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I am heading to France in a month.  Well, not the motherland, but one of the last vestiges of her colonial past, the isles de la Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.  These small islands are the only remnants of the empire of New France that extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains.  Along the way I'll circle Newfoundland and touch parts of Nova Scotia slowly heading for New York City on the maiden voyage of Silversea's PRINCE ALBERT II, their new expedition ship.  My last such adventure was onboard Quark Expedition' PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKIY in February of 2007.  Here are the two ships oceans apart and at somewhat similar scale:

The PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKIY is 256 ft. and the PRINCE ALBERT II is 354 ft.  Tonnage wise the PAII is just shy of four times the PM.  The crew to passenger ratio of the PM is 1:2.4 has been cut in half at 1:1.2 on the PRINCE ALBERT II.  The latter carrying a maximum of 132 passengers.

I had an absolutely grand time on the PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKIY, and I expect a lot more from this new ship, PRINCE ALBERT II.  For those that followed along with me on the last trip, I'll be doing the same routine this time as well.  Daily dispatches from the ship and perhaps even a few photos along the way.

The first stop after boarding in St. Johns, Newfoundland will be at L'Anse aux Meadows ("Jelly Fish Cove") where Leif Ericsson landed a thousand years ago.  Inasmuch as I visited the town (Eyrarbakki) in southern Iceland last year, where Bjarni Herjólfsson lived, who had sold his boat to Leif and given him some directions to the land west of Greenland that he accidentally  discovered (but did not land on) when he was trying to find Greenland in the year 985.  Columbus knew all of this, now you do too.  More to come....

A wonderful start for 2008.  My Iceland travel story was just published in the JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHERS.  Here is the link to the full story on the IAPP web site.  If that fails to load, here is the PDF on my server. 

Today I uploaded all of the "travel photos" (food, road shots, story telling images) along with the hopefully, excellent printable images.  They can all be found here:

http://www.terra360.com/iceland/ice_all/index.html

The FINE ART images are now available for viewing (lower left link on front page) or here:

http://www.terra360.com/iceland/iceland_art/index.html

Prices will be posted shortly (really)... enjoy! - Rj.

Day 15 (July 5)

At the airport in Reykjavik... and one last photo of food.  It's only because this one was just so "beyond expectations" as Steve said.  This was breakfast.  $35.00.  And it wasn't very good. What was good at the airport was the free Wi-fi connection to the Internet.

Iceland Air charged me 6,000 Krona (expected) for my extra 20 kilos of baggage.  I don't think at this end they are counting 3 pieces, just weight, so I was glad that in lieu of my bathroom scale to weigh me and my bags, I just loaded up my Lowe Pro Computrekker AW (rolling bag) with all the heavy items I could get into it.  I am sure I moved 10 kilos out of the checked baggage for the return trip.  What was all this stuff you might ask... a short list, of Canon equipment: a XH-A1 HD cam, 1DsMkII, 5D, SD800, 15mm FFF, 16-35mm, 24-105mm, 70-200mm, 400mm DO, 1.4 extender, 2 tripods, 1 monopod, heads/pano brackets, Steadicam Merlin, rain slickers, lots of batteries, parts, and cleaning equipment.  Oh, and don't forget the notebook computer and parts.  I should have left the Merlin at home, I forgot a rain slicker for the 1DsMkII, but most of the rest was used.

All & all it was a lovely time for sure. Almost 4100 km. in total over 14 days.  Thanks to Steve for all the driving.  A great trip.

cheers, Rusty

Day 14 (July 4)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right)

The last day.  We hadn't that far to travel to our hotel in Reykjavik, so like days before in similar situations, we got creative.  Loops, odd roads, going places no one except locals would ever go.  We dashed to the coast just south of Selfoss, the somewhat large town of 6,000 souls that was between our hotel and the sea.  We were heading for the harbor town of Eyrarbakki, where in 985 AD., Bjarni Herjólfsson, a young merchant, sailed for Greenland, but instead reached the shores of North America along the way. Upon his arrival in Greenland, Bjarni told Leif Eriksson of his discovery and sold him his boat, which Eriksson used for his own journey to North America.  I wanted to see where this stroke of incredible bad luck started.  Unfortunately we had our own bad luck when we got there and the museum would not open for another 45 min. after we arrived in town.  So we pressed on to Þorlákshöfn and watched the ferry from Vestmannaeyjar arrive! This is exactly the ferry I want to ride on my next visit to see this group of islands (16 in all, newest being Surtsey).  Along the way we caught a few shots of some swans (Steve said they were swans)... very beautiful.  I wished I had a little more time to photograph them. 

