Ode to Ford - NOT!
Day started with very nice breakfast, weather was gray &rainy but your intrepid explorers headed off into the remote high country ready for a full day’s adventure, including fording a couple of rivers later in the day...until 15 minutes into the trip when the “Check Engine” light on our Fix Or Repair Daily Explorer came on. Discussion with the car rental outfit in Reykjavik saw us backtracking an hour to Selfoss to get it checked. The diagnosis was a sensor problem, so we were good to go before noon.
Turns out this was a good thing...remember those remote high country roads? Found out before leaving Selfoss that they were closed due to severe flooding and fording (no pun intended) those rivers would have resulted in something really, really bad. Fortunately Addy the Nordic Tour Organizer Goddess had a Plan B for us and we had great visits to two spectacular waterfalls (the ONLY good thing about 10 days of rain), an amazing black lava sand beach with huge waves at the southernmost tip of the island, some of the most bizarre landscape ever, and culminating with a couple of hours hiking along Fjadrargljufur gorge, a breathtaking geological oddity featuring bizarre rock outcrops, and even sheep (which are everywhere) who do great imitations of mountain goats climbing seemingly vertical canyon walls to get to the best grass. All of the above done in driving rain and howling wind and remarkably good spirits.
We decided that the Norse gods have sent us god omens though...on the way back to the car at Fjadrargljufur, the wind dropped, patches of sun appeared nearly blinding your vitamin D – deprived explorers, and we had a rainbow a few minutes later. Energized by some late evening beer and pizza, we look forward to a good night’s rest in a very quaint and well-equipped 3-bedroom cabin at Horgsland just outside Kirkjubaejarklaustur (Klaustur for short...you think I’m making up these names, don’t you?) and heading off to the Skaftafell National Park in the morning.
On speaking Icelandic...
At the risk of sounding like stereotypical tourists (which lord knows we aren’t), and despite valiant efforts, we have all but abandoned attempts at learning some basic phrases in Icelandic. Very nice people, spectacular scenery, mind-numbing language; one that is actually so little changed from what the Vikings spoke that many Icelanders are able to read the ancient Viking texts without translation. Mercifully, most Icelanders speak English and do so gladly, no doubt to avoid the excruciating pain of hearing us mangle their native tongue. Many road signs (not to mention almost all advertisements) are bilingual and there are even a few words that you can figure out; most importantly, coffee = kaffe.
Day started with very nice breakfast, weather was gray &rainy but your intrepid explorers headed off into the remote high country ready for a full day’s adventure, including fording a couple of rivers later in the day...until 15 minutes into the trip when the “Check Engine” light on our Fix Or Repair Daily Explorer came on. Discussion with the car rental outfit in Reykjavik saw us backtracking an hour to Selfoss to get it checked. The diagnosis was a sensor problem, so we were good to go before noon.
Turns out this was a good thing...remember those remote high country roads? Found out before leaving Selfoss that they were closed due to severe flooding and fording (no pun intended) those rivers would have resulted in something really, really bad. Fortunately Addy the Nordic Tour Organizer Goddess had a Plan B for us and we had great visits to two spectacular waterfalls (the ONLY good thing about 10 days of rain), an amazing black lava sand beach with huge waves at the southernmost tip of the island, some of the most bizarre landscape ever, and culminating with a couple of hours hiking along Fjadrargljufur gorge, a breathtaking geological oddity featuring bizarre rock outcrops, and even sheep (which are everywhere) who do great imitations of mountain goats climbing seemingly vertical canyon walls to get to the best grass. All of the above done in driving rain and howling wind and remarkably good spirits.
We decided that the Norse gods have sent us god omens though...on the way back to the car at Fjadrargljufur, the wind dropped, patches of sun appeared nearly blinding your vitamin D – deprived explorers, and we had a rainbow a few minutes later. Energized by some late evening beer and pizza, we look forward to a good night’s rest in a very quaint and well-equipped 3-bedroom cabin at Horgsland just outside Kirkjubaejarklaustur (Klaustur for short...you think I’m making up these names, don’t you?) and heading off to the Skaftafell National Park in the morning.
On speaking Icelandic...
At the risk of sounding like stereotypical tourists (which lord knows we aren’t), and despite valiant efforts, we have all but abandoned attempts at learning some basic phrases in Icelandic. Very nice people, spectacular scenery, mind-numbing language; one that is actually so little changed from what the Vikings spoke that many Icelanders are able to read the ancient Viking texts without translation. Mercifully, most Icelanders speak English and do so gladly, no doubt to avoid the excruciating pain of hearing us mangle their native tongue. Many road signs (not to mention almost all advertisements) are bilingual and there are even a few words that you can figure out; most importantly, coffee = kaffe.
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