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Day 12 – Yes, We Canyon!

Saturday 10th July 2021. One loses track of time on an excursion such as ours. It was something of a jolt to realise that it was the weekend, at least for everyone else; we just carried on in our little dream world as we explored the southern region of Iceland before joining the “Golden Circle” route tomorrow. And, probably, hordes of bloody tourists. We’re now within range of day trips from Reykjavik, and it showed in the number of punters and the number of coaches at the various places we stopped for a gawp.

The first of these was yet another Interesting Church, this one on the site of a medieval convent at Kirkjubæjarklaustur, very near our hotel.

Like almost every Interesting Church we’ve come across, it was closed, and I have yet to hear a credible explanation of how come there are all these churches which seem almost universally to be unused on any kind of a regular basis. Is there a vicar or priest? Is that person a visiting official? Who pays for the upkeep? etc, etc. Anyway, it’s lovely to see such interesting church designs; and this one is not the last of this trip.

The next place we went to has to be one of the most arresting sights of our holiday in Iceland. It’s called Fjaðrárgljúfur and is billed as a canyon. As you approach it, you begin to get some idea of what awaits.

Then you look carefully and you can just make out a couple of sheep as the merest dots (just left of centre in this picture)

and then you climb to the observation platform and see this

This was the first Shot Of The Day. It is a truly awesome sight, without being completely overwhelming (like, say, the Grand Canyon is). A remarkable start to our day. You can walk down towards the other end, passing some sheep

(one was sleeping and we hope it didn’t really drop off) and have a look from there.

There’s a figure on the right bank as we look along it from here, and that gives some idea of scale.

We next got a chance to see a couple of uniquely Icelandic things. The first was a sheep rounding circle.

There are half a million sheep in Iceland – more than the number of resident people – and they are basically free to roam. This means that you can come across them almost anywhere, sometimes, alarmingly, in the middle of the road as you drive along. Somehow (by horse, dog, 4×4, anything that works), every September these wandering sheep are rounded up from wherever they’ve got to, a convulsive effort over around three days which is a massive part of Iceland’s culture and something that all farmers have to join in on. The sheep are herded into the central pen and then individual farmers pick out their sheep (they all have ear markings) and separate them into that farmer’s segment.

The second insight came as we got a chance to try to grasp the impact of an enormous event in Iceland’s – and indeed the world’s – history – the Laki Eruption of 1783-5. This was of staggering size and impact: an outpouring of an estimated 42 billion tons or 14 km3 (3.4 cu mi) of basalt lava and clouds of poisonous hydrofluoric acid and sulfur dioxide compounds that contaminated the soil, leading to the death of over 50% of Iceland’s livestock population, and the destruction of the vast majority of all crops. This led to a famine which then killed approximately 25% of the island’s human population. The lava flows also destroyed 20 villages. The eruption and its aftermath caused a drop in global temperatures, as 120 million tons of sulfur dioxide was spewed into the Northern Hemisphere. This caused crop failures in Europe and may have caused droughts in North Africa and India.

We stopped in the middle of the huge lava field resulting from this eruption. It’s difficult to convey the scale of it – kilometre after kilometre of moss-covered lava, because only moss – nothing else – will grow on lava, and this takes centuries to develop.

I created a Facebook 3D photo which might help to underline the scale of this.

Our next port of call was what Dagur called the “Yoda Cave” – actually used as the setting at the star of Star Wars – Rogue One, as the cave our heroine dashes into to escape from some band or other of marauding riffs.

It looks quite impressive from the inside as well.

This is in a part of Iceland that used to be an island, but the volcanic actions raised the land up around it.

This is close to a town called Vik, which has an Interesting Church, more for its location than its architecture.

In the distance to the left can be seen the “Three Trolls”, Reynisdrangar, rocky outcrops off the beach, Reynisfjara. You can get a closer view of them from Vik’s black sand beach.

We headed over towards them and I guess this was the first time we came across hordes of tourists – Reynisfjara is a popular spot and the car park was crowded. There are a couple of lava caves

one of which has basalt columns by it – popular for kids to climb on.

We carried on along the coast a short way, stopping at the clifftop at Dyrhólaey, which has a view over an impressive rock arch

as well as the surrounding countryside

it’s own troll

and – delightfully –

puffins! Dagur explained that these are often blown over from their usual colony to the east during August. The fact that some are here at this time of year, and that they appear to have burrows that they are using, implies that this is becoming an established puffin colony in its own right. I took loads of pics, obvs, and even nearly managed an in-focus one of a puffin flying off.

But the wind was gale force and so hanging about to try to get a better photo was not a comfortable option. We moved on.

