This post may contain an inordinate amount of tree and sheep pictures. These are two things I love greatly, so I couldn't bring myself to pick and choose, I just had to put them all in!
Before leaving the Egilsstadir area, we visited the largest forest in Iceland, Hallormsstadarskogur, along the shore of Lagarfljot. Our first hike took us through spruce forest, up into birch forest, opening up into larch forest (aka tamarack, the smoky gold written about by Sigurd Olson).
While the acreage may be of a grand scale in Icelandic forest terms, the trees are short and scraggly (like these birch above). It's a tough life in the wind and cold. There are hardly any trees left in the country; there were few to begin with, but with the vikings came axes and the trees were quickly burned up. Then the people went to burning sheep dung, which by the way, we had a mouth-watering appetizer of arctic char smoked over sheep dung during our last dinner in Iceland (more to come on that later).
Andy enjoys the stormy, oxygenated air in a forest clearing.
Overlooking the forest down to Lagarfljot. We still didn't catch a sighting of the worm monster.
Larch are one of my favorite trees. We don't have them in the south; they were part of my Minnesota experience. If you haven't read Sigurd Olson and have any interest in wilderness, the Quetico-Superior area in Canada/northern Minnesota, ecology, wildlife, or canoeing, I highly recommend reading The Singing Wilderness, one of my favorite books of all time.
After our hike in the natural part of the forest, we walked through the arboretum, where the foresters have planted trees from around the world to test them out in the Icelandic climate. There were species from Siberia, Canada, Alaska, and Colorado. While they have been planting non-native trees in their forest over the past hundred years, the native trees still make up the majority of the trees seen: birch, mountain ash, poplar.
Rain was on the forecast for our drive from the east to the south, and the weathermen weren't wrong. We took the scenic route along the fjords, and although visibility was reduced, it was a beautiful drive with clouds blanketing the steep mountainsides and a rough ocean heaving and surging, waves crashing onto the rocky shore. Lunch was crackers, Icelandic cheese, and imported blueberries (Netherlands; Iceland is definitely not known for its fruits and vegetables).
We saw an aquaculture operation in one of the fjords.
Approaching a black sand stretch of road...eek! We opted out of the sand and ash insurance for the rental car because was a volcano really going to erupt during our trip?? But crossing the south, we learned that sand is a real and eminent threat! There are wide stretches of black sand between the ocean and the mountains and when the winds pick up, sand is blown full-force across these flat plains and will readily sandblast a car, leaving it without paint on the windward side with the color remaining on the leeward side. We only had to pass through a couple small areas of black sand the first day and fortunately it was raining, tamping down the sand a bit. We made it through unscathed. The larger areas we passed through the next day, and by then the storm had passed and the wind had died down, so we were safe to pass, and we flew through there as fast as we could without stopping until we were safely on the other side! There aren't billboards in Iceland, but there are big signs along the side of the road posting wind forecasts prior to entering these areas.
The South is other-worldly. Arms of an enormous glacier (Vatnajokull) are spilling out of the mountains on one side and a Mars-scape of black rock and sand spreads out to the ocean on the other side. A fun sighting along the way was barnacle geese.
The rain lifted as we neared our camping destination for the night (Vatnajokull National Park), revealing rainbows, glaciers, blue sky, lupine.
We started the trip admiring how beautiful the lupine was. It was covering the countryside, most dense near the road, but even climbing up mountainsides, coloring them pastel purple. Later, we learned that lupine was brought over from Alaska for erosion control and that it is now considered an invasive species! It's always the same story no matter what latitude or longitude you're at. So then we started cursing the lupine, "goddamn lupine," whenever we saw it creeping up mountains and into sheep range. Until we hit the south, and we realized the lupine did do a good job at keeping the sand down, so for a portion of the trip we reverted to praise, "good work lupine!"
