After shaking the frost off of our tent early in the morning we drove through mountains and lava fields from Modrudalur to Egilsstadir and set up camp in a secluded grove of trees at the city campground. Despite holding the honor of the largest town in East Iceland the population is just over 2,000 residents, and besides being a good jumping off point for a few of the things we wanted to do in the area there's not much going on. We took a quick lap around town and then headed out to find Hengifoss, the third highest waterfall in Iceland at 128 meters tall.

​There was only one other car in the lot when we arrived, and shortly after we started the 2.5km hike we passed the owners on their way back down. We loved having the trail to ourselves after the massive crowds we encountered in Myvatn, and we stopped often to admire the view as we followed the rather steep trail next to the river. About halfway up we came to Litlanesfoss, a 30 meter high waterfall surrounded by hexagonal basalt columns. The columns are formed by lava as it cools, and always lie at right angles to the cooling surface, meaning the columns can range from completely vertical to nearly horizontal, depending on where the lava was flowing from. At Litlanesfoss the lava filled a stream bed and cooled slowly, and the tallest columns are slightly curved at the top, indicating that the lava was still slightly in motion when they began to form.

With all of our stops it took us about 40 minutes to get to Hengifoss and there was a little rainstorm along the way, but right about the time we got to the end of the trail the sun came out and lit up the top of the falls and made the red clay strata glow. The cliff face shows the cross section of all the different layers in the rock; red sandy clay, black lava layers, sandstone, grey ash and brown soil. It makes for a striking image with the bright white of the water, and gives you a glimpse into the geological history of the area. We stayed for nearly an hour just drinking in the solitude, and just as we started back down the trail another group of people arrived...perfect timing!

The next morning we woke up early to drive out to Husey farm to do some horseback riding. Neither of us are really horse people (Steve had never been on one and I'm super allergic), but horses are a big part of the culture here in Iceland so we decided it would be a good idea to give it a go. Icelandic horses are their own distinct breed, and no horses are allowed to be imported into the country in order to keep the bloodlines pure. Even horses that are exported from Iceland aren't allowed to return. They're much smaller than the horses we're used to seeing, almost pony size, but incredibly hardy with a double coat to withstand the cold and they're incredibly sure footed. Some are bred as work horses, some for riding, and quite a few farms breed them purely for their meat which is consumed in Iceland as well as elsewhere in Europe.

We arrived at the farm at 10 and met our guide at the stable. One of the perks of being completely inexperienced is that we got our own guide, and she had us comfortable in the saddle and trotting in no time. We rode out across the farm, nestled between two rivers, and down to the edge of the larger river where we could hear the ocean waves crashing in the distance. We appreciated being able to go our own way, rather than having to ride nose to butt in a line like most horseback tours in the states. We stopped on the bank of the river for a little while to give the horses a break and a bunch of curious seals swam over to check us out.

We spent about two hours out on the horses enjoying the view of snow dusted mountains and having fun bouncing up and down in the saddle before returning to the barn and treating our horses to a few slices of bread (apparently they go nuts for it). We got back on the road just after 12:30, and on our way down the road from the farm we spotted a beautiful white fox on the side of the road who kindly posed for us for several minutes before going about his own business. We drove down the East coast, intending to make our way to the South of Iceland down the most remote section of the ring road. Route 1 cuts straight south from Egilsstadir for a little while before turning to gravel and descending steep switchbacks at a 14% grade and finally veering to the East and hugging the winding coastline. The views were absolutely spectacular and we stopped at a beach covered in billions of minuscule pebbles about 30 minutes outside Hofn to watch the powerful waves battering the shoreline before heading into town to set up camp for the evening at the city campground.

This is going to be a very photo heavy post because the Myvatn region, near the town of Reykjahlid, had so much beauty packed into such a small space! After half a day in Akureyri, the largest city in the North of Iceland we headed East on the ring road towards the geothermal wonderland of Myvatn. We stopped at Godafoss waterfall on the way, and we were a bit overwhelmed by the number of people. Up until this point we have spent most of our time in Iceland off the beaten track, in less traveled areas, so seeing crowds of people was a bit of a shock for us and was the one thing about the Myvatn area that we really did not enjoy. 