The southern region is marked out, as I posted yesterday, by glaciers and the road to our next major stop offered a chance to get a nice picture of one of them – an offshoot of Vatnajökull, but I don’t know which one, I’m afraid.

The rest of the day was almost exclusively about waterfalls, which was a relief. It’s been ages since we saw a decent waterfall and I was beginning to get withdrawal symptoms. Our next stop, then, was at Skógafoss, but we were hungry so stopped for lunch at the hotel there before exploring the waterfall itself.

And it’s a splendid sight. The car park was crowded, as was the shoreline, with lots of people getting in each other’s way as everyone tried to get fucking selfies, which always enrages me. Mind you, I did manage to get something out of other people’s cavorting.

By aggressive use of sharp elbows, I got to the front where I had a few seconds to get a view of the falls unsullied by tourist vapidity. But actually, the second Shot Of The Day came about as a girl walked in even further through the spray towards the falls and gifted me with the perfect shot.

Before the next waterfall, we stopped briefly to view some turf houses in a place called Drangshlíð.

I found this post about them on the web, but it didn’t really leave me any the wiser.

A few kilometres along the road we stopped at Seljalandsfoss, which is another great sight.

It’s very popular, as it’s a waterfall you can actually walk behind

after having done which, you can walk along to another one, called Gljufrabui.

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And that was nearly it for the day’s interesting bits. We are staying the night in the Sel Guesthouse near Skalholt, and it is a charming place. Though the charm is somewhat rustic, it has WiFi and other mod cons, geothermal hot water in the bathroom, but no restaurant. So we made our way to the Farmhotel Efstidalur, which really is a working farm. From the cafe, you can see the cows

and upstairs in the restaurant you can eat them. We had a pulled beef salad which was absolutely delicious. Then we indulged ourselves with some of their home-made ice cream downstairs.

Thus ended our day. We will be Doing The Golden Circle tomorrow, with the major tourist sites and sights that this offers. It should be a good day, and it’s our last day on this tour, so let’s hope for a final Grand Day Out. Please check in tomorrow to see what actually happened, why don’t you?

Day 11 – Ice to see you – to see you, ice

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Friday 9th July 2021. Warning! Lots of pictures!

Today was the day we made the move from the eastern region to the Deep South. This journey goes round the south side of Vatnajökull glacier, Europe’s largest glacier at around 8,000 square kilometres (some say more, some less). Unsurprisingly, it, and its offshoots, formed the mainstay of today’s sights.

We started the day, however, with an experiment. As any fule kno, Iceland is a long way north – just south of the arctic circle – and so at the time of our visit the summer days are long enough that the midnight sun comes into play. Blackout blinds are an important part of hotel room decor to ensure that the rooms can be dark enough to sleep in, for example. We thought it might be interesting to demonstrate how light it was at midnight, so took a photo from our hotel window (actually, 2330, but cut us some slack, here, OK?).

That’s a little gloomy, but not actually very dark. I then took a photo at 7am using exactly the same settings, expecting it to not be that much brighter, underlining the lightness at midnight.

So our impression, that it’s not that much darker at midnight than at 7am, was wrong, then. What it demonstrates is that while it is certainly not truly dark, the human eye and brain have very strong compensation capabilities.

Our first major event of the day was to be a trip on a Zodiac RIB across a glacial lake, Jökulsárlón, to have a close encounter with Breiðamerkurjökull, a sort of “finger” off the main Vatnajökull glacier. But before that, Dagur took us a little off piste to have a look at a different finger, called Heinabergslón, which gave us a couple of decent images and a good build-up to the main act, as it were.

Then it was time for our boat ride. There are a couple of operators offering RIB rides across the lake, running from a rather ramshackle car park. You can actually get quite a good view of the glacier and some icebergs from the shore there.

Our operator was Ice Lagoon Tours who did a good job of getting us kitted out with insulated waterproof overalls (I’ll spare you the picture, mainly because I haven’t got one) and bussing us out to a pair of RIBs. I was somewhat nervous of getting my Big Camera damaged by spray, so took a Rainshield bag with me; it turned out to be not necessary and I’m glad I did take the Nikon, rather than the smaller, tougher, waterproofer but less capable Olympus Tough that I also had available.

The journey across the lake is actually some 7km, and is undertaken at some speed (a big spray risk on a rough day which thankfully we didn’t have).

On the way over, I noticed a button on the boat which seemed to be very significant for an Icelandic operation

but rather prosaically is simply part of Suzuki’s engine speed management systems.

Once we arrived near the glacier, our skipper, Erik, slowed down so we could stand up and take some photos. Of course, I took lots, and here are some of them.