The road through the South crosses multiple wide, muddy, glacial melt rivers rushing into the ocean. To cross these rivers, there are one-lane bridges, where the first car to get there has the right of way. Easy enough when it's a downhill slope like this one and you can see oncoming traffic in the distance. A bit harder when (as was the case most of the time) it's an uphill slope and you have no idea if another car is approaching on the other side or not! So you go sort of slow and chance it. We only came to a standstill once when we clearly had the right of way, more than half-way across the bridge, and another car decided to start crossing towards us. They had to back up off the bridge (and they were really poor backers...).
Camping at the national park was our least favorite spot of the entire trip. It was crowded and the facilities were not really adequate for the number of people. Plus a gale was blowing and threatening to collapse our tent (we added lines staking it down at every possible spot, which helped a little, but there were still gusts deforming the poles, pushing the fly up against the tent and by morning we had a small puddle at our feet). Thankfully there were instructions on how to use the toilet.
After leaving the touristy glacier area behind, we headed west and stopped at the town of Vik, where there are some bird cliffs and a black sand beach. The weather remained overcast, misty, and windy, but we would not be deterred because we had read that there are puffins at Vik! The first impression was that there were just lots and lots of gulls and terns...
...But on closer inspection, there were puffins in the fray!! We would spot them by picking out a smallish black form, flapping hard (whereas the gulls were smooth gliders) out over the water. Then we could follow them on their circles as they came in for a landing on the cliffs. They would land and instantly disappear behind a clump of vegetation or a rock, presumably entering their burrows. We never got a clear view of one on the cliff, but watching them in the air was so much fun! Eventually our fingers grew numb, so we headed on to our last campsite of the trip in Selfoss.
The Selfoss campground was a hidden gem of the trip. There were even chickens roaming (and making noise as if a hen was so proud of laying an egg at 3 in the morning...24 hour daylight...)! This was a little private campground that had a great kitchen and eating area, clean bathrooms, and free hot showers (although they were jail-style, there weren't many campers, so it was private enough). It was a nice walk into town, where we strolled along the river path after dinner both nights, and found a pylsur stand and ice cream shop!
We took some day trips out of Selfoss. The first was to Stong, an archeological site of a viking longhouse from the 1000's (it was buried by Hekla erupting in 1104). The road to Stong was a 4-wheel drive track, but after breaking the rental car rules and driving down it in our little Hyundai i-10 (the road was not that bad, we knew we weren't going to get stuck or anything), we weren't finding this longhouse where google was telling us it should be. So not wanting to break the rules too much, we drove back out. But we were really determined to find this place, I mean we came all this way!, so we decided to hike back in until we found it. The hike along the road passed through desolate lava fields with snow-capped Hekla off in the distance.
Then all of a sudden we came across this place - we called it the shire. An oasis of clear water and green plants hidden in the brown lava fields; very bizarre. We figured this must be where the longhouse was, since who wouldn't pick this as the place to put their residence. There were caves with obvious human handiwork, but no longhouse site that we could find. So after enjoying the area for a while, we decided to keep following the road for a little while longer. As we left this area, there was a sign, indicating it was called Gjain. Not Stong, but neat find nonetheless!
And then finally, we saw a long roof-covered building and people hiking to and from it, and realized we must be nearing Stong. The road curved and traveled through a river next to some construction equipment and heavy machinery. It is not unusual to come across unbridged rivers on 4WD tracks in Iceland; they are meant to be forded by large American trucks and SUVs. Since we couldn't find an Indian to take us across, we had to ford the river by foot. My boots were tall enough to keep my feet dry and warm, but Andy had worn sneakers and went barefoot. His feet were numb by the end of the short crossing! As soon as we were across, of course then we could see the footbridge about 200 yards downstream! That's where we crossed on our way back after visiting the longhouse. The longhouse site was interesting, but the real joy of the trip was the adventure in finding the place. Also we saw an arctic skua along the way.
There was a tractor hard at work seeding something into the lava fields on the side of the road out to Stong. He was clanking back and forth, not a very smooth ride over all the rocks!
