What do you really say about a place you've wanted to visit for 25 years of your life, but that you only have 1 week to spend in? This trip to Iceland on the way to CMWC wasn't really fair to either me or Iceland - it was a complete tease. But all the same, I had to do it. It was just too good an opportunity, and how was I to resist?
After seemingly endless hours of airline travel (SF > Newark > Boston, then retreive baggage only to check back in to hop on Icelandair for a whole separate flight...), I caught sight of Iceland for the first time, on the approach to Keflavík airport, and I just knew I was going to fall in love with this country. The sights out the window on approach reminded me in many ways of the Hebrides, but the volcanic formations everywhere let know you couldn't be anywhere but Iceland. Even in the overcast skies that Ilanded under, the light was special - things just seemed radiant despite the grey clouds and the overall starkness of the whole landscape.
Once through customs and baggage claim, I was met by Clint, a former SF bike messenger who moved to Iceland with his then-girlfriend (now wife) and decided to stay, and who was generous enough to offer me his couch to crash on for the week. The road into Reykjavík, home to around half Iceland's population of somewhere around 250000 people, from Keflavík was through more of the slowly greening lava fields I'd seen from the air - almost unearthly in appearance. Reykjavík itself crops up as a bustling modern mini-metropolis, a real anomaly in the Iceland I was to see over the next week - quite literally the only thing like it on this whole island.
Once we were back to house, I began the immediate process of unpacking the bike, and found, much to my dismay, that somewhere along the line, the little bit that connects the shift cable to the indicator chain on my Sturmey-Archer hub is gone... This means, of course, one gear. The hard gear. But, i manage to find a replacement down the street at Borgarhjól (Hverfisgata 50) from the owner who didnt appear to speak a whole lot of English, but brought me a big box of Sturmey-Archer spaces... 200 ISK later, I have my bit, and the bike is running again.
Clint returns from work at the soap factory, and we take my first trip into the country outside Reykjavík, to Kleifarvatn, a lake south and east of town, which, during an earthquake several years back, drained off several meters of its water, exposing formerly underwater hot springs at its southern end. It was my first real exposure to the dramatic scenery ofthe country, and Clint kept telling me that I hadn't really seen anything yet. Already I was being dazzled by the stunningly clear light, which, as i mentioned earlier, made things on even the cloudiest day seem brighter than they normally would.
My second day started off with off and on rain, which a sunny break or two here and there, and I decided to spend some time just walking around Reykjavík. It's a beautiful downtown area, and I could already feel that I was going to be in trouble if I let myself go shopping... Clint was working a short day, so we decided to try the flea market, which turned out to no longer be open on Fridays, so we turned instead for a short drive up the western coast north of Reykjavík. On the way out of town, we decided we needed beer, as at the time, it was looking like we might be headed out to the glaciers that weekend with Clint's wife Sonja's uncle... 1300 ISK later (that's $15 US, mind you!) i had a 6-pack of Egil's Gull. In cans. Ouch.
Once out of town, we headed north on Route 1 to Hvalfjörður, past the tunnel to Akranes, and up the fjord along Havelfjörðurvegur (Route 47). Stopped for a moment next to Karlinn í Skeiðhóli (The old man of Skeiðhóll"), a goblet-shaped rock outcrop just off the road, which apparently was a site of a camp in former times, and now a popular place to stop and have a shot of brennivín. After driving up all the way to the end of the fjord, we drove down the other side to the old whaling station at Miðsandur for a quick stop there before it was up over Borgarfjarðarbraut (route 50) past Skorradalsvatn and on the hot springs at Deildartunguhver, which are Iceland's largest. The interesting thing to note here, being an American who's visited geothermal areas in the US such as Yellowstone, is the placement of the Fence to keep you away from the boiling water... In Yellowstone, it's almost always 10 feet or more away from the edge of the hotspring. Here in Iceland, you could stick your hand in the water if you were that kind of stupid. Turned back slightly from there, and headed up Reykholtsdalsvegur (Route 519) to Reykholt to stop at Snorrilaug, the hot spring bath outside the site of the farmhouse in whose cellar Snorri Sturluson (auther of several of the sagas) was murdered on orders from King Hakon of Norway in 1241. Continuing up Reykholtsdalur, we ended up at Hraunfossar ("lava falls"), where water from a subterranean spring flows through cracks in the lava flow to emerge as waterfalls along a section of the river Hvitá - it's really quite beautiful, though we were there on an overcast day, which obscured the bluish-white color of the water at this point.
The next day, we talked with Sonja's uncle Gunnar about our 4wd trip, and he was having trouble with his jeep, so we decided to make a camping trip along the south coast of Iceland for the weekend instead. So we set out on our way along Route 1 again, over the highlands east of Reykjavík to Hveragerði - the whole way nearly obscured by the fog that I'm told plagues this area of the country. Things started to clear up as we headed towards Selfoss, and even more so as we approached Hella, though. It was about at this point when I really began to get addicted to harðfiskur (air-dried cod fillets), which is roughly the Icelandic equivalent of beef jerky - it's meat, dried, and snacky. I think my map still smells like it.