The dark lines across the glacier indicate the time of an eruption when ash and rubble was laid down; so you can drill down into a glacier to go back in time for research purposes.

There were some icebergs floating near the glacier and some of them showed the fantastic blue colour that is so attractive.

There were a couple of seals lazing around on the floating ice. Jane’s ever-eagle eyes spotted the first one, and Erik took us close enough to each of them to get some photos.

and then it was time to head back to the start, across a bracingly bumpy but thankfully pretty dry stretch.

After this excitement, lunch was needed, and this is where the ramshackle nature of the car park became most obvious. For one of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions, one might expect a well-organised retail operation; but one would be disappointed. There are a couple of food outlets, some loos and the boat operators and that’s it; and the food options are somewhat limited. The caravan selling fish and chips (called “Nailed It” for some unfathomable reason) had no queue, so we ordered some, and very good they were, too.

Just along the road is something called the “Diamond Beach”, so-called because you can find lumps of ice on the black sand; the ice lake flows out via a river that reaches the sea at this beach, hence the presence of ice. This is better seen in winter, as for us, the ice was pretty sparse.

failing even to impress a skua who was watching the tourists at play.

More glacier action featured at our next stop just down the road at another finger off the main glacier, called Fjallsárlón, where I got another bunch of decent photos; the one below gives you some idea of scale through the tiny figures you can see in the foreground.

After all that ice, it was time for a break and this came in the form of a visit to Hofskirkja, the last turf church ever constructed in Iceland, originally constructed in 1884, though it was thoroughly restored in the 1950s. Unlike some of the country’s other turf churches, this one is still a practicing parish.

There was a very agitated bird, a Redshank, which was loudly complaining about our presence and therefore presumably had a nest somewhere near.

so we left the poor thing in peace (eventually) and moved on to our next glacial encounter, at a place called Freynes, yet another finger reaching down from the main Vatnajökull glacier. This involved a bit of a hike and a scramble over some gravelly rocks, but this yielded some good photos.

After this we had a slightly surreal interaction with a bridge that was part of the old Iceland Ring Road and which is now no longer in use; Dagur wanted to drive up on to it and so we helped him find the track so he could put his Land Rover to good use. Bizarre, but he was happy to have done it, so there we go.

We then got back into proper Tourist Mode for the final sights of the day as we headed out of the eastern region and into the Deep South. At one place, near the hill where the King and Queen of the Elves live, yes they really do,

is a good example of what happens to the lava of an eruption over time. The only thing that can grow on lava is moss. So you can see the edge of a lava flow by where moss grows and where it doesn’t.

The moss above is actually yellow moss, but because it’s been dry it has lost its colour until the next rains. The grass is growing in soil and you can clearly see where the grass can’t grow and is replaced by moss. This is from an eruption some 250 years ago, so the process of moss growth is very slow.

Lastly, because we’re in Iceland after all, we visited a couple of waterfalls, the first labelled by Google Maps (rather unconvincingly, in my view) as “Foss midway li la lo”

and the second Foss a Sidu.

After this we went to our hotel, the Magma Hotel in Kirkjubæjarklaustur. This is a very attractive place, with a main building housing reception and restaurant

and rooms in the shape of turf-roofed cabins.

We had a very nice dinner, and then decided to go for a brief stroll to explore, because the setting is so pleasant.

You’ll notice the horse in the picture above, and there were some in an adjoining field.

of which two came over to say hello – lovely creatures and very engaging they were, too.

Thus ended the day. I would apologise for the large number of photos, but then it’s been that kind of a day, and I hope you have liked some of them. Tomorrow is likely to be the same – not many miles covered but a busy agenda, so do please come back then and see what we’ve been up to, won’t you?

Day 10 – Caught in the wind, darling, and the reindeer

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Thursday 8th July 2021. The Fosshotel Austfirðir continued to not particularly impress over breakfast. Slow replenishment of items on the buffet, and staff not seeming to be particularly keen on keeping the selection refreshed. I think this hotel is definitely suffering from the pandemic-induced shortage of trained staff in the hospitality industry – just like the UK, really. I’m sure things will improve in time (just like the UK, really); but it’s interesting that the Fosshotel in Myvatn managed to provide a decent service (despite clearly being short-staffed) whereas this one, well, didn’t. Anyway, nobody died and we got a decent breakfast, so we were well set up for the day.

Oh, I nearly forgot to provide the utterly essential comment on the weather outlook for the day. It was good. Sunny and warm. Better than at home, so yah boo.

Before we set off on the day’s travels, Jane and I decided to have a walk around Fáskrúðsfjörður, which is a small town, but not unattractive. The hotel itself is photogenic.

