Artic Akureyri

Artic yes... in the sence of being in the Artic Circle but more on that...

Hailstorm

1st i want to tell you about my attempt to walk from Krafla back to Myvatn and the hailstorm. I took the bus up to the Krafla area north west of Myvatn. Its only a 13km walk back through a lava field and i thought it would all go so well. I did the walk around the big crater, steaming vents and troll lava field.. Wonderful. Then i had this bright idea i would walk down to the geo-thermal powerstation to take a look and then walk around the back of the powerstation and then do the 13kms to Myvatn. The weather had another plan.

The powerstation visit was interesting, mostly in as much as you realise that its built on an active volcanic area, its using the steam from the earth to run the turbins to produce around 30Mg and everyday you get to go to work in a very nice place... but the thought of knowing that during the construction the Krafla volcanic area errupted and lava flowed over the 1st bore holes , makes me wonder about the OH&S issues of working there.

I did the walk behind the powerstation and found out it was much further than i thought... about 10kms i would say. And after walking throught a recent lava field flow on your own you really do begin to understand why the Icelandic folk believe in Trolls.... The lava is so black and at times you think its moving.. I finally made it to the point where i could cross over the lava, but i still had 13kms to do, its was 4pm and started to rain and i could see the car park about 1km away... At the very point where i needed to make a decision the weather mad it for me... the rain was no longer rain, but hail, fine to start with, but it got bigger... much bigger. About the size of a large pea. It was painful on skin and i had to get all my wet walking gear on and the path turned to ice... So i decided that hitching a lift would be a better idea...

Getting a lift was much harder than i thought but soon after i had walked about 6kms in wonderful sunshine... yes the hailstorm stopped as soon as i got to the car park to hitch. An Icelandic couple picked my up and dropped me back at Myvatn... were i was again confrounted by the flys...

Ride to Akureyri

I then spent the next two days riding to Arkureyri the second largest city in Iceland. The highlight of this ride was seeing Godfoss waterfall and then camping in Vaglaskogur National Park... Trees :) This was just geat so i took a photo from within my tent! The best bit was the ride over the mountain pass and then seeing the Fjord with many snow capped mountains. Just wonderful.. it was a sunny day, but the ride down the mountain had me not able to change my gears with the twistgrip as my hands were so cold.

Air Iceland

Now what does one do when your so close to the Artic Circle and you really want to see the Fjord from the air? You take a flight to Grimsley Island with Air Iceland at 7,30pm. This was just wonderful. I did fell a bit silly as i thought what i´m i going to do on an this island for only an hour... but one of those wonderful things happens... your not alone, 4 others are being as silly as you and you feel much better... Then when your in the air and see the snow mountains and Fjord, plus the road you just road over.. it is worth the cost, time and i don´t feel so silly.

Once we land to mine and the other 4 a lady meets the plane and tells us she will be our guide for the hour. This is just wonderful, she drives us all around the island and then we all go for a walk to see Puffins...but 1st she takes our photo show us we are in the Artic Circle. Finally we re-board the plane and fly back... its now 9.30ish when we land but its sunny and still daylight...