South Coast Adventure
Apr. 16th, 2005 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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wrensis, who wanted lots of notes, here are some thoughts...
We were picked up at our hotel at 8:30am and taken to the main Reykjavik Excursions bus terminal, where we transferred to the larger day-trip bus and headed south. It was a dreary day--grey and intermittently rainy. This would occasionally be a problem. As we drove along, the wind and rain made fantastic patterns on the bus windows and when juxtaposed on lines of snow outlining the crevices of the mountains, the moire effect was amazing. For much of the early part of the drive we were wending our way through the lava fields. It´s rather odd how much Iceland´s terrain reminded us of Hawaii, only cold and windy.
Our first stop was at Eyrarbakki, which was the first real village in Iceland. Before that extended families lived in isolated farmhouses. Eyrarbakki was founded as a fishing station, but grew to prominence when the Danish declared that Iceland could only trade with their ships and only at certain points and picked Eyrarbakki as the trading staple for the southwestern part of the island. We walked along the breakwater there--bad idea, walking into gale-force, rain-filled wind--to "The House," a modest dwelling behind the church which was the first wooden house in Iceland and considered a palace by the locals in the 17th century. Back on the bus, we went to Skogafoss (gonna have to check all these names later, when I have the guidebook with me), a waterfall you can walk right up to the pool of. Sadly, when it was Jason´s turn to walk up to the edge, the wind chose that moment to change direction and the not-unpleasant mist suddenly became a violent downpour and he got soaked. After a 'technical stop' (the term our guide used for bathroom breaks), we visited the leading edge of one of Iceland´s five glaciers. It is wearing away at a rate of more than 10m per year. It was very black--coated with volcanic ash from the frequent eruptions--and very ominous. After a lunch break, we went out to the coast and braved even more extreme wind--strong enough to pick up the small black pebbles making up the beach surface and fling them in our faces, ouch!--to duck around the headland into this beautiful cave made up of honeycomb shaped rocks. Our final stop of the day was at another waterfall. This one we could walk behind and watch the patterns the wind makes in the spray.
By the time we got back on the bus that last time, we were very glad to be heading back to Reykjavik. I had worn my boots and silk longjohns and was very glad of them, and the combination of a sweater, my leather jacket and a fleece scarf kept me fairly warm, but I had failed to bring a hat, so I spent the day with my hair flying out of its braid and getting wet and matted as I brushed it back out of my face. I expect that several of the many, many photos I took today will be marred by stray hairs in the frame.
We napped along the way, as our guide told us stories from the Sagas set in that part of the country and interesting trivia. She was very funny, in a rather dry way. Her English was quite good, although her accent was very thick and she did make some errors. My personal favorite was a discussion of whether or not 'warmal globing´was behind the increased melting rate of the glacier.
And then we got back to the hotel and Jason went upstairs and I ran into Ron Perlman. Quite a day, indeed.
wrensis, who wanted lots of notes, here are some thoughts...We were picked up at our hotel at 8:30am and taken to the main Reykjavik Excursions bus terminal, where we transferred to the larger day-trip bus and headed south. It was a dreary day--grey and intermittently rainy. This would occasionally be a problem. As we drove along, the wind and rain made fantastic patterns on the bus windows and when juxtaposed on lines of snow outlining the crevices of the mountains, the moire effect was amazing. For much of the early part of the drive we were wending our way through the lava fields. It´s rather odd how much Iceland´s terrain reminded us of Hawaii, only cold and windy.
Our first stop was at Eyrarbakki, which was the first real village in Iceland. Before that extended families lived in isolated farmhouses. Eyrarbakki was founded as a fishing station, but grew to prominence when the Danish declared that Iceland could only trade with their ships and only at certain points and picked Eyrarbakki as the trading staple for the southwestern part of the island. We walked along the breakwater there--bad idea, walking into gale-force, rain-filled wind--to "The House," a modest dwelling behind the church which was the first wooden house in Iceland and considered a palace by the locals in the 17th century. Back on the bus, we went to Skogafoss (gonna have to check all these names later, when I have the guidebook with me), a waterfall you can walk right up to the pool of. Sadly, when it was Jason´s turn to walk up to the edge, the wind chose that moment to change direction and the not-unpleasant mist suddenly became a violent downpour and he got soaked. After a 'technical stop' (the term our guide used for bathroom breaks), we visited the leading edge of one of Iceland´s five glaciers. It is wearing away at a rate of more than 10m per year. It was very black--coated with volcanic ash from the frequent eruptions--and very ominous. After a lunch break, we went out to the coast and braved even more extreme wind--strong enough to pick up the small black pebbles making up the beach surface and fling them in our faces, ouch!--to duck around the headland into this beautiful cave made up of honeycomb shaped rocks. Our final stop of the day was at another waterfall. This one we could walk behind and watch the patterns the wind makes in the spray.
By the time we got back on the bus that last time, we were very glad to be heading back to Reykjavik. I had worn my boots and silk longjohns and was very glad of them, and the combination of a sweater, my leather jacket and a fleece scarf kept me fairly warm, but I had failed to bring a hat, so I spent the day with my hair flying out of its braid and getting wet and matted as I brushed it back out of my face. I expect that several of the many, many photos I took today will be marred by stray hairs in the frame.
We napped along the way, as our guide told us stories from the Sagas set in that part of the country and interesting trivia. She was very funny, in a rather dry way. Her English was quite good, although her accent was very thick and she did make some errors. My personal favorite was a discussion of whether or not 'warmal globing´was behind the increased melting rate of the glacier.
And then we got back to the hotel and Jason went upstairs and I ran into Ron Perlman. Quite a day, indeed.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 11:31 am (UTC)Aaahh, what am I saying? I'm in Japan, baby! Who needs sagas when you've got eighteenth-century tentacle porn?
Glad you're having such a good time.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 04:35 pm (UTC)We run into lots of retired people on our travels, who tell us how smart we are to be travelling now, while we still have the energy of youth. We sort of smile at each other and say 'Thanks, we think so.´ :)