Episode 4Certainly Iceland presented an icy picture as we cruised into the harbour at Seydisfjordur. Soon we were off and away and almost immediately saw our first ‘foss’. A foss is a waterfall in more than one of the Nordic languages including Icelandic.Snow was piled deep on both sides of the road as we headed off towards the major town of this region Egilsstadie where L played the ATM and got some local money after some initial problems. We joined the ring road here, the main highway around the country. Any off roading in the interior will have to wait until the snow melts, in this region anyway.As we headed in a southerly direction it wasn’t long before we saw some reindeer crossing the road but L was a bit slow locating the camera and she missed them. Then we started to hear a rattly noise now and again, and yes, it was the car, up to it’s usual tricks, didn’t waste any time in doing so either. After several stops and checks D found the problem, most of the bolts that hold the transfer case to the gear box, or some such thing had either come lose or sheared. D managed to rescue one good bolt and replaced it, that held everything together until we got into the next small town, Raydarfjordur. Here we managed to find a garage that would do the repair job but we would have to wait until 2 days hence when the mechanic was free due to the fact that that particular day is a national holiday in Iceland. It is Ascension Day, a religious holiday.we were shown the local free camp site and headed there, none of the services are yet in use properly but we managed. Some of the snow had melted around this area and during our time here when the sun came out and it got hot we could watch the snow melt. By hot we mean about 3C, although it dropped well below freezing at night. In the car we are as ‘snug as bugs in rugs’.During our free day my lot found the Youth Hostel where they were allowed to use the internet so we spent much of the day there. It was nice and warm and no-one at all was about. The lady who had given her permission did pop in during the afternoon.When the mechanics did the work on the car it took them 4 hours, it seems that the prop shaft may have caused the problem, not loose bolts as D had feared. This mechanical business is here to service the big Alcoa aluminium smelter just a bit further along the fjord. This was quite controversial when it was proposed and while it was being built in the early 2000’s. A large dam had to be constructed up in the interior to feed a hydro station that produces electricity just for this plant. There is no geothermal electricity in this part of the country. My lot forgot to ask where the bauxite comes from that is used in this smelter.Our next stop around the coast was the rock collection of a local lady who has passed away since my lots previous visit in 2007. The collection is quite remarkable not only for the amount but for the variety and it was all collected within a very small area by this one lady. almost everything was within walking distance of this house where she lived. She had a great long Icelandic name, but her first name or commonly used name from when she was born was Petra, which comes from the Greek word for stone. So there is a hell of a lot in a name. We had a good look around inside the house at the collection that fills several rooms before venturing outside into the garden for a quick look there. In a small cabin there is a collection of pens and embroiled handkerchiefs and sea shells. Our good weather of the first few days we were here had up stakes and left and it was now tipping with rain and the fog was very low so that there wasn’t any view, so it was a quick look about the garden between rain drops.The pretty little port of Djupivogur was well worth a visit. It dates from the 1500’s when it was first settled by fishermen and then some farmers moved into the area. Both these groups of people would have to have been very hardy. Even now farming in this region must be a real battle against the elements let alone centuries ago. The same goes for the fishermen battling the sea, what brave souls they were. The oldest building still standing is from 1790, it’s right next to the colourful little harbour crammed with small fishing boats still. Outside town we saw another place that looks as if it’s trying to rival Petra’s with bones, and sticks and stones. then there is a row of posts beside the road where great rocks have been shaped into ‘eggs’. Some local artist did this a few years ago. There are 34 of them, each representing a different bird found in the region. They certainly grab the attention for those traveller who make it to this area.Then we were in the region where the great glaciers used to some almost to the sea as recently as 1900, before they all started melting at a frantic pace. I was put out here and there to get my photo taken between showers but boy! it was a bit chilly and L isn’t always fast with the camera. she forgets that I’m out here naked while she is wearing a heavy coat.With the rain all the low lying snow had melted so there was plenty of run-off in the streams. We took some tracks that led into the national park and to near a couple of the glacier terminals. There is always a lake at the end of the glacier, mostly with lots of ice-bergs that have dropped off the glacier. Looking across to the terminal wall it is hard to judge the distance, probably much further than it looked, and also impossible to guess the height of the terminal face, could be 100m but L had really no idea. What she can tell you is that one sign is a car park told us that the ice was 200m thick here in 1900, the glacier quite possibly reached the coast at that time so must have presented quite a sight with icebergs falling into the sea. The car park my lot think, after heading down to the lagoon, is about 150m above that lagoon.. On a nearby mountain side we could see the strata carved out by the glacier as it was at different levels.We visited several of these glacial lagoons: