Today we awoke to blue sky, sunshine and wind, not gusts, just constant gale force wind. When Douglas Mawson described Antarctica as the windiest place on earth, he clearly hadn’t been to Iceland!!
Driving up the east coast we finally made it to Puffin Country and neither wind nor rain, or the gravel road over the 500m mountain pass we had to traverse in order to see them could deter Jean and her iPhone, as you not doubt may have already seen.
The next day, leaving our hotel in Egilsstadir, which was at sea level, we headed east intending to go to a picturesque town on the Seydisfjordur (a fiord). To reach it meant driving up a series of unprotected edged roads, with an average gradient of 7% rising in a series of death defying switchbacks, to the top 700m above where we started. Then it was across the plateau and the descent down the other side. As we started down, we were confronted with a black mass of cloud that filled the fiord and coming straight at us, signalling the start of a very bad weather day. Reaching a rest area partway down, we decided that it was an excellent place to turn around and continue on our way to our next hotel in the mountainous regions of the central west, with a couple more “must sees” along the way.
As spectacular as the ascents into the mountains were, driving for hours across the tundra plateaus between even higher mountain outcrops and what looked like, hopefully extinct volcanos, was even more stunding. At this point we were at about 700m and the surrounding mountains, some flanked by a distinctive glacial curve, were at least another 500m + above that. The land alternated between moss and low shrub covered tundra with the occasional sheep, then ground strewn with large jagged rocks, 1-2m across, broad rivers of solidified lava, more black sand and gravel, all I assume the product of past eruptions, the last in this area being in 1961.
Our first detour was to the Studlagil Canyon, with only about 15kms of gravel mountain road to reach it, but overall it was worth it.
Then we turned north to the Dettioss waterfall, and the weather took a dramatic turn for the worst. Snow reduced the visibility to about 50m and with nowhere to turn around, and Dettifoss being on the itinerary for several months, there was no option other than to press on, the results again have been posted on fb. Finally, we made it to our hotel about an hour before the blizzard really hit and the road we had travel in on was closed.
Waking up this morning, the car park is deep in snow and there are 6 snow shovels in the hotel foyer for those with somewhere to go.
The weather forecast says Severe Weather with blizzard expected later today. 0C with a feel like -7C wind 40km/hr gusting to 70km/hr. With all this, we had to go 5kms to get some petrol in the hope we will be able to leave tomorrow. It was a struggle to get the car door open due to the wind, and that was after I had dug it out of the snow. So, keeping all this in mind, imagine my response when the thrill-seeker suggested that she might like to go to the outdoor Thermal Nature Baths, 7kms further down the road. Fortunately she rang the place first and they described conditions there as hurricane like, so that idea was scratched.
We are booked in here for two nights so I’m hoping this storm will have eased by tomorrow and I won’t be shovelling snow. The snow plough has been through twice so that’s a good sign. Fingers crossed he will be back tomorrow.