There had been talk all week about going on a trip for the weekend however Friday night arose and still nothing had been planned. Several games of flunky ball later http://www.spielwiki.de/Flunkyball_Eng and apparently progress was made.
I was rudely awoken at 9.45am by my alarm (which I’m assuming I had set just a few hours earlier) and a call from Johannes my Italian mate. “Are you ready?” he said. Apparantly at some stage of the night we had arranged to go on a trip to Snæfellsnes Peninsula on the far west of Iceland. Our meeting time was supposed to be at 10am and he lived a good 30 minute walk from where I was staying. Head spinning I threw some clothes and sleeping bag into my tramping pack and stumbled out the door.
After rendezvousing about an hour behind schedule we picked up some supplies and caught a bus to the outskirts of Reykjavik. We found a suitable spot and waited for a kind hearted soul to take pity on us.
15 minutes later a very pleasant Icelandic man pulled over and let us climb aboard. It turned out he was an up and coming opera singer who had studied under Kiri Te Kanawa in Germany who was on his way north for a concert. He informed us of how terrible the drivers in Iceland were whilst we were over-taking 4-5 cars at a time. He dropped us off just outside the town of Borgarnes and we parted ways as he continued to the North.
Our next hitch came after a sizeable walk through the town to the peninsula turnoff (which burned off the hangover somewhat). It was a very nice Icelandic woman that was however every part of the “bad driver” that the previous “bad driver” had warned us about. She spent most of the time on the wrong side of the road, swerving back only when a crash with an on-coming vehicle looked imminent. She offered us a ride further to the northern side of the peninsula which we graciously refused opting to disembark and head further west to the Snaefellsjӧkul glacier.
Our next ride took considerably longer to thumb down (the traffic rate of 1 car every 5 minutes down didn’t help) but after an hour or so we were on our way again. The women showed us many of the famous sights along the way pointing out the only natural golden sand beach in Iceland, gaping fissures in the cliffs and also the many different lava flows. She dropped us off in her home village of Arnarstarpi where we decided to make camp for the night and do some exploring.
The lava flows, basaltic column cliffs, and the abundance of crow berries and blue berries made for an amazing walk along the coast to another small village. We managed to track down the only place around that sold beer and indulged in a particularly expensive, particularly well-earned beverage. We made our way back to Arnarstarpi where we were treated to the Icelandic signature dish of hotdogs…and damn tasty hotdogs at that.
The sun went down and the northern lights came out and treated us to the most utterly incredible display of natural beauty. Easily the coolest phenomena I have ever seen (#1. Thing to see in Iceland, TICK). We stayed up for hours watching before they finally left us, hopefully my first attempt at capturing them gives you some idea of how epic they really are!
The next morning we woke up to more stunning weather (running out of adjectives) and decided to climb the local mountain Stapafell. It took us a little under two hours to ascend the rugged peaks in gale force winds, but the view at the top whilst eating what was left of our meagre rations of pringles and fish sandwiches was definitely worth it. The trip down the scree slopes took only 15 minutes but resulted in many cuts and bruises!
From here we began our walk back towards Reykjavik fearful that with such few cars on the road we would be spending another night roughing it. Our walk down the main road brought us to some spectacular crevices in the cliffs which were a great way to end our adventure.
From there after an hour or so of waiting we were picked up by a couple heading back to Reykjavik after a day trip. We couldn’t have hoped for anything more as we were dropped virtually at doorsteps of our respective guesthouses, which for me was my new flat which I have finally moved into after 2 weeks of waiting!
Everyone that picked us up seemed particularly friendly and even more so after finding out that I was from New Zealand. They all knew about the Christchurch earthquakes (which of course I informed them I was involved in) and seemed eager to learn more about the country. Hopefully we have until the end of September to keep hitching places until the light and road traffic run out. It’s a very cool way to see places, meet cool locals and find out the best places to see! If you want to check out where Snaefells is just search Snaefellsnes on maps.google.is
Hope you're all enjoying the RWC. I've managed to convince a bar to open down town for the ABs vs Japan game this friday at 8am! Epic.
Stay classy