Our energy spent from all this tourist activity we were famished yet again and on the prowl for one last super expensive lunch.  We found it at the Hotel Rangá just east of Hella.  The wait staff was outstanding, the food delicious (salmon on lettuce and herbs), potato soufflé and a nice glass of white wine (standard Spanish import I recall).  Best $120 lunch you can get in Iceland.  Highly recommended if you have no other choice like us.

Starting on the second of these somewhat large impromptu loop tours we could see from many kilometers away, a white streak on a very large cliff.  Being experienced would-be-saga-loving-Norseman-wanna-be's we of course struck out straight for it.  No sooner had we arrived and deployed our digital assets to the field as it started raining, really big drops... with some thunder even.  Steve went left, and I went right, we both managed a few shots before being changed back into our Mitsubishi mud-mobile.  This is Seljalandsfoss falls.  Certainly one of the most beautiful of the hundreds in Iceland.

We ended the day back where we started at the Iceland Air hotel in Reykjavik.  It was noisy this time with many bus loads of tourists arriving and departing at all hours of the day and night (well, early morning, it was never dark).

Day 13 (July 3)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right)

We were heading north again, after fueling up in Vik, which is pretty much at the southern end of Iceland, we headed north to circle the Myrdalsjökull ice cap.  To Landmannalaugar in the interior.  It has a rich history of tectonic activity and it is still very active today with steam vents, hot springs, colorful hillsides, and rocks that have not been there that long!  It is an exciting passage over rivers and pot holes, the roads are fairly well marked but the GPS was a definite help a few times.  It is all a one-track dirt or gravel road, sometimes over riverbeds, crossing and re-crossing streams.  A few times we even had what could be called a traffic jam and had to wait a few minutes for everyone to ford the river.

By this point of the trip our car was pretty trashed.  Dirt flying in the back hatch back was a problem every time we opened it.  We just learned to live with it.  Think of it as "good dirt".  We had lots.

We arrived early enough at our last hotel-on-the-road, the Hotel Hekla/Brjánsstaðir, where I was destined to meet one more new friend, EMMA.  She is a 3 month old Border Collie.  And full of trouble for the hotel employees.  The hotel was comfortable, but not lavish.  The ADSL Internet connection was almost non-existant.  Steve and I had both had dial up connections that were faster in the "old days".

Day 12 (July 2)

Smyrlabjörg to Geirland (thanks again to Steve for the spelling!)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

I have to throw away all concepts of phonetic spelling and study the map two or three times to get these place names typed correctly.  Much like memorizing a password, pronunciation, it's always a shocker when the locals speak to me in their native tongue and says something that does not remotely come close to permutations that dance around in my imagination.  We had a room here on the end of the building, closest to the stairs and hot tub, the latter which we did not use, and the former we heard a bit too much.  We are continually surprised to find Internet access almost ubiquitous around the island, which means we can get updates from the world, and for me, telecommuncation via voice as well.

Cloudy again, we did our usual roll out (that means in the car, gone) about 10 a.m. and immediately headed up the mountain behind us to the Skalafellsjokull glacier.  Climbing up a steep, crumbly road we mounted the lateral moraine of the glacier to almost 800 m.  This was higher than any other point thus far in Iceland, about 2500 ft.  Our arrival at the top coincided with the departure of a follow-the-leader group of snowmobilers across the glacier and the icecap beyond.  Such activities can only be done with a guide due to the always present danger of falling into a hidden crevasse.  A quick look about, some video, a 360, many still shots, and we were off down the mountain again.  My favorite shot of the day was taken on the way back down.  I spotted the location on the way up and nailed it coming back  down the mountain.  The lateral moraine of the glacier is bounded between the thick ice in the center of the glacier with many transitory zones of ice.  One of which, just before the ice goes away, is an almost blackish boundary of progressively thinning ice.  It looks like SEA WAVES.