Just outside of Reykjahlid we stopped to see Grjotogja, the hotspring inside a cave that they used to film Jon and Ygrittes love scene in Game of Thrones. It used to be a popular bathing spot, but volcanic activity in the 70s spiked the water temperature and although its been cooling off in recent years its still too hot to be safe. The cave isn't nearly as spacious as it looks on TV (not surprising), but we managed to get a nice vantage point for some photos at the end of the pool and then crawled through a small gap in the rock to get out on top of the cave and scramble down to our car. 

​After setting up our tent at the campground we took a trip to Myvatn Nature Baths, often referred to as the "Blue Lagoon of the North." The Blue Lagoon is a world famous man-made hot pool outside of Reykjavik, but at $85 a person and often overcrowded we decided it was a "must see" that we wouldn't mind missing. We were told that Myvatn was half the price and twice as nice, and we weren't disappointed. Several large man-made rock pools with a gravel bottom are filled with water from the National power company's bore hole in Bjarnarflag. The water contains all kinds of beneficial minerals that give it a cloudy bright blue color, and it comes out of the ground at 130 degrees celcius so it has to be cooled down a lot before its pumped into the pools. There was a nice view over the valley of the mountains in the distance, and we stayed until after dark so we could enjoy the sunset and the stars.

They weren't formed by eruptions like most craters, instead they were caused by explosions of steam from under the surface as lava flowed over the wetlands and lake. The steam vents caused rock and lava to build up around them forming small circular and semi-circular craters along the lake shore.

There were massive clouds of steam and sulfur rising from the ground and streaming out of the mountainside in the distance. The crust is very thin in spots and the soil temperatures could reach 100 degrees Celcius, so we stuck to the marked paths as we walked through the hellish landscape.

Our next stop was Viti crater, about 300 meters across, filled with deep blue water and surrounded by a geothermal area with steaming mountains in the distance. We hiked up to the rim, then all the way around the crater for views of the multi-color mountains ranging from deep black to green to tan and white. On the side of the road on the way back to the ring road was a continuously running hot shower, right out in the open. We have no idea what it was meant for, but we used it to wash the sticky mud from our shoes.

Since we didn't want to spend another night at the crowded campground in Reykjahlid we planned to drive all the way to Egilsstadir, but we took a chance on an 8k detour to Modrudalur when we saw a camping sign, and ended up finding our favorite campground in Iceland so far. We followed the signs and pulled into a field full of goats (local landscaping crew I guess...), and then down past a small turf building into a level field with campsites divided by turf walls. It was the first time on our whole trip the sky was clear enough to see the stars, and we cooked dinner in the quaint little turf house, joined by the resident cat. Modrudalur is the highest inhabited place in Iceland at 1,539 ft in elevation and it made for a cold night and a heavy layer of frost on the tent in the morning. We had planned on getting out to look for the northern lights, but neither of us could bear the thought of leaving our cozy sleeping bag in the middle of the night!

After our time on the Snaefellsjokull Peninsula we headed north to explore a little bit of the Westfjords, one of the more remote parts of Iceland. Our first stop was to visit the Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft in Holmavik, where we learned all about the history and culture of pagan activity in Iceland.

​The Westfjords was one of the biggest holdouts for witchcraft after the country was "christian-ized," and most of the people who were burned alive for witchcraft were from the area. It turns out, in Iceland the people accused of witchcraft were mostly men and only one woman was ever burned at the stake. We learned a lot about the various lore and superstitions and for such a small museum it was really well done. All of the exhibits were in Icelandic, but we were given a translation book in English so we could understand everything. The craziest thing we learned about were the Necropants...apparently a spell for making money involves getting a friend to agree to let you skin them from the waist down after they die so you can step, bare bottomed, into your very own pair of skin-pants. If you keep a coin in the scrotum along with a magic rune symbol, then as long as you never remove the original coin the scrotum will always be filled with money. Good for those who are short on cash, and presumably don't mind jingling with every step.

After our journey through the Icelandic Occult we drove out along route 60 that hugs the coastline of the Southern part of the fjords in search of a hot pool right on the edge of the ocean. It was a long and winding dirt road that made me grateful to be in a car rather than on bicycles as we periodically climbed over one mountain and descended down the other side to the next fjord at steep grades of 10-15%. The entire drive offered magnificent views of the ocean and the occasional quaint little farmhouse set next to its own private waterfall. 

