ever since we got accommodated at the camping site last night, we decided to stay for the next night as well; the bungalows are fantastic (there is obviously an architect living nearby) and it is time for a little relaxation and some laziness; tomorrow, we leave for the west fiords and today is the last day we can go back to Kjolur, at the same spot the waters stopped us yesterday.
the jacuzzi on the bungalow’s terrace is powered by hot, geyser water
by lunchtime we are satisfied with our laziness, we load up on gas and take yesterday’s track to Hveravellir; on the northern side, this is the official beginning of road F35 so it has the appropriate signs
yesterday, we noticed that part of the track was wet although it had not rained and today we get to the reason why
we do not find a reasonable explanation for this, so we shrug it off and we move on; on this side the track is calm and passable, so we reach Hveravellir easily – “the valley of hot springs”
the place is special since it host both hot and cold springs in the same area; Hveravellir was popular with the Icelandic people ever since the first settlers set foot here and it has been mentioned in several sagas; it starts raining the moment we reach the springs
Iceland’s nature is always ready to surprise you with the incredible colors it is capable of creating
the roads through Kjolur
the landscape changes gradually from one completely lacking vegetation to one with fields of peat and then suddenly Nikolay jumps on the brakes; I spot something running in front of the car; we jump out and find these two babies trembling some 20 meters behind us; the third one was lucky not to end up under our tires together with its mother, which was carrying it across the street; when we approach them, she is already coming back
these animals are minks and, as it is with everything on this island, they were brought here by the first settlers, the Vikings; the only terrestrial mammal that existed here before people came was the tiny Arctic fox which, unfortunately, we did not see
we step away from the babies and the mother ventures to take the second one, carrying it by the ear, not the neck
she leaves it behind a heap of rocks and hurries to get the third one.
this small animal leaves us in awe of the forces of adaptation in nature.
on the way down we stop at Highland Café and while waiting for our soups we notice a pamphlet on seal watching – the place is really close to our camping site, on the other side of the bay; it is getting late but we decide to take a walk; the river which has formed the bay
there are black, alluvium shallows in the middle which are a natural resort and there is no road leading there; we have to walk to get there but it turns out to be a bit far away
in this place we have a spot on our track and we reach it
Hvitserkur is the name of this weird rock and the legend tells a story of a troll which was caught unaware of the sunrise and was turned into stone by the first rays of the morning sun.
there are some strange-looking dots in the bay, so I zoom in:
we go back to the previous turn and we go down to the shore on foot
the strange-looking curvy things in the water are a group of seals which sleep in the shallows; the camera’s zoom can see this from our side of the shore (we use it instead of binoculars)
while we are staring at the opposite shore, a few seals are patrolling around us on our side of the bay; they are the group’s security system
as soon as we sit on the beach and stop walking back and forth, the bodyguards lose interest in us and disappear
we come to the port at 9, fully geared with all the picture-taking equipment we have; the weather is still gloomy and cold; although the weather forecast was promising, there is freezing, damp wind blowing in the narrow fiord.
the small ship cannot stop thrashing with the waves but, after close to an hour of zigzags, our patience is rewarded
the morning skies are low and gloomy and the wind makes waves several meter high rise in the fiord; Husavik is a town dedicating its whole energy to tourist whale watching tours but today nobody is going out to sea; at all.
