We left the park early, after a surprisingly good night’s sleep in the Nautilus (being under water and all). The new down bags Brad & I got were lifesavers - thank you Fund for Teachers! That wretched tent is going back again, for the 3rd time I might add. They apparently resealed those seams with scotch tape. Anyhow, the drive was more loveliness, lush valleys with postcard perfect farms nestled by fabulous waterfalls with ideally assorted and placed livestock interspersed with the icy white fingers of impressive glaciers and glorious coastal views. Our first stop was Geysir. We were frantic to beat the tour busses if at all possible on this most popular round in all of Iceland. Geysir is situated in a small geothermal plain with fumaroles, hot pools ringed with mineral deposits and several smaller geysers. It used to go quite regularly, but at one point tourists tried to promote eruptions by throwing rocks into it. How would blocking it up make it erupt, you ask? Good question – it doesn’t; it blocks it up. Fortunately, its next door neighbor, Stokkur, erupts every 4-6 minutes, so there is always something steamy and sulfurous smelling going on. It isn’t comparable to Steamboat or Old Faithful, but it was very nice to see the original – the one for which all geysers are named.
A couple of busses of Germans arrived and sped us on our way to Gullfoss. Gulfoss manages to be the most famous waterfall in a country almost absurdly overfilled with gorgeous waterfalls. As I said, they are a feature of almost every single farmstead as well as the star attractions at so many parks. It was beautiful and impressive roaring away in almost an “S” bend that created a stair step fall. The mist rose up in a sheer curtain beside the trail soaking everyone and everything in the area. The flowers and greenery were going crazy as a result. The falls were saved by the woman sometimes called Iceland’s first environmentalist, Sigridur Tomasdottir. A developer wanted to turn the fall into a hydro-electric plant and she fought it every step of the way, threatening to throw herself into the falls if they were to be destroyed. It is unimaginable now that it was ever considered. The Icelanders seem to have a somewhat conflicted relationship with the environment – understandable as nature is always trying to kill them.
At any rate, the falls were amazing. A cruise ship load of Chinese arrived and we were almost shoved into the falls by the giant waves of those not understanding that the walkway was designed for two-way traffic. We raced to the car, after a brief pause to commemorate the passing of Brad’s winter hat (a Burton cap he has owned since 1992 – truly ugly, but he was most sincerely attached to it); a new Icelandic cap was purchased and we were on the move.
Pingvellir National Park houses the site of the oldest continuous parliamentary democracy in the world. In the year 930AD the Icelanders established the Alping (the p makes a th sound) that acted as a lawgiving body as well as a judiciary. The site was chosen because the Mid-Atlantic Ridge formed a natural platform from which the members of the assembly could address the others. The name Pingvellir means “assembly plain”. The site’s stunning location on Lake Pingvellir (Iceland’s largest lake) meant another encounter with the midges we met at Myvatn. There was a breeze so they weren’t entirely unbearable. First we walked over to the Logberg which means “law rock”. It’s where the laws of the land were recited each year during the Alping. The site is marked today by a flagpole with an Icelandic flag. One interesting site near the Logberg is a beautiful pool of crystal clear water on the Oxara River where it flows out of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It’s where they used to drown the women who had been sentenced to death. There was a complete list of the all the women drowned in the pool for various offences.
The planets aligned, the fates smiled and yes, we are loved because the hostel in Reykjavik could house us for the night. True, we are in separate dorms all over the place, but we are not in the field in the rain soaked plastic shell – no, we can do that tomorrow in Grundafjordur
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