We found Hellulaug hotspring in the early afternoon, and it was completely worth the long drive. Hot water was piped down from a spring on top of the cliff into a 12x9 foot pool about waist deep. It was made by blocking up the entrance to a natural crevice in the rock with a wall of stacked stones, and it was so close to the ocean that I could imagine getting sprayed by waves if the tide was high and the seas were rough. The clear blue water was slightly aerated and if we sat still for a moment or two we ended up covered in tiny little bubbles. Since we had no other plans for the day we stayed for several hours as various other groups came and went. As the day wore one we decided not to continue out into the fjordlands, and retraced our route and cut north to the little town of Hvammstangi to a campground we particularly enjoyed while on our cycle tour. On our way back a juvenile white tailed eagle raced us along the road for a couple hundred meters, giving us a chance to marvel at his nearly 6 foot wingspan.

​We spent two nights in Hvammstangi so I could take advantage of the internet there to do a Skype interview for a position at Schweitzer for this winter (spoiler alert, I got the job!!). It was nice to take a full day to relax, organize all of our photos and footage and catch up on sleep. We've been on the move constantly since we arrived in Iceland and this was the first time we spent more than one night in the same place. In the evening we went down to the grocery store for some veggies and were surprised by a huge whale dragged up onto the boat ramp down by the dock. It was a Minke whale that had stranded itself in the next inlet and died as they were trying to get it back out to deep water. 

We are continuing our travels to the North and East, come back soon to hear about our adventures in North Iceland!

Since the severe weather is still raging in South Iceland, with major roads on our proposed route being closed due to flooded rivers we decided to head North with our new rental car, retracing our route on the bikes but this time with the freedom to take all the side roads. We arrived in Borgarnes around 1pm to check out their local craft market and stock up on groceries, then used the rest of our daylight to make a short side trip down Road 52 to the east. We planned to follow the dirt road all the way to the border of Western and Southern Iceland, and search for a hidden hot spring along the way. One of the things we were looking forward to the most on this trip was all of the geothermal activity and the numerous hot pools hidden all over the country.

About 1/3 of the way down the road there was a little pull off, and a short trail through some trees led us to Krosslaug hot pool, a small hot spring feeding a stone depression big enough for maybe four people (if they knew eachother well). We had it all to ourselves, and it was late enough in the day and far enough off the beaten path that we didn't expect any company. After a short soak we followed the dirt road all the way to the boundary line on top of a knoll with a gorgeous view, then drove back to Borgarnes to camp for the night. 

​The next morning we drove north out of town to spend the day on the Snaefellsjokull Penninsula. Our first thought was to look for the Landbrotalaug hot spring but when we found it there were several cars there, and as its only large enough for two people we decided to pass. We did explore an abandoned farm house on the same road that had some amazing grafitti art inside, so the detour was still worth it.

The next morning we continued around the road, driving through intermittent rain and clouds so low we couldn't see the glacier. We stopped at Saxholl, a 109 meter tall crater that last erupted 3,000 years ago and took a short hike up the steps wrapping around the crater to enjoy the view from the top. When we arrived back on the South coast we stopped at the National Park Visitor Center that had some great information about the surrounding environment and the culture and lifestyle of the people that first settled the area. We took a nice walk along the beach towards some towering rock formations in the distance and then took a few turns on the playground zipline before getting back in the car to finish the loop. ​When we joined back up with road 54 we crossed back North over the mountains and this time turned right to head back East towards the mainland. We stopped to hike to Raudfeldar canyon, a giant fissure in the cliff wall with a stream running out of it, and we hiked in and up the stream as far as we could go without getting wet.

The end product is a white meat with the consistency and smell of the sort of fancy cheese that no one likes to smell. We got to sample a few pieces of the fermented meat, which is usually eaten as a snack or delicacy, not as a full meal. Surprisingly we both liked the taste, although we were careful not to breath too deeply when eating it because the ammonia smell can still make your eyes water.

​We left the peninsula and finished out the day with a visit to the Gudrunarlaug hot pool, located on a beautiful hillside with a nice view of the valley, a waterfall nearby and a little turf building to change in. We had company, but the pool was big enough to share and we stayed until nearly sunset before driving North to Holmavik to spend the night

 The first characteristic that makes up an adventure is not everything goes as planned. That can certainly be said for our adventure here in Iceland so far. We are having an amazing time in the Land of Ice and Fire, but our cycle tour didn't quite go as expected. Maybe we'd better start from the beginning...

