Þorsmörk, a gorgeous area that I visited briefly and did (surprise!) some more trail work with the Trail Team. The weather wasn’t terrific while we were there, and I wasn’t feeling 100%, so I didn’t take many pictures. The mountainside where we worked was covered in wild blueberries, though, which were delicious and a great morale booster when the sideways rain started to get annoying.The Dettifoss canyonAnd Dettifoss itselfThe final place I called home… in the shadow of the great Herðubreið.The rangers invited us to hike to the top with them, but none of us felt quite up to it. And when we came back later in the day to see that the summit had gotten a snow storm, I wasn’t too disappointed by our decision.We spent time in Askja raking the tracks of people who feel the rules do not apply to them. The roads through the highlands are clearly marked, and in fact you have to drive over a little brim to get offroad, but people do it anyway. The ecosystem is much more delicate than it looks, and tire tracks like these do not go away on their own… they encourage other drivers to break the law, they change the natural drainage of the soil, and when water collects in the tracks, vegetation starts to grow there. Tire tracks filled with plants are like human pockmarks on this beautiful area. DON’T DRIVE OFF ROAD!!! If you do, you risk being chased by crazy people wielding rakes. And I can assure you, they will show no mercy.Lava and natural pumice- the greyish rocks were so lightweight that they felt like fake rocks from a movie set.Askja; The beautiful lake in the rear is deepest natural lake in Iceland at 200 m, and in the foreground is a natural hot spring called Vítí, which I think means Hell.Steph takes a moment to soak in the view.Driving through the East Fjords, we went through some beautiful scenes like this. We also battled through some serious winds that had ducks and geese hunkering down in the grass. One mountain pass was littered with fist-sized rocks that had blown down off the rock faces, and we drove through what amounted to a gravel storm, the car getting pelted as we drove along the shore. We also saw waterfalls that were more like waterflies, because the wind grabbed the water as soon as it tipped over the edge and just flung it up and away.Can’t… stop…. building… Even when we’re back inside.
He is truly wise
who’s traveled far
and knows the ways of the world.
He who has traveled
can tell what spirit
governs the men he meets.
– from Hávamál Eddaic poems,
A.D. 700-900
(Hávamál is kind of like the Viking version of the Tao – words of wisdom and guidance on how to live well.)
