It was rainy and gross when we woke up this morning…not much of a change lately and I miss the blue sky and sunshine! When it began to rain in the middle of the night I brought in our shoes that were out under the fly, so they wouldn’t get wet…and in with the shoes came a bunch of spiders!!! When I woke up this morning there were a couple of spiders on the walls, and then one in my shoe and my shirt! Uggg! I felt spiders crawling on me for hours to follow!
We pack
ed up and ate breakfast in the car in order to avoid the wind for a while! Then we headed off to see a few sights. We stopped first at Deildartunguhver Thermal Spring. This spring produces 180L of hot water per second, and is therefore the largest thermal spring in the world!! The temperature of the water is 212°F. The water has been used for central heating since 1925 and is now pumped to a few different towns – a total of 74Km – which is the longest in the world! At the water’s final destination it is still 149°F! The plant itself produces 62 megawatts of electricity as well as the hot water output! Pretty crazy use of resources! I wish we had hot water coming out of the ground in Edmonton like they do here!
From there we headed East to the town of Reykholt where the saga character Snorri Sturluson was ambushed and murdered at his farm in 1241 by orders of the King of Norway. The farm is no longer there, but there is the hot pool where he is said to have bathed as well as a partially restored tunnel that connected his home to the hot pool. Snorri’s “Heimskringla” (History of the Norwegian Kings) is his work that tells the history of Norway – that would have been lost had it not been for him.
Next were the waterfalls near Husafell. The largest waterfall in the area, Barnafoss wasn’t really anything in comparison to the many mini-waterfalls that appear as if from nowhere, out of the rock and fall into the river below. They continue on like this for over 1 kilom
eter and are beautiful! It is so bizarre that the surface can appear so solid and then there is water pouring out of the side of the rock!
We did a little off-roading here to go find Iceland’s largest lava cave, Surtshellir. It runs 1.5km long and has a few spots where it is open to go down to visit it! I was a tad freaked out by the concept of walking around in a cave, but it was neat to see how long and connected the tunnel is. Apparently, the caves were known during the Saga age and there were a band of outlaws that lived there. The farmers had to get rid of them! Kind of cool…I don’t think I could live in a cave, however…way too cold and dark!
From there we headed off to the Hvalfjordur. There is now a 5km tunnel under the water to avoid the 40km route around the fjord, however, Iceland’s tallest waterfall is at the very end of the Fjord, so we did the long drive. We stopped at a gas station and read a bit about the whaling industry back a long time ago and it made me nauseous! Whaling was a big thing here and they killed over 1000 per year for a number of years. The movies they were showing of the process were just stomach turning. So glad that they don’t do that anymore!
We were going to camp in the fjord somewhere, but couldn’t find a camp site! Instead, we decided to do the hike up to Glymur waterfall, which is Iceland’s highest waterfall at 198 meters. The hik
e was awesome as it was more like an obstacle course than a hike! There were stairs made from tree trunks, a cave to go through, a river to cross using a wire, and ropes to climb up the side of the rock. One point even required to ‘crawl’ up the rock using my hands! It was a fun hike and the waterfall was impressive.
The weather is still not great, so we decided to head over to Reykjavik and camp in the campground in town because then we’d have use of the hostel’s indoor amenities as well! It is kind of weird to be back in the “big city” after almost two weeks in towns of less than 1000 people! Yeah!!
Night
-Allison
We pack
ed up and ate breakfast in the car in order to avoid the wind for a while! Then we headed off to see a few sights. We stopped first at Deildartunguhver Thermal Spring. This spring produces 180L of hot water per second, and is therefore the largest thermal spring in the world!! The temperature of the water is 212°F. The water has been used for central heating since 1925 and is now pumped to a few different towns – a total of 74Km – which is the longest in the world! At the water’s final destination it is still 149°F! The plant itself produces 62 megawatts of electricity as well as the hot water output! Pretty crazy use of resources! I wish we had hot water coming out of the ground in Edmonton like they do here!
From there we headed East to the town of Reykholt where the saga character Snorri Sturluson was ambushed and murdered at his farm in 1241 by orders of the King of Norway. The farm is no longer there, but there is the hot pool where he is said to have bathed as well as a partially restored tunnel that connected his home to the hot pool. Snorri’s “Heimskringla” (History of the Norwegian Kings) is his work that tells the history of Norway – that would have been lost had it not been for him.
Next were the waterfalls near Husafell. The largest waterfall in the area, Barnafoss wasn’t really anything in comparison to the many mini-waterfalls that appear as if from nowhere, out of the rock and fall into the river below. They continue on like this for over 1 kilom
eter and are beautiful! It is so bizarre that the surface can appear so solid and then there is water pouring out of the side of the rock!
We did a little off-roading here to go find Iceland’s largest lava cave, Surtshellir. It runs 1.5km long and has a few spots where it is open to go down to visit it! I was a tad freaked out by the concept of walking around in a cave, but it was neat to see how long and connected the tunnel is. Apparently, the caves were known during the Saga age and there were a band of outlaws that lived there. The farmers had to get rid of them! Kind of cool…I don’t think I could live in a cave, however…way too cold and dark!
From there we headed off to the Hvalfjordur. There is now a 5km tunnel under the water to avoid the 40km route around the fjord, however, Iceland’s tallest waterfall is at the very end of the Fjord, so we did the long drive. We stopped at a gas station and read a bit about the whaling industry back a long time ago and it made me nauseous! Whaling was a big thing here and they killed over 1000 per year for a number of years. The movies they were showing of the process were just stomach turning. So glad that they don’t do that anymore!
We were going to camp in the fjord somewhere, but couldn’t find a camp site! Instead, we decided to do the hike up to Glymur waterfall, which is Iceland’s highest waterfall at 198 meters. The hik
e was awesome as it was more like an obstacle course than a hike! There were stairs made from tree trunks, a cave to go through, a river to cross using a wire, and ropes to climb up the side of the rock. One point even required to ‘crawl’ up the rock using my hands! It was a fun hike and the waterfall was impressive.
The weather is still not great, so we decided to head over to Reykjavik and camp in the campground in town because then we’d have use of the hostel’s indoor amenities as well! It is kind of weird to be back in the “big city” after almost two weeks in towns of less than 1000 people! Yeah!!
Night
-Allison
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