Ok – because of the poor Internet connection in Djupivogur I am now officially two days behind! I will definitely catch up even if I am doing my last 2 posts from home.
Our fifth day in Iceland, Saturday, June, 30 we
awoke to a cloudy and overcast day. This
was by far the worst day of weather that we had experienced so far. In general the weather had been much better
than I had expected. My expectations
were formed by checking the weather in Iceland on Weatherunderground.com
each day. I had come to expect cloudy,
rainy days with very cool temperatures.
Up to this point every day had been sunny and much warmer than I had
expected. We did experience a lot of
cold temperatures when we were out on the whale watching expedition the day
before, but I chalked that up to the fact that we were out on the ocean.
After a quick breakfast we packed everything up and hit the
road. Our destination for the day was
the town of Djupivogur,
in the Eastern Fjords of the country. To
reach Djupivogur we would first head due south of Húsavík and then we would turn sharply to
the east at Lake Myvatn.
At first the weather for our drive was just overcast, but as
we neared Lake Myvatn the overcast turned to rain
showers. Our normally spectacular views
were blocked by clouds in every direction.
With Lake
Myvatn in sight we made a
short stop along the roadside to explore a massive lava flow that covered the
terrain for as far as the eye could see.
These lava flows are common place throughout Iceland but this was the first time
we had stopped to explore one and enjoy the beauty of the cracked and fractured
lava. The source of this lava flow
wasn’t readily apparent, but as we continued down the road to Lake Myvatn,
it became clear that there had once been many volcanoes in the surrounding
territory.
(Zack in the lava field near Lake Myvatn.)
Taking a detour and driving a good way around Lake Myvatn,
we came across many examples of ancient steam explosions that had torn through
the cooling lava. These steam explosions
were represented by conical shaped hills that looked exactly like small
volcanoes. As we looked further we came
to realize that these remnants of steam explosions were just about
everywhere.
We stopped at the Skutustaoagigar pseudo-craters and climbed
half a dozen of theses conical hills.
Much of our walk was conducted in the pour rain at which point we were
very thankful for the Gore-Tex jackets we had brought with us. After this point we headed back the route we
had come to resume our journey to Djupivogur.
Lining the road throughout this entire area are ancient stone walls that
were erected during the ages of the Norsemen.
These walls were established to keep sheep in their proper places. Today the walls look as if they have stood
for thousands of years as the stones are worn and covered by lichens. Covered in the dampness of the rain showers
with the background of the broken lava fields behind them these walls looked
like something from an ancient myth or legend.
(Mini-craters from volcanic steam explosions.)
(Ancient stone walls from the times of the Norseman.)
The next part of our journey took us through one of the most
remote and lifeless areas of all of Iceland. The road for the next 80 kilometers or so ran
through a dry, inhospitable desert. This
land had once been covered in grass and was filled with life. However, volcanic eruptions in the 1700’s had
caused changes in the landscape that resulted in drought and wind erosion of
the soil. One-by-one the farms that had
been found throughout this region failed and were abandoned. It had been years since the last families had
left this an area of ghosts and desolation.
Despite the lack of life and bitterly cold winds blowing through the
area, it was a land of stark beauty.
There were several pull offs at which you could park and get out of your
car and walk around. I stopped at each
of these to admire the loneliness and beauty of the land. At one of these stops there was a “plain of cairns” that had been
erected by previous travelers. I stopped
and created my own cairn to mark the fact that I had been there. (If you notice
that I am just using the word “I” most of the time instead of “we”, it is
because Zack was more involved with his computer during this part of the
drive. He found the landscape to be boring
and let himself be absorbed into a game on his Mac. Oh well – teenagers will be teenagers at
times!)
(The plain of cairns in the desert.)
It seemed like the desert went on forever, but after a while
we finally came out of it and entered into Eastern Fjords around the town of
Egilsstaoir. This is a tab bit of an
unusual town as it almost felt like we were in the middle of a small American
town. There was no trace of old homes,
it all recent construction. We would
have driven right through it and on to our destination except for the fact that
we had yet to eat any lunch. So we
stopped at the local Subway (yes – Subway the American sandwich chain) and each
got a sandwich. They were slightly
different than in the US
as they definitely used less meat and had different kinds of sauces, but
overall they were the same kind of sandwiches we are used to from our
neighborhood Subway.
After eating our sandwiches it was back on the road. To shorten the route, our GPS lead us off of
the Icelandic Ring Road and onto a much smaller dirt road (Route 939). This road lead over the hills/mountains and
would cut off a considerable amount of travel as opposed to the way the Ring
Road went.
The scenery over this small little chain of hills/mountains
was spectacular! The road was dirt,
however it was like most dirt roads we had driven over in good shape. We climbed to the crest of the mountains and
then began the downward descent with the coast in sight.
(Thank goodness for my camera's tripod or shots like this won't have happened as there is frequently no one around at all!)
Shortly after joining up with the Ring Road again we found Djupivogur.
It was a quaint seaside fishing village
of only a few hundred people. It was
bigger than the first town we stayed in, however it wasn’t bigger by much. Checking into our hotel we found that it was
by far the oldest building in town, having stood since the latter part of the
19th century.
We dined in the hotel restaurant and then returned to our
hotel room for an early bedtime with some great plans for the following
day.
There is lots more to write about our Sunday and the following day. With all that we are doing and seeing it is hard to keep up with the blogging but I will do my darnedest!
Thanks and peace to all! ~J.
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