May 15
I awaken to another cold and cloudy morning in Reykjavik. A hot shower and breakfast of toast with jam, dried fruit, a hardboiled egg, and pastries succeeds in restoring my energy. The blanket of weariness brought on by travel is cast aside as we leave the Reykjavik Laugardalur Hostel in our conspicuous retro chariot at 0900 promptly. The city retains an endless sleepiness beneath the ubiquitous looming clouds as it passes out of sight and we journey farther along Iceland's west coast.
At 1100 we stop at the Borgarnes water tower and ascend its stairs against a biting wind. The sight reveals the expansive glacial valley with roche moutonnee geology through which we drove. A quaint village lies along the frozen shore with vast fluvial plains behind it and steep mountains surrounding it.
Leaving Borgarnes we soon arrive at the trailhead to Eldborg crater, a 60 meter tall spatter cone structure inactive for 5-6 thousand years. A forest of short purplish trees covers the area of the most recent lava flow and beyond that lie acres of green pastures. The Eldborg towers above all in the center of the valley and offers views of adjacent craters with their forests surrounding them. The distinct volcanic rift defined by the line of craters rests jaggedly on the cusp of a dark shoreline.
We stop briefly at a mineral spring water spout that produced rusty tasting seltzer water. Here we also encounter a friendly black dog with a white cross-shaped patch on its chest. At 1730 we arrive at a small town on the edge of a rocky sea-torn shelf harboring nesting seabirds high above the crashing
waves.
Our next stop is an isolated pebbly beach with clear tide pools and shadowy sea stacks.
We finally arrive at our hostel in Grundarfjodur at 2200 with the setting sun following closely behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment