Iceland – day 9, 02/07/2011
due to our trips in Kjolur for the last couple of days, the color of our car is indistinguishable; there is a place with brushes, hoses and appropriate draining structure at the gas station just right for people like us; when I ask whether we should pay something, the guy at the counter smiles and says “water is free in Iceland”
greetings from the land of fairytales
this time I will write when I get back but a couple of pictures cannot do any harm…
Iceland – day 11, 04/07/2011
the thought of getting on the plane tomorrow is already haunting giving us; we feel like we came here just yesterday and, at the same time, it feels like we have been here for months…
after a concise planning of the day ahead, we decide that we are still going for a tour of the western lands – a peninsula to the west which goes into the ocean and ends with a glacier
Iceland – day 8, 01/07/2011
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
Iceland is already sunbathing when we leave Dalvik
Iceland – day7, 30/06/2011
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
Iceland – day 6, 29/06/2011
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
Iceland – day 5, 28/06/2011, continued
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.
Iceland – day 5, 28/06/2011
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
Iceland – day 4, 27/06/2011, continued