Continuing our circle we stopped oh-so-briefly at Jökulsárlón. It was likely once a nice place to see the terminus of a glacier in a lagoon.  However it seems to have morphed into a tourist rip-off with surly help.  The thinnest, smallest, and most expensive bowl of self-serve-seafood-soup-from-the-pot (850 Kr. about $15 USD) from a not-so-friendly-tourist-jaded-employee.  Only because we were VERY hungry did we pause here.  It was the worst place in Iceland I saw.  It is just so sad places have to turn out like this sometimes when they become "over trafficked".  Don't go, keep on driving.... you'll pass over this bridge next (right).  Then onward across one of the many one lane bridges in Iceland.  We speculated that retrofitting these to be two lane bridges would be very expensive.  Since many of these bridges are long, they, like the one lane tunnels, have extensive pull outs, for stopping to allow traffic to continue in the opposite direction.

Next after skipping the masses of tourists at Skaftafell National Park (looked interesting, but we were running out of time) we stopped at Núpsstaður, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Stop here, be patient, wait for the tour buses to leave.  It is a wonderful place.  Nestled beneath the cliff of Lómagnúpur, known from the Njál's saga, built sometime before 1200 AD, was the original church.  It is small, still used, and very uniquely preserved.  Check Steve Ginn's web site for interior views.

We arrived at Geirland in time for dinner, and I met a new friend (self portrait of both of us).

There were a few bus loads of tourists that arrived here, with high clearance vehicles for interior travel.  Something we were about to find out about tomorrow with a few dozen rivers to ford.

We were leaving the "ring road" again, and we were happy about it.

Day 11 (July 1)

Gistihúsið Egilsstöðum to Smyrlabjörg (thanks Steve for the correct spelling!)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

A fairly early start for us, we were on the road by 9 a.m. I think.  We had a circuitous route to manage (see link above) from Egilsstaðir to Smyrlabjörg along the winding coast of fjords.  Naturally we skipped the one tunnel that would have shortened this long route but were rewarded with some magnificent views from the end of the peninsula.  We were being watched most of the way by the local residents who did not see many strangers in these parts.  Odd looking I am sure (one of us).

There are more than 50,000 Icelandic horses here, and they never leave the country.  If they do they cannot return as they might bring back viruses and other maladies that could infect the local population. Unfortunately we missed the largest horse show of the year in HELLA which was the end of June.  We were on our march around the island and this wasn't on our short list.

The little village of Briddalsvik is where we found Cafe Margaret.  Look closely for the building in the left photo at the base of the mountain.  Here is a close up (right).  The place was built of Norwegian pine I read, and was, for its construction, quite unique and seemingly out of place for such a small town.  Lunch was one of the best on the road we had found.  I had the pan fried cod with potatoes.  It was fabulous.

In and out we went around the fingers of land that were left by glaciers in the past to form long, almost river-like fjords.  Birds and livestock abounded.  This one goat, who had lost his right horn, was particularly interesting to me as he posed for this shot.  Steve can make the best sheep/cow calls going... his talent was key to these images.

Djúpivogur was wrapped around the end of one of these peninsulas formed by the fjords.  Easily accessible from the sea, it has been a trading port since 1589 when German Hansa merchants were granted a trading license by the Danish king.

Along the way we spotted an odd home.  We drove as close as we could get to it without trespassing, but still, we could not quite believe what we saw.  I think it is a DC-3 converted into a house.

We stopped in Hofn for dinner at the Cafe Hornid.  It was OK, but not on our recommended list.  We reached Smyrlabjörg about 8:30 p.m.  It had been a very long day on the road (and off the road).

Day 10 (June 30)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

Morning came early for me, albeit briefly, when I closed the drapes of one window at 3:45 a.m. as the sun was warming up the room too much.  We were on the road after a slow start to Seyðisfjorður, a fjord to the east of Egilsstaðir.  It is a short and scenic drive over snowbound passes to the village of 800 or so souls.  This is where the first submarine cable for telephone arrived, as well as more recently, a fiber optic link.  There was an odd steel "phone booth" embedded in the rock on the south side of the fjord. It does make an odd sight to passers by, including me (self portrait on right) in the door of the phone booth.

It also is the terminus for the ferry service between Denmark and Iceland via the Faroe Islands (Danish).  Lunch at the Hotel Aldan on the harbor.  Grilled cod on a nice spring salad.  The oldest part of the town was built in 19th century Norwegian-style architecture, which makes Seyðisfjörður architecturally unique among fishing villages in Iceland.   Many are well preserved.  After a photo tour of the north side fjord, mostly old buildings and turf houses (in ruins), and a photo along the fjord's waterfront (yes, clear and cold) we headed west again to try to a northerly fjord.

