Lazy days in Reyjkavik

Well, here I am back in  Reykjavik. On foot again, as the hire car has gone. The weather has been really terrible, so windy that you even get whirly winds of water on the harbour..

Have spent the last few days doing things that cannot be photographed. ie reading in bed, being massaged, sitting in hot tub and sauna, shopping, eating, and trying to fit all my stuff into the available bags.

Have done a bit of wandering between downpours, still finding lovely sculptures. This one is typical of the simple sculptures all over town, showing people working..Its a hard life here in Iceland.

  This one I just like because of the size and lines, I have not idea what it is.....

 And this lovely female nude is in the big lake park right near the top end of town, between the shops and Uni. You can see all the lovely birches are turning.

 And for you Tom, the soccer mad Icelanders of course have a statue of that..

 Ive also been bird watching in the park, Mallards are still my favourite duck

Its a really pretty city, and i love the cute houses

Anyway, back to shopping and packing and being so excited about coming home!!!

Rainy Snaefellsness

Well the terrible weather forecasts turned out to be true, and my planned weekend of hiking did not eventuate. I could not see more than a few meters in front of myself, so was not game to venture into any mountain tracks.

Came to the first beach to find that was covered in iron from a ship wreck in 1948

It makes you worried when you start a walk, the ocean is pounding, and you see a life vest on the trail

But I had read about some Lifting Stones on a beach, and had to see them. It was only about a km in, but i had to deck out in full gear, and it was raining and blowing hard.

Lifting stones were used to see if you were strong enough to go to sea. 23kg was Bungler (Amlodi), 54 kg was Weak( halfdraettingur), 100kg was Half Strong (Halfsterker) and the biggest, 154 kg, Fully Strong ( Fullsterker). Ive included the Interp Board picture as I could not find the real things!! But had a nice adventure in the trying!!                                                 

 This is a typical Icelandic Beach! Dont you just feel like sunbathing?

And I love that people are always making things from the stones..

 Anyway I was on a missing, so I trudged on over lava, this trail is high up on the cliff edge, and it was blowing a gale, so the photos are a bit dodgy..

 Crested the headland and saw this cute little survival hut, and a beautiful heart shaped lake, surrounded by moss

 Inside the hut was beds, jackets, and a medicine cabinet, plus this grafitti (Im stranded, no your stranded). I was getting the feeling that this was a very rugged place, what with a lfe bouy in once cove and this hut in the next.

 Could not find the lifting stones, but found somen nice Inukshuk's instead..

 And had somewild views, god knows how people go out to fish here, but they do

After being blown around for about 2 hours I got back in the car, had a nice hot chocky, and headed for my next hostel at Borgarnes. And yes i found a nice dry bed, and some more great statues..

driving to Snaefellsness

After a night as the only guest at a farm house in the remote south west fjord town (?), OK locality, of Bjarkalundur I had a leisurely drive. The ocean is full of islands and looks more like lakes than ocean, so lots of lovely birds and plants

 This area is very fragile, so that the entire Peninsula is Green Certified..

 The mountains here have that some amazing colour as in the centre, I think its called Rhyolite, all pinks and creams..

 This was my cup of coffee spot, the autumn colours of the moss are really pretty. I'm turning into a great old person, I see a nice spot, stop and put on some water to boil and have a nice little cuppa...

 The lava formations area amazing here, this is a valley where you can clearly see that laving flow down it and stop, just frozen ( or cooled!) mid flow. There is a farm house just behind me, it probably wasn't there when the lava happened, but still...

 I had a proper cafe lunch (yippee) in a place called Stykkisholmur, and this was their lovely ship sculpture in the harbour. Followed up my fish, salad and fish soup lunch with the local ice cream, the name of which translated to Bullshit!!!

 Started to get views of Snaefellsjokull, the glacier mountain, but the top was covered in cloud. This is Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of The Earth Mountain, and the area is said to have great New Age Spiritual significance. Who knows what Ill find on my hikes?

Also drove through the Beserkjahraun area, a big lava field over 15km where Saga Legend has it that a farmer got two Berserk Viking Brothers to clear a path as they both wanted to marry his daughter. Being berserk Vikings they of course succeeded, and he then tricked and killed them both ( with the help of his daughter, the women area always evil in the Saga's).

Spending the night in the nice Grudargjordur Hostel, with about 6 other people, all who are hoping that the weather forecasts are wrong for tomorrow!