🙁 apparently, we will wait for the weather to improve
we circle through town, buy ourselves raincoats from the local store and we move on
this is the day with the worst weather throughout our stay in magical Iceland
the valley of Jökulsá á Fjöllum, covered in mist and slanting cold rain, captures and attracts me in my memories as if a cool breeze under the rays of the summer sun; unearthly and enchanting, it is the home of all the fairytale characters of my childhood; all of the imaginary sanctuaries and figures came alive angrily pointing a finger at me for doubting they existed…
upstream, half an hour from Asbyrgi we reach Hljóðaklettar; ; the path leading to it passes through green crooked forests
at the end of the path, green makes room for the rock giants
Hljóðaklettar means “the whispering cliffs” because of a specific echo reflected by the hundreds of pentagons and hexagons of the basalt
honoring our visit everything is belated and only the sound of rippling raindrops is whispering ancient stories;
we reach The Eye
the remains of Valhall are next to it; the bottom of the formerly glorious hall pulls like a magnet
the eyes of those sitting at the throne are turned to the valley
there is no trace of the Valkyries and only this little fellow is peeking through the cracks
we pass by a dwarf’s chair – no wonder it is empty – dwarfs, as we all know, walk in groups of 12-13…
on our way out, we notice a gigantic organ
two magnificent dragons emerge from the screes on one of the shores; buried in the hillside, they have been waiting through the centuries for a brave hero to set them free from the spell; as if accidentally the wind has uncovered the top layer – as if I see things that are not meant for my eyes
half an hour upstream we reach Dettifoss – the most powerful waterfall in Europe (in terms of quantity of water falling per hour); the water in the air is so abundant that I do not even make an attempt to take out my camera
Selfoss is a bit further up while Hafragilsfoss is a bit further down; the clouds are touching our heads once again
a crack in the cliff we are standing on
we start towards Kafla and Vitti although we don’t feel like going
on the way we decide to resolve a mystery which we cannot keep peace with – the embankments along the road; the roads here are usually surrounded by embankments (sometimes up to 3 meters tall) and we guess they are there because of string spring waters; however, it is weird that the slopes of these embankments are the favorite spots for local flora although the embankment itself is a typical one – rock, rock and then rock again
we often see sacks filled with something placed at crossroads close to farm houses and while we argue what is inside of them, we come upon another group of sacks; we stop to check out what’s inside
fertilizer, synthetic one; no comment…
we approach the estates of Krafla; the landscape and its colors change; Krafla is one of the most active volcanic zones in Iceland; the last eruptions took place in 1984 and the volcanic fields can be easily recognized even on google
we reach the crater Vitti, one of the more dormant ones but, unfortunately, the road to the more active volcanic spots is closed; their territory is used for a training ground for American astronauts
the best vehicle for these roads is parked at the parking lot:
although its name means “hell”, the crater itself is a surreal blue lake; we go back to the main road
the heights of the volcano host an electric power plant and a place of a pilot drilling for a unique Icelandic project– Iceland Deep Drilling Project; magma has been reached here at only 2000 meters of depth…
there are uncapped hot springs right on the road fork to Krafla
these things smoke, babble, swish, gurgle and have an abundance of the most amazing colors
the name of these hills is Namafjall – mining mountains; The Mountains of Iron….
time is running out; although we are not threatened by the evening dusk, we are tired and we hurry to Husavik; we roar by Myvatn; the sun is low on the horizon and its rays glow upon the lake
we are going to sleep at Husavik in order to go whale watching tomorrow 🙂
before we reach the port, we fly by these strange greenhouses
there are no vegetables in Iceland except for the traditional carrots and some kind of cabbage; we did not see any vegetable gardens except for these (in the whole of Iceland) greenhouses for tomatoes – the orange light above is from lamps and on the ground they water them from the hot springs; as you can imagine – the taste of the tomatoes is not at all memorable.
when we wake up, the small fishing village is enveloped by clouds
for the next few hours we drive a tiny bit above sea level; the clouds leave us just a few meters of visibility – enough to see the endless tufty peats, as if painted with a brush
mystical, enigmatic and fairytale-like
we drive over low wide-spreading lands along the coast; the mountains have given way and visibility reaches far the small slit beneath the clouds
we reach Asbyrgi unexpectedly; if one has not started off looking for that place, it can be passed by unnoticed… the ground suddenly splits, revealing a vast, hidden valley below, bordered on all sides by vertical cliffs; nothing hints its existence if looked upon from the side; we go in
Sleipnir’s footprint (Sleipnir is the eight-legged horse of Odin) is the folklore name due to the shape of the canyon, resembling a horseshoe
everything changes in the canyon; a forest appears (anyone noticed a forest up until now?!), the wind subsides and even the birds behave weirdly – as if nothing bad can ever happen here; I was so close to these two that I could touch them
upon entering Asbyrgi, the thermometer shows 8 ˚C; it is drizzling; we start walking and can’t get rid of the feeling it is warm and cosy here
alongside the cliffs, at points reaching 100 m.