Along the way, Steve had the great idea to cut the day short, it was already 4:30 p.m., to go back to the hotel to catch up on computer work and perhaps take a nap.  So we stopped in the middle of the road beside the Dyrfjöll Peaks ("Gates Mountains") and snapped our closest photos we were going to get on this trip to the 1136 m. tops. 

We were anticipating taking photos at midnight with the sun and full moon.  It was during this afternoon respite that we discovered that, yes, the moon was full, but would be 1.5 deg. below the horizon for Iceland!!  It would not return until July 2nd!. 

Day 9 (June 29th)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

A little short of sleep today, perhaps a bit less than six hours.  Not my preferred way to start a long day.  So the fix, slam some coffee. The only problem in this country is the cups are about 1/3rd the size I like, so frequent trips to the self service buffet.  Breakfast of some small crunchy biscuit-like bread with jam (blueberry, my favorite) and then some cheese slices, boiled egg slices, ham slices and some juice. Next course was cereal and milk.  I knew it would be a long time to the next meal.  We had gotten our laundry done the day before which was a huge help.  The whole basket full for about $15 (1000 Krona) a relative bargain, and one we both needed.

Walking outside to load the car, I knew the day would be different, the weather was mild for the morning, and the skies clearing.  So we departed for the north country... well that meant going a bit south first.  We passed Lake Mývatn again, then turned north on the road that passed Dettifoss Falls again, but on the east side of the Jökulsárgljúfur National Park.  The downstream portion looked like the Grand Canyon (left image).  Lake Myvatn looked like a wholly different place without the wind and fog, it was clearing in the north and warming rapidly.  We stopped again at Dettifoss Falls, although after leaving the "ring road" (#1) and heading north on #864 was very much a wash board rattle, it was worth it.  Dettifoss was clear, dry (mist was blowing to the side we were on before!) and although many tourists were there, we managed to squeeze in some shots, panos, and video.

The falls behind us, we turned north in a serious pursuit, first stop was the settlement of Kópasker.  Population 175 give or take 10 souls depending on which guide book you read.  We were headed as far north as you can go on Iceland.  About 2.5 km. from the Arctic circle.  Crossing the Melrakkaslétta plain (fox plain) to Hraunhafnartangi point.  We stopped short of the "H" point, to photograph and video an old abandoned farm.  Stone walls, collapsing "turf house" and other structures, all clearly close to a century old, all vacant except for sea breezes.

N 66'31.829 W 016'00.765 is where I turned south.  Steve's GPS says N 66'31.492 (see his image) but he got cold and went back to the car and didn't go as far north as I did.  Oh well, next time Steve!
In February we made it to S65.12 before we turned north.  The Greenland Sea looked very cold, and if the wind was any indication, IT WAS... our day had warmed to 16 deg C (a veritable heat wave at about 61 deg. F) but out here on the plain, it was windy and back down to 9 degrees (48 deg F).  Next stop, or in this case, cruise by, was the village of Rauferhöfn.  And then pressing onward to Þórshöfn.

By the time we arrived at Þórshöfn it was 4:30 p.m. and we had only consumed a granola bar and some English crackers.  So we hit the grocery for some water, Italian salami, sliced cheese and more crackers.  Two "sandwiches" later we mutually agreed we could survive until some real food was available.  Note:  This is about $5 for eight pieces of salami, and $4 for a similar amount of mild cheese. 

This peninsula held the largest fields of lupine I had ever seen.  We stopped a few times to gorge our cameras on this visual feast.  While I was making the image at the right ready for this page, I noticed what I thought was dust on the sensor.  It was not.  It was bees swarming all over the lupine.  The area is also rich with birds, and in the late light of day, wonderfully illuminated as they watched us.

Now it was over two sets of mountains that form the backbone of the Langanes peninsula, and Bakkaheidi range that presses into the northeastern sea.  The latter was covered with intermittent fog banks and banks of snow on either side of the car as we zigged and zagged our way up and down the mountain passes.  We stopped so many times for a while it seemed like we would never make any progress taking so many photos.

We climbed through the clouds one more time crossing yet another peninsula jutting into the sea, too steep on its face to allow roads to ring its sharp edges.  We stopped for diesel fuel in Vopnafjörður (fjord of weapons).  The image at left translates to $7.69 USD/gallon.  So it was $122 for 2/3rds of a tank. 