We came across an extraordinary hanging basket of flowers.

The pot was originally used a century ago to melt liver in the the local whale factory, and then for salting fish, just so you know.

Also intriguing were the street signs, which were all in both Icelandic and French.

Apparently the town was a centre for French sailors and fishermen, back in the Good Ol’ Herring Days, so this street-naming is a tribute to their history, and the hotel itself combines historic buildings previously made for French fishermen in the years between 1898-1907: the French hospital, the Doctor’s house, and the Chapel.

The town has a nice little church

and several other interestingly decorated buildings.

and I was able to get a decent reflection photo at the small harbour.

As with yesterday, churches would figure quite large in the day. The first town we passed through, Stöðvarfjörður, provided not one but two Interesting Churches for our collection. One is the old church, Kirkjubaer, now used as a guest house.

and from which you can see the new church,

which is quite a striking building.

Another feature of the town is “Petra’s Stone Collection“, which is a good example of how far short a name can fall in describing something. Petra Sveinsdottir collected stones and kept them in her house. You can go and see them. This is true, but doesn’t prepare you for the impact of the place.

There are literally tons of stone samples, from all over Iceland, which Petra personally collected over the many years of her life and which are now on display in the house – and the garden.

All of the outdoor stones have to be cleaned every year, which looks like it’s a massive task. As well, there are quirky items on show, such as this animal made from various odds and sods

It’s a magnificent tribute to a magnificent obsession – I commend her story to you. There are some very lovely things on display; Jane was very taken, for example, with this small but perfect piece.

Stone actually was a key factor at and en route to our next stop, just along the coast. Iceland provided some typically dramatic rocky scenery as we went.

We stopped along the side of Berufjörður to look at an unusual geological sight – “Green Rock” (the Google Maps description, not mine; I would have sought something a little less literal and a little more, well, intriguing).

Whatever the key mineral was – we never found out – there was plenty lying around on the beach.

The next stop was a waterfall. Well, it’s a while since I showed you a waterfall photo, so here you go:

This waterfall is set on the river Fossá, and is one of several along the river. I suppose that’s why the river is basically called “waterfall”. Anyway, it’s a nice sight, worth a few minutes to set up the long-exposure shot.

By this stage, the idea of lunch was beginning to appeal, so we stopped in Djúpivogur. Before we could eat, though, there was another Interesting Church to add to our collection.

as well as a very striking artwork along the edge of the harbour called “Eggin í Gleðivík” (“The Eggs of Merry Bay”).

This is an artwork by the popular Icelandic visual artist, Sigurður Guðmundsson. There are 34 eggs, each representing a local bird.

We had a nice lunch in Hotel Framtid (“Hotel Future”), in the dining room which seemed more like someone’s living room from the past – very homely and comforting.

The rest of the afternoon was spent staggering about in whistling gales around a kind of “East and West” matched pair of mountains, Eystrahorn

and Vestrahorn.

We spent a lot of time scrambling around and trying to keep our balance in the windy conditions to take several different views of Vestrahorn, but actually the first one I took, above, with the lupins, is the one I like most. Note the “Batman” rocks to the right of the picture:

Also on offer to the unwary tourist at Vestrahorn is a visit to a “Viking Village”. This was actually a film set for a film about Vikings to be directed by one Baltasar Kormákur, who is a recognised Hollywood director and was briefly related to our guide Dagur until his (allegedly frequent) philandering caused a marital split. Anyway, we trudged over towards it

only to find that the years of neglect (we don’t think it was ever used) have taken their toll and it’s rather dilapidated.

There’s evidence of the nice touches that were used, for example the authentic-looking carving around the doors.

so I guess it was worth the visit, but only just; it could really do with a lot of maintenance if they wish to charge the entry fee they do.

As we exited the Vestrahorn site, Jane suddenly asked Dagur, urgently, to stop. Her sharp eyes had spotted something that’s quite rare in Iceland these days – wild reindeer.

It was good to see these creatures just pottering about without being spooked by anyone and it was a nice end to the day’s relentless tourism. All that was left was to get to a nearby town called Höfn and check into our hotel, imaginatively called the Hotel Höfn. We had an agreeable evening meal, with good service from a waiter called Philip, from Prague, whom we learnt has spent the last five summers working in Iceland whilst he studies for his degree in International Relations. Whatever that entails (other than talking to foreigners…)

We are now in South-eastern Iceland, officially in the southern region, and distinguishing features of the area are mountains and glaciers. Tomorrow we are promised a ride on a Zodiac RIB and a glacial lake, which is either going to be fascinating and fun or freezing cold and wet. Tune in tomorrow to find out how it worked out, eh?