(Following on from
here.)
I decided to get a shot of some of the horses that are found all over this land. They may look small but I'm told that the Icelanders get annoyed if you call them ponies. These are horses, and hardy ones at that. The Icelandic climate is a tough one at times but these horses are one of the few domestic animals able to withstand the harsh winter weather.
I had stumbled across some pictures of a place called Kálfshamarvik online and it looked intriguing. Twisted basalt columns surmounted by an interesting lighthouse, what's not to like.
It was a bit off the beaten track but that was even better because it hadn't been photographed as much as some of the other hot spots.
We set. Off down a clear gravel track only to be confronted with a snow drift. It wasn't a big drift and it had tyre tracks running through it already. I decided to try it slowly and carefully. Mistake. The sump lodged itself firmly on the bank of snow in the middle of the road lifting the wheels and stopping the vehicle in it's tracks. It wasn't much, if I had hit it faster our momentum would have carried us through.
So we had to dig ourselves out. We had a small dust pan, a few rocks lying about but nothing long enough to reach the sump area that was actually caught except for my tripod.
Now I've always held that a flimsy tripod is a waste of space. I'll add to that now. A tripod that is not strong enough to dig you out of a snow drift is no use to man or beast.
A short while later we were on our way again.
Kálfshamarvik was well worth the effort but unfortunately, due to the time we lost and the fact that we had booked a cabin for that night, we had far too little time here.
Without that booking to consider we would have stayed the night for certain.
We met the same drift on the way back and hit it at a reasonable speed this time. Sure enough, no problem.
The cabin was far bigger than we needed but I booked it for two reasons.
The fact that it had a geothermal hot tub right on the veranda.
And the view from that hot tub.
A plan with almost no drawbacks.
Unfortunately, it was on the edge of a small community, so when the Northern Lights made an appearance while we were enjoying a good duty free wine in the tub, it was slightly degraded by light pollution from the street lighting behind us.
You can't have everything can you?
So far, the snow had only interrupted our plans on the way to Kálfshamarvik, at Godafoss there are normally two sides that the falls can be approached from but it was clear on this day that the side I wanted to be on would be not be safe on this occasion. That left me with the light, which was quite strong, coming from the wrong side as well. Not ideal.
Hveraröndor Hverir turned out to be one of our highlights.
Powerful fumaroles and smelly steaming mud holes.
Everything a good geothermal area should be and no more than a few essential fences to get in the way.
I must say that the Icelandic approach to health and safety is refreshing.
There were a few signs to say “This is dangerous.” but by and large the attitude seemed to be “We have warned you, so if you are stupid enough to put your hand into a superheated fumarole or a pool of boiling water, then that is your own problem.”
I can live with that, it seems perfectly in keeping with Darwinian thinking as well but I suspect such an attitude would soon attract a festering swarm of ambulance chasers in the UK.
Dettifoss was also not safe to approach closely.
But Selfoss was easy to access.
This was the tripod, still fully functional as you can see and it gives you a good idea of the level of kit we were wearing. There was snow on the ground here but it wasn't really what I would call cold.
I usually use Wellington boots anywhere around water because you never know when the best viewpoint will be in the middle of a stream.
(Full report and more pictures
here.)
Part Three
here.