Finally we were in Egilsstaðir and "home" for the night. 456 km. in total.  A long day.  We'll be here for two days.  Dessert was taken to a whole new level in Iceland here.  But the view of the lake from the grounds of the Gistihúsið Egilsstöðum at 10:45 p.m. was the best of all!

Day 8 (June 28th)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

It's like college again.  Freshman year.  A dance around another's personal space in confinement, studying late, getting up early... dotted with moans of "it's too early" (myself included), but today I was the last asleep and the first awake.  I worked an hour after "lights out" catching up on this travel log.  It's exam time.

Some tech side notes in the saga, Iceland IS the land of SAGAs (this is a double pun in tech talk as ".IS" is the top level domain for Iceland):  Skype (VoIP= voice over Internet Protocol) works great, day in and day out.  I continue to be surprised and amazed.  I can make calls the the USA and I have RECEIVED calls from the USA via Skype.  The photo at the left shows me on the Skype phone (blue) with some help from my new friends.  Most people don't even know they are using VoIP, but this IS my phone number (Dallas and Austin).  Not the cell phone number, just what appears to be the "land line".  In fact, it is not.  It is a technical liberation of my notebook computer, and I have a little blue phone that attaches to the notebook and IT DOES RING when someone calls my Austin or Dallas number.  It rings in Iceland just like it does in Buenos Aires or Bariloche, Argentina.  The other day I had a wi-fi connection at the hotel we was staying in Hrútafjörður.  It was only a good connection in front of the hotel and not in my room, so phone in hand (small like a cell phone) connected to the notebook's USB port, and the operating notebook tucked under the other arm, I walked to the front of the hotel, and still outside, called my friend Pam in Austin.  It was early there, and I got her voice mail recording and hung up.  Disappointed I did not reach her, but knowing Steve was loading up the car, I started to walk away... and the phone rang!  Amazing stuff.

Other tech notes... with Apple's iTunes I can download the ABC or NBC national news and a plethora of other information sources (PBS, Internet radio stations, etc.), all free.  Both Steve and I carry Garmin 60CSx GPS units to track where we take photos.  I have my unit configured to generate a daily GPX file (see GPX link) recording all information about where it has been, the unit also generates a Garmin "Mapsource" file (GPB) that I can read into the mapping software each evening before I download my data cards with photos on them.  I then use Downloader Pro (Breezesystems.com) to copy the images from my data cards to the computer, simultaneously saving a back up copy (2nd copy) to an external hard drive.  Downloader Pro also is simultaneously reading the already downloaded GPS tracks and matching the time positions to the images (cameras were synchronized to the GPS time earlier).  When the location times are found that match image capture times, the GPS data is written to an XMP reference file for each captured image.  Then I import these images with the tagged GPS data, into Adobe Systems' Photoshop Lightroom 1.1.  Now with the images in Lightroom, I have the date and time of capture, and the GPS coordinates of where the image was taken.  If I mouse click on the GPS location in Lightroom, my web browser will open and take me to a Google Earth page where a pointer is aimed at the exact location I pressed the shutter button.  This becomes much more appreciated when you take one or two thousand images in a week while you are traveling.  I also have the .KML files that will plot the same GPS journey tracks on Google Earth.

We filled the SUV up with diesel this morning, about 3/4 of a tank... (see picture)... divide the top number by 63 and you'll be pretty close to U.S. Dollars.  Coming to filling stations in America one day soon.

Back to Iceland... today was another visual movable feast from steam vents and boiling mud pits, to steamy water filled lava tubes... all around Lake Mývatn.  The most interesting parts were the hot steam vents which were roaring a steady blast.  Hot magma is just 2-5 km. below the surface.  This is half of the depth of some gas wells in west Texas.  The entire Karfla crater by Lake Mývatn seeming has been taken over by the island's power company for geothermal heat extraction.  Hollywood could not create a more alien like place of blue white stream that steam with heat, fog covered hills, shiny pipes in multiple succession that rise in unison to form an arch over the roadway.  The last big eruption here was about 1724, with some smaller ones after they started drilling into the magma zone... but they are due for the big one.  I read that the warning sign the said "visitors forbidden" has now been taken down as it was just photographed a lot as tour buses with grand parents and children were photographed behind it.  The speculation is that when this volcano erupts, instead of fleeing, most of Iceland's population will want to come for a visit.

