Tuesday, August 15, 2023
This morning I am ahead of the pack and I take my shower. When I get out there are several people waiting in line.
After fried eggs the sun starts to dry our tents, and shortly we leave our green and quiet valley. Another camper is struggling with a flat tire. I offer to help, but he seems scared of changing the tire. He is looking for pumps to inflate the tire, and to keep doing that until he reaches Reykjavik. Didi notices the man’s clothes and remarks that he doesn’t seem used to doing things himself. Another camper offers to help change the tire but to no avail.
We drive out of the valley and enter the dirt road that winds between the mountains and the river until we reach route 1. There we turn west towards Reykjavik.
After about an hour we reach a famous waterfall and I am amazed by the size of the parking lot and the number of cars. We are definitely in the tourist zone here. Within a day’s drive of Reykjavik.
It’s a beautiful high waterfall and hundreds of people are taking pictures and climbing up the staircase to the top of the falls.
As we climb up ourselves I am surprised how many young people complain about the climb. Some can’t make it and turn back. These are young people who seem to be in the prime of their lives.
At the top of the falls a long trail commences of about 25 kilometers (16 miles) that follows the river and 29 waterfalls.
This is a full day trip and unfortunately we can only do part of it. So we follow the steep and winding path that follows the edge of the canyon. Around us is green treeless undulating land, some high points are almost mountains.
Below us is a deep canyon where we pass seven or eight impressive waterfalls. By then we are entering low clouds and the fog and rain make us turn back.
It’s a steep but beautiful landscape. A few sheep dot the green slopes.
Back at the car we go to one more waterfall, where we can walk behind the falling water. The splash and spray are nevertheless so great that we get pretty wet anyway.
I can’t help but compare this primeval natural phenomenon in cold, arctic Iceland with a fountain in the Villa d’Este in Rome. There, in the heat of summer I walked with my parents, and admired the sloping garden where water is guided and used and recollected endlessly in little canals, fountains, pools, and also in a fountain where you can walk behind the refreshing water. There it’s a blessing to be shielded from the fierce sun. Here we huddle deeper in our coats to guard the heat around our bodies.
Rome…
Alas, we have to say goodbye to this natural wonder as well, and spend the next hour to reach a campground near the ´Golden Circle.’ This is a famous area with several geothermal features we hope to visit tomorrow.
We find a campground. It has one (1) shower. Because it’s early we manage to use it before eating dinner. The manager tells me that next year there will be four showers.
After dinner we sit for a while in the small kitchen to charge our phones, and it’s here that I write these words.
I hope, my friend, that I succeed in taking you with me a bit. So that you can also see some of the things that I see. That you also see this tiny kitchen with a white table against the wall, and six chairs around it. And on the table some oil, sugar, paper towels, peanut butter, jelly, pepper and tea bags, for everybody to use. The two spanish guys cooking at the stove.
Soon I will go to the tent and read for a while before going to sleep.
The sky is completely overcast, hopefully it will be dry tomorrow.
Roy De Hair
2023-08-16
Schitterende waterfallen; daar heb je toch graag een nat pak voor over!
Harry Gaede
2023-08-16
I am enjoying following your journey, but quite happy that I can do it from the comfort of my home. Hi to ciici