Since we had gone to bed so late the night before due to all the aurora excitement, we had a very late start to the morning. Nevertheless, we were on the road by noon, with the sun shining. The day started off a little chilly (-5 C), but warmed back up to +2 by early afternoon. The good weather and roads always increases our sense of freedom and adventure, so we wandered leisurely along the roads, stopping at any marked viewpoint or information sign that looked interesting.
Part of our route took us through a large valley where the early first settlers of this land had their homes and structures, so there are a lot of ruins along the way (not to mention the mysterious cairns dotting much of the landscape in certain places). Not all of the signs are in English (or rather, in ENOUGH English), so we are sometimes left to decipher Icelandic, google things, or simply guess at what we're looking at. One such place was "Olafslundur", a fenced in woodland with some picnic tables and a simple sign. What is the meaning of this little place? Google didn't shed much light.
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| Thingeyrar Church |
We drove up a dirt and gravel road from there, towards Þingeyrarkirkja (Thingeyrar Church). This old stone church is one of Iceland's very few stone churches. Legislative assembles were held in this special location from 930 - 1264. The current building was consecrated in 1877, but several buildings have stood in this location since the late 1100's. It was a very beautiful church, even though we could not go inside. We took some time to admire the beautiful stone work, and to look in the windows at some of the artifacts. There is a graveyard behind the church so we tried to be respectful of that and quietly walk around. The views from up here were beautiful. What a quiet, peaceful place.
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| Víðimýrarkirkja |
Another church we saw today was Víðimýrarkirkja, one of the 6 remaining preserved "turf" churches in Iceland. This was the second one we had seen. It was very cute and colourful, though we couldn't get too close as there was a sign saying it was closed. We stood back on the road and took a few photos, admiring the church in its serene, out-of-the way location, and then continued our drive.
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| Borgarvirki Fortress/extinct volcano |
Whenever I travel, I always use the geocaching website to look for geocaches placed nearby. They are often great sources of hidden, local knowledge of cool places to go, and it has been especially useful in Iceland. Opening up my App, I saw a location not too far from our route that sounded very interesting - an ancient volcano plug that was used as a military fortress by the Vikings. We drove up and down a windy, steep, very pot-hole-filled road in order to get there. The volcano plug (the remnants of solidified magma from an extinct volcano, after the surrounding volcano has been eroded away) was fascinating to see. Those very familiar basalt columns like the ones we saw in the south formed the perimeter of the plug. Where part of it had collapsed, the Vikings had built up a stone wall in its place.
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| Inside the fortress, looking out over the stone wall section |
We were able to step inside and walk carefully over the large pieces of rock to look at an old stone structure they had built inside as well, and then climb up to the top of the whole thing to see the view down below. 360 degrees of pure beauty. I kept slowly turning and looking all around me. Breathing it all in. What a special, unique place. How many places in the world can you get so intimate with ruins like this? I truly hope its out-of-the-way location at the end of a difficult road keeps most of the disrespectful tourists away. One could easily step back in time here, imagining what it must have been like to be up here, watching for enemies, building the stone walls...
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| Stone structure inside the fortress |
I manage to pull myself away from this fascinating little piece of history and we head back down to the campervan. Our next stop is Hvítserkur. This stone structure is a "sea stack", caused by erosion of the surrounding softer rock over time. Formations like this happen in many places all over the world, and the practice of finding shapes in them and giving them names is not unusual. This one is said to look like a petrified troll. (It reminded me of the "Sea Lion" sea stack at Sleep Giant Provincial Park back home.)
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| Hvertsikur |
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| Starfish and other interesting finds on the beach near Hvetsikur |
We walked the short trail to view it from above, and then of course Jen wanted to climb down the cliff on the steep trail (you know, the one with multiple signs saying "danger" and have pictures of people falling off cliffs). We VERY carefully made our way down the trail, taking care to stick to the well-trodden path and crouching down when necessary in order to make a more stable descent on the rocky path. Finally we reached the bottom of the beautiful black sand beach (does Iceland even have any other kind?). We enjoyed a nice walk around the beach, looking at the sea stack (it has very neat views of the mountains through the two arches). The debris found along the shore was fascinating - such interesting colours of all the sea creatures. Reminded me a little of the multi-coloured sea things we found while shelling on the beach at Sanibel, Florida. I resisted the urge to take any of them home, except for a few very strange spherical, hollow shells.
