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Day 11, 12 & 13
Day 11
Got to sleep in a bit longer today before making my way to the final waterfall on my list. When I put in “Bruarfoss" Waterfall on the GPS it took me straight to a privately run guesthouse which required a code to get in. I had to backtrack on Route 37 towards 355, and just as you cross 355 there is a parking lot on the right side before the bridge. That’s where the trail starts from.
The entire trail is on flat ground, but the rains had made the ground really slushy and if you don’t have the right hiking boots you could be in for a tough time. After a bit of walking you cross over onto private property. There is a fence, but they have also fashioned a step ladder to make it easier for tourists to cross-over. Once I got to the other side the ground got a lot muddier, wet and slippery. To add to that the vegetation had grown over and the bushes were hanging over the trail and in some places had completely covered it. I had to duck and weave through most of the trail till I got to the first stop on the trail. A really beautiful and insanely clear blue
water flowing down a small step. I was able to get down (easy approach) and stand in what was almost like a mini creak surrounded by the falls. It’s not a high drop, but the color made it just standout.
Continuing on the hike towards Miðfoss, another small waterfall with the same clear blue water. The trail clears up in terms of the over growth, but the slush stays with you. The flora and fauna in this area is so diverse. The colors of the leaves and flowers, with the different shades on the rocks and the clear water of the river was quite a sight in itself. Kept moving from Miðfoss till I got to what I really wanted to see.
This one is really something different. I don’t think there is anything like this one anywhere else. It’s a low falls and you can get really close to it without getting wet, but just the shape of the falls and the same clear blue color of the water as it flows off the rocks and into the deep blue pool was worth getting my boots and pants all muddy and wet. Hiked back the same way I came in and changed into some clean pants.
The last few things to wrap up my Icelandic trip were a couple of guided tours. The first one was a Cave Tour and I had to drive to the pickup point. The drive took me through Thingvellir Natonal Park. I wish I could have had another day to explore this area a bit more, but I can take only so many days off from work. The landscape was quite different here. As you drive along the road you can actually see what years of tectonic activity has done to the landscape. There are plenty of fissures and some places you get a feeling of how the land was torn apart by the moving plates.
Husafell Bistro was the pickup point for the Cave tour. I had plenty of time to kill so decided to sit down for lunch and it was an expensive buffet… but it was all vegetarian! The bus took us out to the location of the tour start point. The clouds had come out again and the wind had picked up and it was getting cold again. Our guide Stephan was excellent as he lead us down into the cave, explaining the history of how criminals would come to hide here in the good old days. It was freezing inside the cave, but the days when the
criminals frequented this area, it was a lot warmer. That was a few years after the formation of the caves, which as you could have guessed was due to the amount of volcanic activity here which created flowing lava rivers that created these caves. The highlight of the tour though was at the very end when we turned off all our head lamps and it was pitch dark.
“You could not even see your hand in front of your face as you wave it around”
And on queue the rain greeted us at the entrance of the cave on our way out as we rushed to the bus.
The guesthouse I was in for the night was run by a really old gentleman who offered me beer and invited me to watch the Croatia vs. England World Cup Semi-final match with him. I learnt another word in Iceland, “skål” means “sheers”. We talked a bit about my life in USA and that he maintains a 9 course golf course and also tends to horses which he owns.
Day 12
After breakfast at the guesthouse I drove back to Husafell for the Ice tunnel tour. It was a 30 minute bus ride to the base camp from where we had to board a Snow-Cat to drive onto the glacier. As you climb up the glacier you start getting lost in the clouds and visibility is basically down to zero. Our guide explained to us how the vehicle used GPS positioning and sonar technology to make sure we were on track and to also avoide any crevices.
It was freezing when we got to the entrance of the tunnel and did I mention the wind. We were basically in the clouds now. I had so many layers on, and I could still feel the chill. The cave itself is man-made. It was dug using pick-axes and basic tools before they started using small machinery to make life easier for the workers. There is a true story here that there were 2 sets of crews digging from 2 directions with the aim to meet in the middle but they got lost and went in opposite directions before they got back on track. The tunnel itself lies 30m from the top of the glacier and is
constantly moving as the ice melts and the glacier keeps sliding down. They also have to keep shaving the ceiling of the glacier everyday as the tunnel tries close itself up (by 1mm a day). Our guide Osik sang an Icelandic lullaby to demonstrate the acoustics of the tunnel.
She explained how as new snow keeps accumulating on top of the glacier the old snow gets pushed down the hill and melts finally and due to global warming the melting is happening at a faster pace than the accumulation on the top and at the current by around 2165 this glacier would no longer exist.
I was back on the road to Reykjavik to check in. I was so beat that I took a really short nap before hitting the last stop on my trip… the Grotto Lighthouse. Spent the rest of the evening at the Lighthouse Village which runs through the street of Laugavengur, a couple of blocks away from the hostel before hitting the sack
Day 13
Next day was all about sorting my bag and cleaning out the car, which I had literally used as my home away from home, before dropping it off and heading to the airport.
Google Maps Day-11
Google Maps Day-12
Google Maps Day-13
Google Photos
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