Month: July 2006

July 9, 2005.

After setting up camp the night before, we had breakfast and headed up out of the campsite to the main building where we would be kitted out with wetsuits, dry jackets, helmets and shoes to make the most of our day rafting down the Jökulsá Austari (East Glacial River – Skagafjörður). What a day it would be!

When we were kitting up, I managed to grab shoes that were a size or two too small and didn’t really notice that till we were a little away so I spent most of the time curling my toes in to try to make not so tight! That however did not put a damper on the day as I had a total blast! The river is graded an IV by most sources which means that it isn’t really for pansies.

We trooped up to the launch site on a big old bus which at times felt like it wasn’t going to make it round the bends or up the hills but after driving for a while we made it to the launch site we were given some morning tea and were instructed in paddling techniques and safety procedures before getting put in teams and getting introduced to our guides. One of the great things about our guides been Nepalese meant that English was the primary language spoken during the day with the guides shouting back and forth to each other in Nepalese. It is hard to describe the day in words other to say than it was utterly amazing and I would love to do it again!

We had fun going down rapids, laughing and cheering other boats on as went through tricky bits and then cheering for ourselves when we managed to get to the end of the trip without having capsized our boat. The guides threatened to do it on purpose as all the other boats had turned over at one stage or another but in the end they didn’t.

Part way down the river we stopped at a little “beach” and those who wanted to were able to get out and climb up a rocky outcrop (4-6m above the water depending on where you jumped from) and jump into the water below. I was more than happy to lie back on the raft in the sun and watch Matthew, Karl and the rest of the crew jump.

When we reached quieter sections of the river it was fun to watch the guides who were in kayaks showing off doing Eskimo Rolls and other little tricks.

Then after some more paddling, cascades, rapids and other fun stuff we reached the end 🙁 Where we were greeted with cups of steaming hot meat soup 🙂 and the ride back to Bakkaflöt feeling a little damp 🙁 After arriving back at Bakkaflöt and getting out of our kit, we headed over to the hot tub and heated pool for some fun 🙂 and then onto a dinner of pylsur (hot dogs) and drinks for those who were not driving later on (i.e everyone but me). 🙂 I did however had a sip of Ã?sdís’s sister’s Pear Cider which was yum with a capital Y and a capital U and a capital M. After sitting round the campsite eating, talking, playing with cameras, listening to music, Matthew and I jumped in the Micra, hit the road and drove the 100 odd km to Akureyri where we crawled into bed at the Youth Hostel after a loooong day.

I have no photos of the rafting trip because it wasn’t really somewhere to take my camera but I do have photos from the time we spent sitting round the campsite that evening. The first two are taken by Matthew and I think the last one was by me.

Today was a big driving day, Matthew and I did about 520km as we were meeting up with Karl and some of his friends to spend the next day white-water rafting.

Once we left Korpudalur in the morning we drove through the West Fjords Tunnel (1 on the map) and stopped in at �safjörður to pick up some groceries and post some postcards.

Then we hit the road! We drove past the wrecking yard at Ögur and washed our away hopes of having a look round as the signs made a good job of saying we don’t want visitors.

Then we drove round, over and across the fjord’s as we made our way to our first destination – the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft in Hólmavík (2 on map). This was a pretty cool place to check out, lots of history and exhibits of the not so normal.

And we drove some more and more, as we reached the start of the North coast it was so interesting to see all the logs on the shore that come up on the beach as drift wood from the logging operations in Siberia, it can take 4/5 years between when the wood “swims” down the rivers of Siberia and when it beaches itself on the Icelandic north coast. Pretty Cool. The even cooler thing was spotting an Iceberg on the horizon. That was so rocking! It was just this big hunk of ice floating in the sea!!!

Back on the road; Matthew, Pabbi and I pulled into the hamlet of Borðeyri (4 on map) which is across the fjord from Tannstaðabakki, which is where Pabbi’s mother worked for a little while when Pabbi was a little tyke.

As we drove back up the eastern side of the fjord, Pabbi pointed out the machine gun placement up the hill from Tannstaðabakki where his father was stationed during part of WWII. After we drove some more, we reached the Youth Hostel at Ósar on the Vatnsnes Peninsula which is where Mum, Pabbi and Margaret would be staying for the night. We spent some time chilling out, talking to some of the other guests and chowing down on the whale steaks that Pabbi had cooked for dinner. yum.

As the night drew on, Matthew and I packed up our gear and reorganised the cars so that all our stuff was in the Micra and headed down the 811 to where it joins the 1 to wait for Karl and his friends to arrive so we could follow them to Bakkaflöt which is where we would spend the night before heading up the valley to raft in the morning.

July 6, 2005 more exploring of the West Fjords.

Below is the map of the day with our 7 stops.

1. Mum, Margaret and Pabbi had gone back out to the bird cliffs in the morning to have a second look but there was no where near as many as we had seen the night before.

Once we had reached the turn off down to Breiðavík, we stopped the car and I took the photo below.

2. As we drove over the pass and into the Bíldudalur valley, we were greeted by two sights, one pleasant and one just gorgeous. The first was this decaying hut on the western side of the valley. The second was looking towards the north east to the slopes of the mountains coming down to greet the sea. This was a sight I would not tire of.

We drove into Bíldudalur and had a poke round and Pabbi told how it had changed in the 26yrs odd years since he had last been there.

3. Road Signs
Not really much to this but it was the first sign we saw that said how many km’s to Þingeyri and I thought that was pretty cool

4. Emergency Shelter on Dynjandsheidi.
The West Fjords are a pretty a rugged area of Iceland and are one of the least populated areas with about 8000 people living there out of a total population of round 297,000. Due to the nature of the region we passed many emergency shelters in the West Fjords which can provide a safe haven for travellers in winter.

This shelter was one of the ones that my father helped to build back in the day when he was living in the area.

5. Dynjandi or Fjallfoss
Such a beautiful and dramatic waterfall! The falls drop about 100m in a series of falls all of which have their own name.

6. Hrafnseyri.
Here we visited the Jón Sigurðsson Museum and a traditional Icelandic life Museum. Jón Sigurðsson was at the forefront of the fight for Icelandic Independeance and now the Icelandic National Day is celebrated on his birthday – June 17.

7. Auðkúla.
My family relations on my father’s side are a bit confusing but in short Auðkúla is the family farm of my dad’s ex-wife and when we started to plan our trip and where we would go, Pabbi was quickly on the phone to his ex-brother-in-law to see if we could spend the night, which was perfectly fine of course. However, somewhere along the way they got the dates mixed up and he was away when we arrived and was not coming home until the next day, we were lucky however that his daughter Dáðina (?) was home and was able to play hostess.

Auðkúla was a very beautiful place with the outlooks to the fjord from one side of the house and mountain views from the other side 🙂 We were given a tour of the farm from the chickens to the sheep and most importantly the Eider Ducks. As a matter of fact we actually own an Eider Down Sæng (doona) that is filled with down collected at Auðkúla