At one there are ‘duck’ tours out into the lagoon and my lot say that they went on one of those last time they visited. However at present the icebergs are not very impressive, and there’s not many of them, perhaps it is better later in the summer when all the new ones have fallen off and not yet reached the sea. We did watch the skua birds, saw a few feathered ducks, a couple of geese of some sort, black and white ones, and lots of arctic terns doing some sort of mating ritual. The rain continues with many sleet showers too: Iceland living up to it’s name:Next we came to the Skaftafell National Park and the visitors centre. Inside we could read about the history and geology of Iceland and the National park, and L spent a long time reading everything but remembers little. Her brain is not what it could be. She did note that originally the National park, first declared in about 1968 was a mere 500 sq kilometres. Over the ensuing decades it has been enlarged, some areas given different names but really it’s all one park and now covers 13000 sq k’s, almost one third the size of Iceland. Not that much of it could be used for any other purpose really as it’s mostly glaciers, volcanoes and ice fields. the rain that had been tipping down abated for a short time and we all walked up to see the Svartifoss, a pretty waterfall surrounded with basalt columns. While here we watched some people using a small ‘drone’ fitted with cameras that they flew over and around the waterfall. Looks like quite an expensive piece of equipment.the vast black sand plain that extends along the coast in this part of Iceland is know as the Sandur. It has been created by the alluvial deposits left by the outwash of the rivers from the glaciers and from the ‘jokullhlaups’, massive floods that can happen when the sub glacial volcanoes erupt, melting the ice and forming a huge lake that eventually breaks the ice wall and ‘explodes’ down the mountain side and across the lowlands sweeping all before it and leaving vast amounts of devastation and debris in it’s wake. The larges of these floods produced a volume of water and debris that passed at 300,000 cubic metres per second for something like 18 hours. Even as recent as 2011 such a flood, considerably smaller than that one took out a bridge near Vik.We tried to get inland to go to a geothermal area but the roads are not yet open, snow blocks them once we gain some altitude, so we have had to stick to the ring road.With a burst of enthusiasm, partly because it wasn’t raining we all set off to climb a big lump of dirt and rock called, Hjorleifshofid, near Vik. It is believed that one of the two brothers who were the first to come to iceland landed here in 873, he had slaves with him and they are said to have murdered him here. At the very top, a climb of about 200m there is a memorial to him and a brilliant view of much of the ‘sander’. This lump of dirt, rock, and whatever else was once an Island and it is only in recent centuries that the alluvial deposits have built up to such an extent that it is now part of the mainland.In those early days of settlement Iceland was much warmer than it is now too, so much for global warming. It wasn’t until the late 15th century that the glaciers started advancing and overtook quite a lot of farmland. Goats pigs and cattle were the main farm animals back then and corn was grown. Now it’s too cold for corn, and there are very few pigs and goats, it’s mostly sheep with some cattle and no corn.The glaciers have retreated considerably since the beginning of the 20th century, however, they still have a long way further to reduce to reach the size they were in the 14th century,Near Vik there are some sea stacks and basalt caves that we vsited. There are legends attached to the sea stacks as there are to most things in Iceland, something to do with trolls and sailing ships and not getting to land before sun rise or sun set of some such thing. L will try and put some photos of the sea arches on the blog at some point. We could drive up on top of them. They are all basalt too, but not the well defined columns as around the caves. The basalt has to cool at the right speed to form those columns and they always form perpendicular to the cooling surface,. L says she hopes you can work that out, she isn’t too sure, she would like a demonstration.Days laterWell we have seen several more waterfalls. This is Iceland and water isn’t in short supply, whether it be in the form of rain, plenty of that lately, snow, no shortage of that once away from the coast, ice as in glaciers or sleet; or just plain water as in streams, dams, lakes and waterfalls. Any one of these falls have just about as much water as all the rivers in Queensland according to L. She would like a few diverted ‘down under’.Skogafoss is said to be one of the most beautiful and it does present an awesome sight but without the sun shinning we didn’t see any rainbow as is quite usual, and with the wind as it was we didn’t get too near for fear of getting drenched. However, we did climb up the long stairway to the viewing platform at the top, well L went up there quite quickly, D was a mite slower as he and I (D mostly) huffed and puffed our way to the top. It was nice to see that we were’t the slowest by a long way. The view looking down is much better in reality that it looks in a photo. L got some shots of the fulmars nesting near the top. There are walking trails that continue on from the top of the falls that cover much of the plateau and there are many more waterfalls to see, however we aren’t really equipped to go venturing off for hours in this weather.A short way further on, around a corner we came to 4 more waterfalls in a row. These come from the same plateau. At one it’s possible to walk behind the waterfall but again my lot chickened out as people were coming back drenched, most had waterproof clothing but even that was put to the test.One of the falls in this group falls into a small gorge of its own creation. The stream at