Friday, June 13, 2008

The big hike

The wonderfully nice woman at the Husavik Info Center explained how we could take the van to Kross, walk to Godafoss, then take another van to Reykjavlid. She said that there would be 10-15 minutes - which we understood to mean a 15 minute walk and 55 minutes to see Godafoss, maybe get a coffee, etc. When the van driver dropped us at Kross, he pointed us in the direction of the distant mist (Godafoss is the waterfall of the gods) and said (with a grin) that it was 5 km to Godafoss - we had our full packs and hadn't had our coffee!

We were passed by 6-8 large tour busses - folks who fly in from Reykjavik for various day tours and plenty of locals - I suppose we could have hitched a ride (the woman at the tourist office had suggested that as a totally reasonable option) but we trekked on our own. With time winding down and the van pickup in view, we ditched our heavy packs at the side of the road (theft is not much of a concern here), turned down the path to Godafoss to see the falls (totally worth the jog) and sprinted back to our bags in time to make our ride.

The extended exercise on a cool, overcast day produced the unfamiliar oddity (for us anyhow) of being hot and cold at the same time. Some of the tourist stuff calls Iceland the"land of fire and ice" but I don't think that is what they mean...

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