from the heights we notice a lake at the end of the canyon
everything looks as if arranged, as if somebody thought about where each rock should be placed, each tree should be planted, each duck should swim
Asbyrgi is a fairytale, a Northern one; The Last Homely House and only Elrond did not show up although we though we heard the songs…
I’ll spend the next few days making plans how to come back to this place and the place we are about to reach just half an hour uphill – Jökulsá á Fjöllum
at dawn, a few sun rays touch Hofn; the town is at the foot of one of Vatna’s tongues we visited yesterday
hofn almost looks like a town and we decide to find a bank and get a hold of some more local currency; it turns out that we have spent the last three days an hour ahead of local time and we get to loiter for an hour until they open; at the bank they look suspicious at the euros we have decided to exchange…
we glide around the increasingly sliced coastline and soon we reach a curve inland; our destination is a waterfall – somewhere upstream this river
the river spreads wide into the flat, rocky valley and it splits into scores of branches and then smaller branches which constantly merge together and split apart; the road is hardly visible at times and it climbs up the surrounding hills as it crosses over the diverted waters; soon we reach a sign
heeeeeey, we are in a high mobility vehicle, nothing can stop us
the branches of the river gradually become more denser while the streams become wilder and deeper; we get to a place which we cannot cross – going into the water on foot to check the depth is impossible since we are both equipped with nothing but a pair of sneakers; we go back and try another road which only takes us to even wider and wilder waters… we go back to the first place again and after we think about it for a while we decide to break the back of the beast, so we slowly drive into the water; about a third on the way, the water is so deep that a little bit further would flood the compartment; we shift to reverse – easy, easy and we go back with our tails tucked between our legs; this whole braving experience is caught on camera and I will upload it later 🙂
on the way back, the GPS takes us through a different road
we climb the hills and get a chance to look back at the One we could not cross
the sun almost peaks behind the clouds as a consolation
on the other side of the hill we go down some green pastures on the side of another river; wherever there are green spots, there are always some of these too
back to road number 1 and north again
road number 1 is the ring-road of Iceland; more than a third of our journey is along that track
for a short while we catch a fiord in good mood (calm and without wind on the surface of its waters)
the coastline is filled with old lighthouses; we stop on the rocky shore
the local inhabitant who is brooding at the moment is highly dissatisfied with our appearance
I can almost hear it sigh with relief when we leave
we go inland once again and once again our destination is a waterfall
and once again we cannot reach it because of flooded river beds; at least this time the road is helpfully closed by a few big rocks
this time Iceland has prepared us an atonement
this beautiful animal, brought here by the Norwegian settlers, hardly noticed us
only when I got off the car did the herd decide to move a bit; when I thought about it I figured that probably our car will be the only one to pass on this road for today
A lot of time passed by since this project was completed but since I haven’t written anything about it… well, now’s the time 🙂 I hope it will be interesting and inspiring…
last night we had to clean the car since riding off-road in kjolur had dusted it quite a bit on the inside; we are going east from Hella; the weather is officially gloomy and there are just a few moments with breaks in the clouds; soon, is the famous Eyjafjallajokull before us
The Blue Lagoon or, more precisely, Bláa lónið, is a unique natural phenomenon; part of the Atlantic Ocean flows 2000 meters deep beneath the ground and through a crack between America and Eurasia, lengthwise through the entire island; its waters interact directly with the boiling magma at 240 degrees and 36 atmospheres of pressure; at this spot, the highly mineralized waters, still partially saline and rich in silicon, gushes to the surface through one of the many fissures in the earth’s core; the resulting lake is so special in terms of mineral content that no bacteria live in it while the water itself has unique healing properties.
last night we had the pleasure of enjoying this miracle of nature with the summer sun setting to the northern horizon almost entirely by ourselves
the weather is promising – sunny, a few little clouds, almost no wind – perfect weather conditions for the Blue Lagoon
we leave the car at the parking lot; the path winds around heaps of volcanic rock taller than a man; there are lamps everywhere and I wonder what this place is like in winter when the sun hardly even shows up on the horizon for an hour or two … »
Years ago, at the dawn of the “Transition Period”, books became inaccessible; they were either not published at all or only the authors “deemed banned” before November 10th got published, or one could only find antiques at outrageous prices; for the adolescent who were truly into the magic of reading there was only one option left – Metropolitan City Library.
I had already rummaged the shelves and gotten my hands on most of the titles meant for my consideration; I stumbled upon The Atom Station by chance; a small, plain book which had been published before I was born; it looked like a ‘one nighter’ – one of those that you take to bed and you read until you turn the last page at daybreak; this is how I read it… the first time; I returned it and I took it again in a month or two; the Magical, unfamiliar world of Iceland and its strange people had captivated my mind forever.
Iceland – day 0, 23/06/2011
The trip to Reykjavik was long – three flights with tedious waiting in-between; we landed a bit past midnight and our tiny airplane “parked” some 20 meters from the airport building.
if the video-link breaks down again
http://www.youtube.com/user/milusheff#p/u/6/4grUKQhL0wk