When you work seasonal jobs like we do, you are often long on time but short on money. We decided early on this summer that we would spend part of our our off-season (October/November) "honeymooning" in Iceland. Since we had lots of time on our hands, but not a long of expendable income (we are saving to buy property after all) we decided to us bicycles as our mode of transportation while we were overseas. It had worked well for us in New Zealand, and we find cycle touring to be a fantastic way to really get to know a country as you move much slower and encounter so much that you would never see zooming by in a car. We did our research, and it seemed as though we would be able to see a good deal of the country by cycling Route 1, also known as the "Ring Road" because it runs in a circle more or less around the circumference of the whole country. The internet assured us that many of Iceland's fantastic waterfalls, black sand beaches, volcanoes and glaciers were right off the ring road and with over 5 weeks to bike we should be able to cover the majority of the 900 or so miles. Further research on the weather gave us hope that although it would be a bit chilly, and a bit rainy October is by no means Iceland's wettest month, and the temperatures hovering between 40 and 55 degrees were similar to what we had experienced in Skagway for most of the summer. 

​We arrived at Keflavik International airport at 11:30pm on September 20th and spent the night at the airport before taking a bus with our bikes still in boxes to the City Campground. We assembled our bikes and paid $30 each to store our boxes at the campground for the duration of our trip, then set out to a local grocery store to load up on supplies. We were told Iceland is very expensive, but coming from Alaska we found the food prices to be very reasonable, the difference being the produce here isn't half rotten when it gets put on the shelves like it is at home. The next morning we loaded up our bikes, road to the main bus station at Mjodd, and boarded a bus to take us to Selfoss on the South coast to begin our journey.

Selfoss is the largest town in the South Iceland with almost 7,000 people. At first glance there's not much going on, but we found a nice little path to walk along the Olfusa river, which is the most volumnous river in Iceland, but only 14 miles long. The bank of the river is an old lava flow, and its pockmarked with perfectly round little holes caused by gas bubbles in the lava. Steve stood in one and it cam up to his waist, and was about the diameter of his wingspan.

The next morning we awoke to heavy rain and forecasted 20mph winds, and it turns out we had come to the South in the midst of a terrible gale that was predicted to last for days. Sections of the road further down were under a travel advisory even for cars, but the short section we planned on riding to Hella seemed in better shape so we loaded up our bikes and took our chances. It took over an hour to go just 6 miles, pedaling hard into a headwind even downhill, covering 25 miles took all day. Strong gusts would catch us by surprise, causing us to swerve towards the edge of the road. Despite the challenges we were in relatively high spirits, and our rain gear kept us reasonably dry and fairly warm. Steve got a flat halfway through the day that we aired up several times before a break in the weather gave us the opportunity to change it. Turns out the tube had torn at the base of the valve stem, but we had picked up two spare tubes in Reykjavik so we were ok. The wind really picked up for our last two miles into Hella, and it was so strong we struggled to even push our bikes over the bridge into town. 

We woke up the morning of September 24th with some big decisions to make. The forecast for the next two weeks in the South showed heavy rains, dangerous gusting winds up to 60mph and a significant chance of misery on the bikes. After fighting the headwind at the end of the day we realized we had little chance of making much progress and we wouldn't be seeing any of the sights through the rain. We debated taking a bus all the way to Hofn, on the East coast in hopes of turning the headwind into a tailwind, and riding back towards Selfoss, but realized there was no way to guarantee the wind wouldn't change direction. After checking the weather all over the country we decided to abandon the South and take a bus back through Reykjavik to Borgarnes, just North of the city, to try our luck on the North West section of the ring road.

We began the morning riding through rocky fields with big mountains in the distance, but by late morning the landscape had changed to black lava fields with bright green moss growing on the rocks. We stopped in Bifrost for provisions and went on a short hike just outside of town to the rim of an old volcanic crater where we ran into friends of Steve's on their honeymoon as well (small world!). About 20 minutes past the crater the scenery changed again and everything began to look a bit prairie-like with golden grasses and rolling hills and lots of little streams and waterfalls. The road wound next to a small river and we made camp on a plateau just off the road.