It was early, we had circled the lake and had time to search out something new.  Inasmuch as we have a long road journey tomorrow, driving to the northern tip of Iceland, just below the Arctic Circle (shy by a few kilometers only), we went south into the interior of the island.  Still, another journey where we really did not know quite what was at the end of the road, but onward we traveled.  Really a metaphor on life, so many roads and we don't know where they lead.  Some are dead ends and we knew that was a possibility too.  But sometimes you get the prize... It was an epic road, not so much for the path, but for the river.  We stopped to photograph trees, a short forest, a rarity on Iceland.  The sheep were here too, but the trees somehow survived their foraging. 

The end held what was likely the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen, Aldeyjarfoss falls on the Skjalfandafljot River, spilling over volcanic rock which had been extruded in hexagon shapes eons ago.  The flow was astounding, but it was the location... in the middle of nowhere.  Water squirted from springs in the sides of hills that on the surface high above them could be confused with the surface of Mars.  A deafening canyon of water.  Video, still shots, and 360 degree images, we took the time for all of it.  The wide image of the falls was taken with my Canon 1Ds Mark II, 70-200mm zoom (forgot the wide angle up the path at the car) at 70 mm, but 12 images (3 rows of 4 images), hand held, shot in RAW, input into Lightroom 1.1, tweaked, output as 16 bit TIF file, stitched in PTGUI (thanks Joost!).  Better than a wide angle lens!

Dinner by Godafoss falls on the way back in a cute little restaurant... again, soup, fish course, dessert, cheapest bottle of white wine... $150.  We leave a week from today, I hope we can afford it.  I am getting used to it.

Day 7 (June 27th)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

Finally I am caught up more or less with where we are on the green land called Iceland.  Sleep was short, rising at 7:20 a.m.  I shaved slowly and then eased myself into the tiny shower (relative to my almost 2 m. frame) more or less on auto pilot owing to the fog of the previous night's feast.  Eastward crossing the Skjalfandafljot River past Laugar to our new inn, relatively close, called Narfastadir, where we will be for the next two nights.  Quickly we were on the road again toward Lake Myvatn, one of the most geologically active area in Iceland.

Our first stop was at Goðafoss falls on the Skjálfandafljót river.  According to the Saga of Christianity the formerly pagan chieftain Thorgeir threw the wooden images of the pagan gods into the waterfall after Christianity had been accepted in the year 1000. Thus the name of the waterfall, The Waterfall of the Gods, was derived from this event.

Lunch was a surprise at the Vogafjós Cafe on the lake.  The "Cow shed" Cafe is half cafe, half, well... cow shed.  There is a glass partition between the "patrons" and the "resident" and it is the latter whom are milked twice a day at 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.  But the oddest thing was our arrival and going into the restaurant.... we were greeted by two quite affectionate (and domesticated) small sheep.  Lambs I suspect, not being a sheep person.  They were about the size of my Border Collie "Lola" and would have been quite the prize for her.  The lambs tried to stand up on my leg, obviously begging for food.  Their appearance was quite sudden and caught Steve off guard as to what was happening initially.  Later as we dined inside on some "meat soup" (a cousin I surmise) they were outside by the outdoor tables.  Some restaurants have birds to pick up crumbs... this one has sheep.  I should mention that the temperature has dropped over the last few days to all of 4 degrees C (39 deg. F) with a stiff wind.  So I was working inside on my notebook and on a piece of Icelandic carrot cake (more like a spice cake here).

We circled north in a loop from our hotel to the Tjörnes peninsula via Dettifoss falls first passing Mývatn.  There was an eerie fog on the water as we passed.  The road to Dettifoss was much (MUCH) rougher than I thought it would be and over the Mars-like landscape, dotted with some extraterrestrial plants.  It was misting when we arrived at the granular, black sand-like parking lot, and had about a 800 m. walk to the falls in progressively heavier mist.  I had foolishly left my gloves at the new hotel, along with my water proof pants.  Steve had his gloves, but was in blue jeans, and worse of than I in my synthetic pants.  We got doused by the massive waterfall and the wind.  A biting, cold wind it was too.  I think I left my rain slicker for my digital camera in Austin by mistake, so I just took the HD video camera (Canon XH-A1) as I had a rain slicker for it.  With head down, right hand pressed gloveless inside the HD cam cover, and my left hand jammed in my pocket.  The falls were noisy and I am sure on a clear day, spectacular.  However today we were getting soaked in cold plume spray by the frigid wind.  A few quick shots with the video and then I did an "I was here" shot with my Canon SD800 and 15 seconds of video (which I will post shortly).  We wrapped up, shook and dried off as best that we could, and headed north on our very narrow, wash board, wet & slippery dirt track toward the Tjörnes peninsula and dinner in Husavik.

