Sometimes I don't understand technology. For those of you wondering why I haven't been posting photos, let me assure you I had been doing my best. I fought with the reasonably strong wireless signal at the hostel for the literally 45 mins. to no avail. Now, despite the fact that I'm stealing the scraps of a Vodaphone signal, with bandwidth that shouldn't allow me to load google.com, I can post pictures. So here are some of the highlights from the trip to Þorsmörk:
Heading up the trail to the mountain...
A view from the top (note the glacier in the top right)...
What I walked on all day (this valley floods once or twice every century during the eruption of a volcano buried in the glacier; the valley floor is not a good place to watch this happen)...
Rugged terrain surrounded the valley...
Sort of Middle Earth-esque, I'm sure Islanders curse Peter Jackson for selecting the wrong sheep-infested island...
Glacier is one of the few English words that, despite the same spelling, is given an extra syllable when spoken by the British (these are the kinds of things you think about during an 8 hour hike to a big chunk of ice)
The belly of the beast...
Where I kissed the glacier (just doing my part to perpetuate the global conspiracy known as global warming)...
Glacial run-off (pictures like this keep Al Gore up at night)...
Ancient rock formations...
This is the kind of thing that would have ended a Wile E. Coyote caper...
The path up out of the valley, toward the campsite...
The trail through the Islandic Birch forest...
My bridge...
My charge to future visitors...
Take that, nature...
The edge...
The LoD (it was hard to establish a context, I didn't want to set the camera on a 10 second delay and run out there, because then some future hiker would come upon my camera and the last picture on it would be the my hands grasping feebly at the canyon wall)
An Islandic Cave, only slightly inferior to its Luxembourgish brethren...
The road goes ever on and on...
And to end the day: BeanFeast! (note to vegetarian readers, you could totally eat this)...
Wow, picture overload. Anyway, after getting back, I headed over to my new hostel, checked in, had a much needed shower, and stopped by a hamburger joint that I had read about in a Best of Reykjavik review. The place was a total locals-only joint, no tourists, hardly any English, but the hamburgers were pretty darn good. A couple years back a blue cheese burger crazy swept Iceland, and the place was reported to be the best practitioner of the art. I have to say, it was quite tasty. I then settled back to a organ rehearsal at the central cathedral, and now I'm back in the hostel preparing to stay out 'til sunset.
So, Patrick, which three questions did you have to answer to get across the Ledge of Death? And what is the air-speed velocity of an unlaiden swallow?
ReplyDeleteAfrican or European? Good call on the LoD picture. What is this fascination with rocks? The birch forest looks surreal, but beautiful. The same can be said for the beanfeast. Now I'm hungry!
ReplyDeleteIcelandic Burger has now been added to the reasons to travel to Iceland.
ReplyDeleteAnd honestly how long did you think it would take you to finish that bridge? How far over budget were you planning to be? Were you the architect of the Big Dig?
I agree with your mom about not tempting fate on the LoD picture. That is why I did it for you! As far as I know, it's impossible to post pictures as a comment but the link is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://web.mac.com/kkobzeff/Patrick_Temps_Fate.jpg
Katy, I'm breaking my "no commenting on my own blog" rule to say that you just made my freakishly illuminated evening!
ReplyDelete