The West Fjords

Well, after hesitating as about whether to make this long trip through the Fjords I woke to a magic sunny day and headed off. It was about minus 5,with glorious morning sun ( and a lovely car heater!)

As with every day the little building amaze me, using local things to keep out the cold

Or this fancy one

Every morning its colder as things just keep freezing more, the locasl say it will snow big time in the next two weeks

The Western Fjords are the most rugged part of Iceland, and at points are only 300km from Greenland

  They are only about 3 km apart at the mouth, but you need to drive 15 to 20 km in and the same out to get around

 And I had a wonderful view or Hornstrandir across the water, this is a magic hiking area with no services at all, you just ferry in, camp and hike...too wild for solo Margie, but great to see anyway

So as I'm driving in and out, trying to keep enjoying the views and serenity, and not think God its taking a long time to get anywhere, I see lots of birds, ducks, swans, and seals. Its just lovely, they splash about in the clear water. Then, right in the back of a fjord, as it turn to head out, I see a really big splash. It was a whale!!!! I tried to take some photos, which show only a splash, then gave up and just drove slowly for 8 km with it swimming beside me, coming up occasionally to splash its tail down.  Magic!! I was tingling all over!

Arrived as Isafjordur to see a whale sculpture!! This is the town at the end of the fjords, and boy are you glad to see it!

 Its very beautiful, and has wonderful ( but strenuous!) hikes around it!

 The headed south across the top, on dirt roads, but still with lovely views..

 On the top is magic, frozen solid, and with mountain top views all around

After a long day, but a great on, I reached the southern edge

They said the south edge was more isolated than the north, and they were not lying! Ended up thinking I would have to camp, but found a guesthouse (farmhouse) called Hotel Bjarkalundur, where I was the only guest, and the landlady had little English. But its nice and warm, and I had a great sleep dreaming of my whale!!1

Seals and driving west to Hommavik

Headed off on a misty morning, but you just have to love the views..

 They get really battered by weather here, and you see lots of these little signal houses

My goal this morning was to try and sea some seals on the Vatnes peninsula, so i turned off the main road and headed around this loop of about 70 km. And in the middle of nowhere I get flagged down by what I thought was people broken down. But no, it was a hitch hiker wanting a new lift, a Swiss woman. I don't know how they get the courage, this was a gravel road, way off the main drag!!

Headed off and we found the seal colony, with the western Fjords in the background. It was absolutely freezing, and they are lolling about, in and out of the water, like its a day at Bondi!!

My next big decision was if I had time to drive the loop around the Western Fjords, its meant to be the most spectacular scenery, but long ins and outs of deep fjords, on gravel roads. I decided yes, so headed north, after driving south for miles to get around another inlet!! The tantalising views of the l mountains were nice, they always make me feel like I'm going on an adventure..Oh that's right, I am on an adventure!!!!

Every beach is littered in driftwood, which they collect and use for their buildings ( no trees here!)

 So I drove as far north as I could, almost until the roads run out, where it turns into Hornstrandir, the place with no roads. Turned west, and stayed in a nice guesthouse at Homavik ( most towns now only have one place to stay open). I had this all to myself, a lovely two story place

 With lovely whitewash floors, white walls, and a really nice landlady who has lived here all her life

And just across the road was the black building with a turf roof, the Museum of Witchcraft and Sorcery! Bugger it was shut, but its all about how they burned 17 9mainly women) at the stake in the Westfjords for witchcraft in the 17th century. Go the Christians, these people were just following old Viking practices.

So that's where I'm headed to today!!! I have been called a witch more than once in my life so I should be right at home..

Hostel at the end of the worls -Siglufjordur

I think I'm becoming a befuddled 49 year old. After leaving the Rob Z bikini top at the hot tub, prior to which I had driven on a two lane road the wrong way! I headed off the Siglufjordur without reading the map carefully. What looked like a tunnel through the mountains had in fine print Oct 2010.  So I had to go the long way. Lucky it was a cruisy day, and as it turned out the drive through the Trollaskagi peninsula was breathtaking. ( yes that's really what its called, I kept my doors locked!)

 I would have loved to go for a walk, but its actually someones farm.

And now I'm at the Siglufjordur hostel, and Sharon I think its like the one you told me about!!

This is the most northerly hostel in Iceland, and is just 40km south of the Arctic Circle. You have to keep stopping as you drive alone the coast, both to look at the ocean, and to calm you nerves from the sharp drop off that you are driving against