29th
April 2016
Well where did
that sunshine go then ???
I woke at 6 am,
and peered out of the window in search of the blue sky, only to see –
Nothing. My windows were opaque. Someone had frosted them during the night. So I opened the door and found lots of white
fluffy things falling out of the sky – It was snowing harder than it had been
last night !! And there was 6 inches of
snow on the ground, on the car, and covering my windows. Oh God – What am I going to do now ? Today is Friday, and if the road is closed,
how am I going to get to the airport on the other side of the country to catch
my flight on Sunday ? And if I miss my
first flight, all my other flights are lost too as they were all booked
individually in order to get chesap flights.
Bugger………
I got dressed,
and ploughed through the snow to the bathroom to clean my teeth, No other footprints – I was the first one
around. I went to see if the bar was
open – No such luck, and a sign said not open till noon. So there went my idea of checking on road
conditions. So I went up to the road to
see what it looked like – Answer – White !
Do I stay until I
can find out for certain what the road is like ahead ? It is difficult when you
have never been somewhere before – I didn’t know whether there were mountains
ahead or valleys. All I knew was I hadn’t
got over about 500 metres ASL all day yesterday.
Finally at about
7.30 I decided to go for it. Plenty of
fuel, food and clothing – How bad could it be ?
And if it kept snowing this hard, I very soon would be stuck. I was able to get wifi sitting in the snow outside the bar, and
checked the road conditions on line – All the roads to the east that I had
driven on yesterday were red – ie closed.
To the west, a few were red, but most were white (slippery) or amber
(open with care), so that tipped me in favour of heading out. So I jumped in, the car didn’t slip at all as
I backed out of my parking spot into the deeper snow (courtesy once again of my
studded tyres), and off I went, gingerly down the white road. So far, so good.
There were hardy
Icelandic ponies standing in the snow storm, and it didn’t get any better for
about an hour and a half – No photos because I was too busy concentrating, and
any way, they would have just been all white !!
Suffice it to say it really was a difficult drive – But Fun ! Soon after 9 am I arrived at Godafoss –
Acclaimed by some to be the one of the most picturesque waterfalls in
Iceland. There are many stories about
the early days, but for me, today was good enough – It was still bitterly cold,
but this meant that the spray from the falls was making an incredible ice
sculpture over and around the falls. I
walked around both sides of the falls, crossing the road bridge in between, and
both sides were equally scenic, yet different.
A pleasant (if chilly) interlude from the driving !
Not far down the
road I came to a big lake, Ljósavatn, that was still totally frozen over, and
bathed in an eerie light from the watery sun that was trying to force its way
through the clouds. But too cold to stop for long, so I headed on, and over the
next hour or so continued to go through a lot of snow, although thankfully the
roads were now basically snow –free. At
about 11 am I dropped down into the little town of Akureyri, nestling at the
end of Iceland’s longest (60 km) fjord, Eyjafjörôur. I
really thought I had come to the end of the snow now,
But it was big, that’s for sure.
I realized by now
that I was not going to be able to get up to the NW of the country, the West
Fjords, as it was just too much in this uncertain weather. So instead I decided
to explore a couple of the other fjords to the immediate west that would still
enable me to easily drop down to Reykjavik if I needed to. First I headed up
towards Olafsfjirdūr, and then across the top to Siglufjordūr. These two little
fishing towns used be dead ends with no connecting roads, but recently they
At the second
tunnel, a big truck came out just before I went in – And thank god he did – The
tunnel was single lane ! The same rules
apply as on the single lane bridges – He who gets there first, wins ! When I entered the tunnel I had no idea it
was single lane – My Icelandic isn’t that good ! And going out of glaring
whiteness of snow into a black tunnel means you can see very little until your
eyes acclimatize, and I very nearly drove straight into the wall ! If that truck had been coming out, I would
have met him head on !! There were
passing lay-byes in the tunnel, so when I saw headlights I just went into one
and waited for the oncoming traffic to pass – Fortunately there was very little
– But in future, beware of long single lane tunnels in Iceland !
I then carried on
down the west side of this particular spit, and then across the foot of the
next spit of land to Blönduós, from where I had used my Maps.me app to work out
a clever road that would take me down to the Pingvellir National park without
having to all the way round a big loop through Reykjavik, on the way passing a
couple of apparently scenic waterfalls.
So I turned in at Baulan, and drove about 40 kms SE towards Hraunfoss
and Barnafoss, with the snow gradually decreasing as I went. Lots of scenery though, and at one point a
man riding a horse rode along the ridge of a hill beside me, which was good to
see. Also passed lots more fields with
horses in them – Horse riding is a big business round here, and treks from an
afternoon up to weeklong rides up in the mountains can be arranged. Some of them seem to have their manes
trimmed, but many seem to be left shaggy, and it is surprising that some of
them can see where they are going ! Or
maybe the incessant wind keeps it blown out of their eyes !
I finally pulled
into Hraunfossar and a big tyred 4 WD was just ahead of me, with the driver
showing 3 tourists around the area. From
here, my Garmin told me it was just a few kms on down the road to my destination
at Pingvellir, but I decided to check with the driver of the 4 WD – He should
know. Not a chance, he said, they had
lots of snow up in the mountains last night and the road would be difficult
even for his car ! Oh !! So it looks like I have to go all the way
back around the long way – Bugger !
Anyway, enjoyed
the falls – they are quite amazing as the water flows out from under the
surface layer of lava rock, and enters the side of an existing river, the
Hvitá. This lava is known as pillow lava, and was apparently formed in about
800 AD, and the area where the water flows out into the river is almost a
kilometer wide. Novel waterfall, and
well worth the visit, even if I did have to go back the way I came ! The second falls are on the Hvitá river
itself, and are just a violent flow through a narrow section of the river that
has carved out bridges and stone arches in the rock. There is a story of tow
children who fell in the river and drowned while their parents were at church,
so the mother destroyed a stone arch so it would never happen again. Thus its
name – Barnafoss – which means “Children’s Bridge”.
Then it was back
in the car and a long drive back out to the main road, and then down towards
Reykjavik, but before I could get there, there was a fjord to cross – The
Hvalfjörōur. It turns out there is a
long tunnel under it, which cost me 1000 Krone, but it certainly saved going a
long way round to the head of the fjord.
After that, it was another hour or so before I got to the campsite in
the Pingvellir National Park at about 9 pm.
But it ended up being a beautiful clear sunny evening, so driving through
the scenic National Park was not too difficult. And with a clear sky, I started to think
that maybe the Northern Lights might at least be a possibility !! Oooooh.
Set up camp in a
field with several others, and was befriended by Vinny and Alexis, on a tour
over here from the US. They kindly
shared their delicious mango daiquiri with me, and together we agreed to wake
each other up if someone “turned the lights on” during the night !
A stunning end to
another long but wonderful day of extreme weather variations, but always great
scenery along the way. I slept like a
log – And there were no northern lights.
Unfortunately. Or not that any of
us saw. Maybe it was that delicious
mango daiquiri that was at fault ?
Photos of the day are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6279741698569648769?authkey=Gv1sRgCMGN8Pz3tIWdJw
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