the top having cut it way backward through the soft rock. To see it properly one needs to walk through the narrow opening of the gorge beside the emerging stream (or in it if the water is high) and enter the small canyon behind. Again, because of the wind we didn’t. Getting wet in 3C then having a wind chill factor bringing it down to 0C wasn’t on with my lot. Softies they are:Continuing around this plateau while following a valley we saw several small glaciers descending the escarpment, just more waterfalls but frozen. At the end of the road at Porsmork there is a hostel for hikers where the overnight fee is about $70 AUD 35 pounds bed only, plus use of kitchen, but showers are an extra $5. To get here you have to have a 4WD like us, or come with an organised group in a bigger 4WD. along the way we had to ford several rivers and the last one to the parking lot at the hostel was the deepest but nowhere near as deep as we’ve forded in Mongolia. Judging by the amount of gear and the number of vehicles around there must have been a good number of people here, probably all out hiking despite the very poor weather conditions and the signs that say not to go out in such conditions. The view from the top would have been non-existent. even with the very best clothing for such conditions you still can’t see through fog.Taking another road we headed into the interior some way passing a cloud cloaked Hekla on the way. Hekla is a very unpredictable volcano, it can erupt at very short notice, like 90 minutes. Hikers on the mountain are asked to advise the emergency number so that a text can be sent to them if an eruption suddenly is expected.As we got higher in altitude and further from the coast the snow got thicker and it got much colder. We got onto a road that goes right across the interior to the NE part of the island, but as we didn’t want to go there just now we took another road back towards the SW coast. Along here we saw some 12th century houses that were buried under ash and pumice in the 1104 Hekla eruption. they were excavated in 1974 and found to be in remarkably good condition though some restoration work has been done. Even more amazing is the story connecting someone who lived here in the 11/12th century to some engraved runes at Maes Howe in the Orkney Islands off the Scottish coast. Gaukur Trandilsson lived here at Pjoloeldisbaer and the runes at Maes Howe says that the axe the caver used belonged to Gaukur trandilsson. Actually the runes are ancient graffiti, Maes Howe dates from 2700BC. My lot have visited that place in the Orkneys BM (before me). Small world even then.Nearby is the Burfell hydro electricity station and another waterfall, this one has the junction of two river at the top and is surrounded by basalt pillars lying at all angles.Heckle remained bashful behind cloud all day, as did the sun.In an area near Selfoss (no waterfall as far as we know) there are a number of small craters. One in particular is quite interesting as it is 55m deep and has a small green/blue lake in the bottom. Much of the sides and top are covered in red scoria, a volcanic material. It is the largest of several such craters in the area and is believed to be a collapsed magma chamber. The level of the water varies between 7 and 14m depending on the water table. That scoria is almost like walking on marbles and there is a walk around the top so one doesn’t venture too close to the edge, no guard rails here if you slip on that scoria.After some wet days then we got a really bad weather day. Overnight there had been some snow showers and on the mountains the fresh snow glistened in the early morning sunshine. Soon another snow shower came over making the ground white, then within a minute or two all the fresh snow at our level had melted except for that on the windscreen. The sky would clear and the sun come out. All the time the wind was bitterly cold, and another snow shower would come over almost without warning. We all got caught out in them several times during in the day as we visited the magnificent waterfall, Gullfoss, the geothermal park at Geyser where the original geyser is. Geyser being an Iceland word that is now the generally accepted word for this type of natural thermal vent.This weather continued as we walked around Thingvellir. This is both a very important area in the history of Iceland and also a significant place geologically as it is where the North American and Eurasian techtonic plates drift apart creating great rifts in the earth. Iceland widens by 2cm each year and it’s in these rift that this can be seen.It is also here where the first settlers to Iceland set up their governing authority, the Althing, in the 10th century, where the law was recited and the chieftains discussed events and intervened in disputes. Iceland was a provence of Norway and ultimately came under Danish rule because of the union of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Iceland continued to have its parliament here until the late 18th century when it was moved to Reykjavik. It gained independence from Denmark in 1944 while the Danish King was under house arrest by the Nazis.As we headed back to the coast from here we came across two geothermal power stations. both generate electricity and hot water for Reykjavik. At one there was a visitors centre that we visited and where we watched videos on how the system works and could look out onto the generators and turbines. The hot water is sent around all the houses and business in Reykjavik and people just pay for the amount of hot water they use. None is wasted, the used hot water is then run under streets, pavements, driveways etc to melt the snow and ice and keep them clear. Geothermal power accounts for 27% of Icelands electricity. Almost all the rest is Hydroelectric power.Accidentally we came across a cave, could be an old lava tube, once we got down inside it we saw that the floor was covered in large icicles. It was very slippery to climb into and out of.
© Lynette Regan 22nd May 2015