Driving around, when you're used to travelling by bike, is a really strange and dizzyingly fast way to travel. No time to stop if you want to get where you're going, things like that. much of the trip I was holding my digital camera out the window and taking pictures of whatever we passed on the way to Skaftafell. It seemed to work pretty well, considering the results below, culled from something like 350 photos! Still, it's a strange way to travel a country you want to see every inch of. It makes it especially hard to remember what you've seen that day, especially given the distance covered. We stopped at Seljalandfoss, a beautiful waterfall on the eastern edge of the Markarfljot, fed with water frrom Eyjafjallajökull, and I recorded the sound of the waterfall crashing down from above. I think the minidisc player is a pretty good option for this, but I'm now thinking that my choice of microphones (stereo in-ear mikes) isn't the best. Once i have the money, I think I'm going to go for a nice handheld stereo mike - it'll just be easier to deal with.
After Seljlandfoss, we were back on the road for a little bit until we stopped again, this time at Skógarfoss, an even bigger waterfall, but with quite a few tourists. A really impressive waterfall, though. More recording time, and then of we went, only to stop again at Dyrhólaey, to drive up to the lighthouse and check out the huge arch out over the water. Absolutely stunning view, the pictures really speak for themselves... Stopped again around the corner in Vik, to look back at the needles of Reynisdrangar in the ocean off the point of land, and then again at Hjórleifshöfði, this big hill in the middle of Mýrdalssandur, where Clint was thinking of camping, but I convinced him otherwise, thinking that despite the shelter offered by the cave on the ocean side, it would be quite windy all night. Our next stop was at Dverghamrar, just east of the farm at Foss - a formation of hexagonal basalt columns not unlike those at Devil's Postpile in the states - but not nearly so unusual a geologic formation here in volcanic iceland... but always interesting nonetheless.
From there, we drove along more until we reached Núpstaður, where there is a preserved farm of the old, sod-roofed type, as well as a sod roof chapel. Chapels are very common on Icelandic farms, as at one point there was a tax subsidy available to you if you had a church on your property - it may still be this way today...From here, we could see Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in all of Europe - it's huge beyond description - something like 11% of Iceland's surface? Absolutely immense. Looking at it on a map gives you an idea of its scope, but seeing this huge expanse of white, well, nothing beats it. I really wish we had had the chance to go out on it, but like so many other things, that will have to wait for next time.
Then it was across the vast expanse of Skeiðarárssandur, with the new bridges after the huge floods that destroyed most of the older ones in 1996. There's a memorial with a gigantic piece of twister I-beam on the sand - you can see the thrashing that it received at the hands of the Jökulhlaup - the flood of glacial meltwater resultant from the eruption at Grímsvön - makes you realize the sheer brutal strength of water, earth and fire compared with any technology we have to fight against it. We had clear skies ever since around Vik - amazing weather, couldn't have asked for more - and Vatnajökull stood gleaming in the sun ahead of us. We ended up stopping to camp at Skaftafell, a big national park, rather than going ahead to Jökulsárlón, where Clint had figured we might go. It turned out to be a good decision, as 2 arctic foxes ran across the road as we pulled into the park. Unfortunately i was too slow with the camera, but the campground was really nice, and we got to watch the moon rise over the glacier while bbqing sausages and drinking beer...
The next morning, we packed up to drive out to Jökulsárlón, but stopped first at the foot of Svínafellsjökull, and climbed along the path next to the tongue of the glacier. Amazing to see the end of something you usually only see in movies or books - to see how dirt is dumped by the ice, and how glacial moraines look when theyve just been born... Really impressive stuff. On the way out of there, we drove past a gas station, and I spotted a Kombi from Inline Kurier Berlin! what are the odds? Turned out that the driver was on vacation, and knew Stefan Missbach, one of my courier friends... More small world effect...
Jökulsárlón is another stunner, like so much of Iceland's scenery - a huge blue lake of glacial meltwater, with icebergs floating in it! another big tourist attraction, but thats easy to understand... the outlet flows straight to the ocean not a couple hundred meters away, where you can see icebergs float down the river and into the waves. Clint tried fishing again here, but I think the pole he's got just isn't big enough to cast with.
The day started out with fog and mist, but cleared up in many places along the way, oddly enough, the weather was almost exactly the opposite of what it was the day before - where it had been foggy, it was now sunny, and vice versa. Southern Iceland had completely sold me by this time on the idea of coming back to tour around the whole country on my bike. Again, one week to visit a place you've wanted to go your entire life is a cruel thing to do to yourself. There were very few stops on the way back to Reykjavík, so it's better that I let the pictures speak for themselves...
Upon our return, we headed over to Sonya's (Clint's wife) mom's house for a bbq - a small bit with some absolutely delicious Icelandic lamb - simply the best I've ever had, period, and Clint's treat from the freezer, whalemeat. Minke whale, I think, and I just had to try it, now that it was being offered. When else am I going to get the chance? It's an interesting meat, rather like a really rich cut of beef, very dark in color, almost brown, and quite tender and moist. Some odd similarities to wild duck, if you can beleive that..
on the road to kleifarvatn |
along the western shore of kleifarvatn |
along the western shore of kleifarvatn |
clint's car in the mud near kleifarvatn |
sveifluháls to the west of kleifarvatn |
looking southeast along kleifarvatn |
the exposed hot springs at kleifarvatn |
the hot springs at kleifarvatn |
steam blowing from the hot springs |
hallgrimskirka |
elephant graffitti on hverfisgata |
the river laxá |
karlinn í skeiðhóli |
the river fossá |
hvalfjorður |
tomato stand at deildartungguhver |
deildartungguhver
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the largest hot water source
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in all of iceland |
heated vegetable gardens at deildartungguhver |
snorralaug - snorri sturluson's hot tub. the door leads to the celler where he was killed in 1241 |
hraunfosser |
hraunfosser |
the tunnel under hvalfjorður |
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