Iceland, the uncrossable – day 4 (1)
Posted: July 12th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: trips and notes | Tags: Iceland | No Comments »Iceland – day 4, 27/06/2011
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