There are 50 m. cliffs along the eastern edge of the Tjörnes peninsula and as that tapered to a low plain at the north terminus of the peninsula we found the remains of turf house from the 1800's.  It was a hard life, a cold life, on the beach at 66 degrees north.  The water here is averages about 4 deg. C.  A few million years ago it was 12 deg. or warmer evidenced by the fossil record here.  We were ready for some warmer water too, and headed on the Husavik to the Gamli Baukur restaurant.  The building appeared to be half a whale watching enterprise, a large one at that with three nice looking wooden vessels just opposite the building in the harbor.  The other half of the building was our restaurant.  Grilled cod with potatoes and vegetables, preceded by some tomato soup, an average Californian chardonnay, and it was $150.  Double the cost of what I think is "normal".  I still can't get used to it.

Day 6 (June 26th)

Click here for the Google Map (then zoom out, and click on "Hybrid" in the upper right, Google Maps lacks data for much of Iceland).

This was a long day to drive via Hólar, 400 plus kilometers, making our way to the furthest north point yet to the town of Siglufjörður. 

Our first long stop was in Glambauer at the Skagafjordur Folk Museum.  This was by far the best museum we visited on the road in Iceland depicting early life of the settlers here in the 1800s.  The interior was restored to the condition it would be if all 22 residents were still using it as home.  Remarkable.  It was a tour through time.

Further to the northeast we arrived at Hólar a center of religion in Iceland for seven centuries.  Now a school with about 100 residents.  It also has a stable for 120 horses. We also saw an ongoing archaeological dig across the road from the main buildings.

There were many opportunities to stop along the way and capture the expansive glaciated valleys.  Like waterfalls, there are so many, it almost became routine. Along the crest of most roads crossing the many higher ranges, there were also survival huts.  Placed there for winter transits as a stop of last resort if one's transportation fails.

Siglufjörður was once a prosperous town in the hey day of herring fisheries with 450 ships.  Poor fisheries management led to the collapse of the fishery in the 1960's and it took much of the town's economy with it.  The setting has not changed however, it is starkly beautiful with sweeping valleys and steep mountainsides leading to the sea. It also must be reached via the one lane 800 m. Strákar Tunnel.  A route that is sometimes closed in the winter cutting off the town from the rest of the island. If it were easier to get to I am sure it would be a very hip place to see and be seen.  It is also further north in latitude (66.11) by one degree than I traveled south in February on the Antarctic peninsula.  We toured a museum dedicated to the lives of the herring fishermen and their business.  It was a hard dangerous life, in cramp, and often cold quarters.

South again, late as usual, we called the hotel in Akureyri to let them know we would not arrive before 8 p.m.  But not before driving through one of the longest tunnels in Iceland, if not the longest, it courses through rock for 3.1 km. and is one lane with frequent turn outs for the oncoming cars.  Not for the claustrophobic or anyone who does not like a good game of "chicken" (head to head driving).  No sooner had we arrived at our hotel, did we turn around and head back to Akureyri for dinner at "Fridrik V."  We rushed as we were concerned that the restaurants would be closing soon and it was already 9 p.m.  We had in retrospect no need for concern.  This was the most high-end restaurant we had seen in Iceland, and opted for the "gourmet menu" which was the chef's choice, and our surprise.  We were eating and drinking to after midnight... reindeer pate, fresh trout with a side of smoked eel (freshwater) soup (simply amazing), mussels with pesto pasta, rack of lamb (perfect!), and an assortment of desserts... accompanied by port, white wine, a bold red, and for me a Grand Marnier at the end.  By the time we returned to the room, downloaded out data/images of the day... it was almost 2 a.m.  We had a bit of a laugh about that as we had made it to "dawn".  Sunrise was at 1:45 a.m.  Mind you, it had only "set" at 12:36 a.m.  At left is a photo of me in the parking lot at 1 a.m.  It never gets dark.  I fell asleep with my soon-to-be-exercise-regime fixed in my mind.