Iceland Day 6 - Rain again...on our way to Reykholt Foss Hotel
When preparing for our trip to Iceland which is near the Arctic circle and Morocco on the fringe of the Sahara Desert, our packing of appropriate clothes was a challenge. We knew that Romania and Moldova would be warm and humid. Greece in early September would be beginning to cool, and Morocco would be just plain hot. Our first stop stateside would be Vermont in October, again cool if not cold. Idealistically, I packed more for warm weather than for cool, but did manage to pack in one set of cold weather clothes just in case. Instead of my trusty waterproof hiking boots, I brought light weight walking shoes. My feet got muddy, but not really too wet, but there ere times when I wished I had better tread for slippery muddy trails.
This week, I have worn the "just in case" long pants, turtle neck, and light weight parka, and rain jacket for the entire week here in Iceland. I think I looked at too many brochures of Iceland photographs taken on the only sunny day and bought in to this occasional imagery opposed to the reality of an arctic island with snowcapped mountains, shrouded in clouds, and lush green fields. For those of you contemplating a trip here, you may indeed have beautiful sunny days, but be prepared for soggy, cold weather, too.
Think about appropriate camera protection as well. It's a good idea to carry a small dry bag for your gear. I also have a lightweight plastic sleeve for my camera and lens that I do not need to remove to take photographs. It keeps the camera dry from rain and corrosive volcanic steam, and protected from blowing dust and sand.
This is day 6 of our Icelandic travel, tomorrow we head back to Reykjavik. In 7 days on our self=drive tour, we have driven the entire perimeter road of the island and many selected shortcuts taking us to a few off beat places. We chose 7 days because of the Iceland Air stopover promotion of no extra airfare for a 7 day stop.
If we were just to come to Iceland, without the stop over, I would choose to stay 10-14 days, so that we could take advantage of some of the extra activities that we did not have time for...more bird watching, whale watching trips where there are nearly a dozen types of whales that swim these waters, a ferry to the Arctic circle, kayaking on the fjords, a visit to a school in Reykjavic, a hydroelectric dam, a few more hikes, opportunity to spend time in some of the cities, just a couple of days in a single location where we could sit and contemplate while gazing at the natural beauty.
By noon today, we had made two stops. First stop was to a place called Brogroirki which is a "volcanic plug". Our tour instructions say it is "at an altitude of 177 meters, it dominates its surroundings and looks like a castle made of basalt rock. Throughout history, the "castle" served as a natural fortress and some changes have been made to adapt it to the protection of humans." A climb to the top provides a 360 degree view for clans looking out for oppositional invaders, and a beautiful view for the rest of us,
Our second stop was to the famous rock Hvitserkur, 15 meters high and to locals it is reminiscent of a frozen troll. The legend is that this is a frozen troll caught in the sun during his mission to attack a nearby monastery. It is most likely the remnant of a volcano that has been eroded by weather, rain, waves, and currents.
The steady rain was a deterrent from getting out of the car for a walk and the low clouds masked some of the sights we might have been able to see from the road. By 3:00 pm, we needed to get out of the car regardless of the rain. I couldn't keep my eyes open, and I wasn't sure Russ was alert as he should be. We took a brisk walk to Glanni falls near Bifrost College. As we reached the falls, only 100 meters from the parking lot, the rain stopped and the clouds started to lift, and then a glimps of a patfh of blue sky....exciting.
The last two stops of the day were bright and sunny, not that the sky was clear, but a hole had opened in the clouds and sun shone down for a couple of hours while visited the largest hot springs by volume (200 liters per second) in Europe.
In 1924 when the Icelanders harnessed the boiling hot water to send to the nearest town. Since then this hot spring has been boiling away 24/7 and probably did so long before it's heat was harnessed. It smelled sulphuric, but not nearly as strong as the geothermal pools we soaked in yesterday and the hot water in our hotel last night.
The last stop of the day was the Hraunfossar "lava falls". The waterfall is located on the River Hvita, where the subterranean water bursts the lava wall fissures along the banks of the river. The water coming out of the falls appears to be sweet and clear, but drops into the gray-brown churn of the glacial Hvita River.
That's it for now. We can only hope that the Internet in tonight's hotel is better than last night and the night before. Hopefully, I can get this blog posted with some followup pictures for the last two days.
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