​On September 26 we had another successful day covering lots of ground. It had been incredibly windy and our campsite the night before, making us grateful for our expedition-grade tent, but it had blown itself out by morning and dried out our wet gear as well. We started the day with a short downhill followed by four big hills with short plateaus in between. The final hill was an 8% grade, but although it was difficult neither of us needed our lowest gear and we were rewarded with a nice long downhill stretch into Hunaping Vestra. After a stop at the gas station for one of the famous Icelandic hot dogs we got back on the road. There was another smaller climb out of the valley and then rolling hills along a high plateau with beautiful views of the ocean and mountains in the distance. We turned off the ring road for a 6k detour to Hvammstangi, a town of around 500 people right on the water and stayed at the local campsite with a great view of a waterfall.

The next day we managed another 50+ kilometers to the town of Blonduos. We visited the Seal museum in Hvammstangi in the morning, so we got on the road late and the 6k back to the ring road was mostly uphill and partly into the wind but by the time we got to the highway we felt pretty good. The route was mostly rolling hills through grasslands full of sheep. There were huge mountains to our right and the ocean to our left for much of the way, and it was a beautiful ride. The wind was light and behind us most of the day with light rain off and on and temperatures between 45-55 degrees. We stayed the night at the campground in Blonduos and splurged on dinner at a restaurant...significantly more expensive than cooking for ourselves.

September 28th was a really grueling and slightly dangerous day that ended up changing everything for us. We woke to a fairly steady rain, but no major wind. In fact, it was the first calm night we had experienced as the excess condensation in our tent proved. The ride started with a moderate but short climb out of town followed by some rolling hills that felt harder than than they should have because we weren't warmed up. The temperature started around 38 degrees, but combined with the rain it made it too cold to stop for more than a few seconds. It was raining where we were, but just a few hundred feet above us on the mountains it was already snowing. We felt warm enough while riding, but our hands were rarely comfortable as our "waterproof" gloves did not perform as advertised.

​About an hour into the ride we reached a long sustained climb out of the valley we were in and over a low mountain range. It took over an hour and a half of hard pedaling in our lowest gear to conquer the hill without any rest breaks, and by the time we got to the summit we were both drenched in sweat. The rain had turned to wet snow and without the exertion of pedaling uphill we both cooled off rapidly on the descent, making it miserably cold. We made a beeline for the gas station in Varmahlid to warm up and it took over an hour for us to both stop shaking. We bought two burger meals for $17 each and tried to look at things objectively.

There's a certain amount of pride and stubbornness that comes along with cycle touring, and neither of us liked the idea of giving it up, but we didn't want our pride to stand in the way of enjoying our experience. We spent several hours going over weather reports, potential routes, financial costs and emotional happiness and came to the conclusion that cycle touring was not going to be the best choice for us this time in Iceland. Despite making fairly decent progress on our bikes we were missing out on so much. Everything that was advertised as "in" a town, or "on" the Ring Road is in fact a 10-25 kilometer detour one way. In the conditions we had experienced that could easily mean spending ALL DAY to take a few pictures of one waterfall, biking over gravel roads and extreme hills to get there. We were constantly missing out on places and experiences because we needed to move on before the weather got too bad. We were also spending quite a bit of money on food at places like gas stations, not to mention bus fares to avoid busy sections of road where cycling is discouraged. Looking ahead we had a two-day minimum ride to Akureyri, and another too-dangerous-to-ride section after that. With no major attractions on our way and nothing being close enough to the ring road to get to in the foreseeable future on our route we decided to bus back to Reykjavik to rent a car.

We found out we could rent a small car for $30 a day, which would be less than what we just paid for the two hamburgers we had to eat because we were too cold and exhausted to cook. In the long run, we would be able to save money, see more and be less miserable and so we put our bikes on a bus one last time and paid $45 each to get back to Reykjavik. We arrived in Mjodd at 1130 pm and made one final bike ride back to the city campground. We were sorry to end our cycling tour earlier than expected, but after careful consideration we both decided we were making the right call. We don't know if we'll ever get back to Iceland, and we don't want to leave feeling like we missed it. In hindsight it would have been better to plan a very thorough bike trip through just a small section of the country, giving us time to make all of the detours and get to know an area really well. Who knows, maybe some day we'll come back and do just that!