After making the climb back up (so much easier than going down!) we stood and just admired the sea stack from above again. As we were about to turn around and leave, I spotted a black dot out in the ocean. "Seals!" I said excitedly. 10 - 15 of them, to be exact. We stayed for at least ten minutes longer, watching them bounce around in the water, dive under, and splash around. I didn't have my zoom lens with me so the photos aren't much more than little black dots, but it was so much fun to watch them.
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| Can you see the seals? |
These are my favourite moments while traveling - the little, unexpected, special things you get to see if you're still enough to let the experiences happen to you. I think I forget to be still sometimes in every day life. I'm sure we all do. Traveling gives me the freedom to slow down and savour all these little moments, and then try and cultivate that mindfulness when I'm back home.
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Our last adventure for the day was locating AdBlue. A few days ago, our campervan started giving us a warning signal every time we started it. It said "AdBlue - no start in 1000km". Alarmed by the car telling us there would be NO START at some point, we called CampEasy. They explained that this was nothing to be concerned about, and that AdBlue is a diesel exhaust fluid that diesel vehicles need in order to breakdown the soot and unused fuel. He said we had 1000km before the van wouldn't start and probably wouldn't reach that in our remaining days, but that if we wanted to be safe, we could buy some at a gas station and fill it up ourselves, and they'd reimburse us.
As you drive, the "countdown" from 1000 starts, and it was a little disconcerting to have the car periodically tell us "No start in 750km! No start in 600km!" We decided we needed to buy some AdBlue right away, just in case. Our first stop was at a tiny gas station that had an automated pump, but the gas station itself was closed. Peering in, it seemed to largely sell unique handicrafts and nothing gas-station-like anyway. We looked on the map and determined there might be a gas station ten minutes away in another small town, so we headed there.
The young man at the counter told us that he was all out of AdBlue, but the grocery store might have some if we hurried - they closed in 10 minutes. So we drove down to near the harbour where the grocery store was. Once inside, we asked one of the cashiers if she had any. Her English was limited, and she was confused by the Google Image we were showing her, so she called someone else to help. The woman who came told us "They have it in the other store. Follow me," and led us without explanation through a back doorway for staff-only (what is it about Icelanders leading us into the unknown with little explanation?) and we re-emerged in a hardware shop. We looked around for a bit, and then showed our picture to the person who was working there. He said they didn't have any either - "You need other store. Go outside and drive to the back, go around the corner."
In confusion, we headed outside and decided to just walk around to the back, rather than manouevre the campervan. We found ourselves in an industrial parking lot, with a small snowplow and other machinery moving around. I saw something that looked like it might be a store, but couldn't tell. As I tried to get closer, one of the men driving the machinery gesture at us and repeatedly pointed over at a restaurant that was adjacent. Did he think we were crazy lost tourists looking for the restaurant in an industrial parking lot?
We ignored him, waiting for a safe time to pass, and then dashed across to the shop. I looked in the windows and it did indeed look like a car hardware shop, so I went in and asked if they had AdBlue. The first person I asked seemed confused (a younger kid), but when he asked an older guy he said "Yes, A. D. Blue. I have here in back." and disappeared into a back room. While we are waiting, the guy who had gestured at us outside enters the store. He stops in front of us, stares, and says "Hi. Can I help you?" I say we're fine, someone else is helping us. He seems very confused and I'm pretty sure he still thinks we are lost. Finally, the other person comes out of the back room with the jug of AdBlue. I grin - "Yes, that's what we need! perfect! Thank you!" The machinery-driver is still looking at us like we've lost it, but we pay no attention because we are so happy to have finally tracked down the mysterious "AdBlue" despite being in the middle of nowhere.
Our purchase made, we head to our campsite for the night. We drive through about an hour of absolute nothingness, and then pull into a small town where the campsite seems to share the same small space as an elementary school and a frisbee golf course.
The sky is cloudy tonight. I don't think the aurora will show itself. Perhaps it's just as well, as we need a good night's rest.
Iceland's beautiful scenery, mountain roads, and unpredictability are fast making their way into my heart. Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.
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| So many horses in the North. They're so beautiful. |
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