Our other day trip from Selfoss was to Pingvellir National Park (or Thingvellir, since it is spelled with the weird p letter that I don't have on my keyboard). This place was a must-see because it is a very important historical landmark of Iceland, but it was way too touristy for us. We did a quick walk through to see it, then we got out of there. Anyhow, you are walking through a wide fissure in the rocks, the meeting/separating of the North Atlantic and Eurasian tectonic plates! I feel like Iceland is a geologists dreamland.
There were many pink-footed geese with goslings in the Oxara river below the rocks.
After Pingvellir, our camping was finished and we were back in civilization at Reykjavik. We had two nights at an Airbnb to finish out the trip, but we already had wilderness withdrawal and didn't have anything pressing to see or do in the city, so we headed out of town for a day trip down to the southern side of the Reykjanes peninsula to go to the Krysuvikurbjarg bird cliffs. This time Andy forded the river with his boots on - smart man!
These cliffs are viewed from above, as opposed to the Vik cliffs where we were below on the beach and looking up at the cliffs. Again there were multitudes of gulls, which we didn't get into the challenge of species identification of. What we were really interested in was finding puffins again, and we did! This time we watched them flying in towards the cliffs, straight at us closer and closer, until they disappeared under the cliff face below. There were also groups of common murres rafting on the ocean. So cool!
Upon hiking back to the car from the cliffs, we happened upon a group of sheep. Two rams, an ewe, and two lambs. One of the rams had mutant horns which were awesome (see last sheep picture below - the brown guy).
Although we had been seeing sheep everywhere throughout our trip, this was really our first up-close and personal time with them. These little guys were not very afraid of us at all (they must have been handled more than some of the mountain sheep earlier in the trip that were super wary of our presence) and they let us come right up for a photo-op. Andy kept an eye on the ewe for me while I got some pictures.
I fought back the urge to smuggle some Icelandic lambs back to the US with me, and instead purchased several skeins of lopi (Icelandic yarn), mostly undyed, natural colors to remind me of the sheep - cream, brown, light brown, black.
A nice statue in Reykjavik of how imported lumber used to be transported from ports to inland destinations. Icelandic horses are working horses, and even the tourist ones we rode at Myvatn are used in the fall to round up sheep from the mountains.
Well that basically sums up the trip. I'm hoping to post some of Andy's pictures once we go through those, too. Keep on the lookout. We would recommend Iceland to anyone - everyone speaks english, so it's super easy to get around, and if you enjoy camping, the outdoors, sheep, hiking, cold air, birds, rain, eating meat and few veggies, it is a wonderful place to explore.
You can stop reading now, but I do want to put down a record of our last meal in Iceland (our second to last dinner was also very good - pylsur with everything at the Baejarins Beztu pylsur stand, followed by crepes at a little creperie/ice cream shop). We splurged and made reservations at a Reykjavik restaurant that our dentist recommended to us: Matur og Drykkur (Food and Drink).
Here is what we ate for our last Icelandic dinner:
1. dried fiskur (cod) with whipped butter and seaweed
2. double smoked lamb with salted cream and nutmeg
3. sheep dung smoked arctic char on a crispy flatbread cracker
4. cod croquettes with remoulade and horseradish
5. halibut soup with mussels, green apple, and raisins
6. lamb shoulder steak with roasted potatoes and leeks, pickled rhubarb, and mustard seeds
7. skyr with white chocolate, fresh Icelandic strawberries, and unripe/green strawberry sorbet (this was the best dessert I've ever had in my entire life up till now, not exaggerating)
8. kleina (Icelandic doughnut) with caramelized whey and lemon zest
Unfortunately I was so full by the last dessert that I really didn't enjoy it as much as I wished I could have. But everything up to that...mmmm words cannot describe. Andy also had an Icelandic white ale and I had Icelandic herbal tea (moss, angelica, birch), very earthy and tasty.
I'm so glad plane tickets to France were prohibitively expensive. We'll get there some day, but in the meantime, Iceland was an absolutely incredible happenstance of a vacation.
