat horse meat. It is good to know that Icelanders do not eat the same horses they ride as it would be difficult to continue their journey if they did so and nor do they give their dinner/luncheon meat a name.
We drove along and came across an extensive lava flows. This has an interesting story. There was a volcanic eruption in 1785. The Grímsvötn Volcano and laki fissure erupted violently for almost 8 months with large lava flows destroying towns, much of the livestock and crops in Iceland leading to famine and loss of a quarter of the population. The smoke plumes also impacted Europe creating unusual weather conditions causing poverty and famine. This further increased unrest in France and may have led to the French revolution in 1789.
One of the key aspects of sales is differentiating yourself from the competition. Our next accommodation not only had breakfast but hand cooked waffles by the owner. The accommodation was an old milk shed converted to accommodation that was 5km off the main road along a dirt road following lava flows. Dalshöfdi Guesthouse was a rural delight run by a hard working couple. There must be something special about the cold weather as the family had 5 children ranging up to 20 years old yet looked as if they were just in their early 30s. Actually we were not sure how 7 people could fit in their tiny farm house which was much smaller than the guest accommodation. We had some initial problems with the smoke detector beeping and thought this might be a challenge to replace due to the height of the ceiling but the host, being a painter by trade, just wandered in with a small ladder climbed to the top, reached out at full stretch and changed it without flinching. We were quite concerned but figured that if he fell he would have fallen on our bed anyway.
There was clear weather so I kept looking for Auroral activity. I saw some low level activity but there should have been more looking at the Kp levels as they showed a Kp 5 which should have been clearly visible aurora. Perplexing. I showed some low level activity to Vanessa who was not impressed; I even took some images to show that there was activity. Still not impressed. The search continues for active and visible auroras…
Day 6 – 1Dec19
South East Iceland - Dalshöfdi Guesthouse
I have been coughing and it seems to be developing into a head cold.
Vatnajokull glacier. This is the largest glacier in Europe and the drive is stunning. We noticed along the way that just about every house had a waterfall even if most were frozen at the moment. Perhaps this is the Icelandic version of keeping up with the Joneses. How big is your waterfall? The ice cap is huge, we were lucky enough to see it from the aircraft as we approached Reykjavik when we arrived in Iceland. There are photo opportunities around each bend of the road. Breathtaking. Unfortunately there are not many areas to stop so it was just a matter of enjoying the view.
FjaðrárgljúfurCanyon. We had missed this on the way to our accommodation so backtracked to get some fuel and at the roundabout before stopping. It had started raining enough for us to sit and debate whether we would put on the wet weather gear and hike along the gorge. The first attempt was to drive down onto the bridge over the river that left the gorge, wind down the car window and then take an image. On the opposite side of the bridge was a sign reminding tourists that modern man should use the toilet facilities not the great outdoors. We returned to the car park and decided that we would go for a hike. We got to the first viewing area and a kind hearted person was offering to take images of people. That person turned out to be the ranger who obviously loved her job. Nice work! The canyon is quite spectacular at about 100m tall and 2km long and carved by fast flowing water. Certainly worth the effort! The camera work was a little sloppy other than the excellent shot by the ranger.
