Water, Water Everywhere

Today we planned to hike up to Svartifoss, in Skaftafell (SKAF-ta-fet’l) National Park, and to the glacier, so of course we woke to the sound of rain.  Fairly heavy rain, and wind.  Phooey.  We ate breakfast, during which the sun came out.  We finished breakfast, it was raining.  We checked our email.  Raining. 

Sheila made some good progress on her sweater, after a couple of false starts.  When purchasing the yarn, she felt that a dark green was better than the planned dark brown, but on starting the colorwork, the green was too close to the main color.  Then she tried the colors in a different order, and wasn’t totally happy with that, either.  While picking up provisions at Kirkjubærklauster, we came around one end of the grocery store to find….yarn!  The same kind of yarn!  She picked up the dark brown, and today got all the color on one sleeve hem!  Yay rain!

We drove back to Skaftafell, which is about 30 km from our guesthouse at Hof farm.  Rain off and on.  Coffee and sandwiches and pie.  Heavy cloud-cover.  We drove up as far as the roads would take us, checking out the trailheads.  Sheila REALLY wanted to see Svartifoss up close.  Spitty rain, wind, 8 C (44 F).  Got some good pics at Sel, which is where some of the farmers moved after Öræfajökull (UH-rye-fa-Joh-kut’l) volcano wiped out the extensive grassy plains that attracted early settlers to this area.  The eruption destroyed the plains with a jökullaup and a thick layer of  tephra back in 1362.

We drove home again, checking out options for dinner, as the one at Hof 1 was so expensive (OK, yes, Iceland is expensive, but almost $90 for soup, chicken, and potatoes seems high even for here, and it was eat that, or nothing).  We wandered around the farm a bit, taking pictures between showers. The old church still has a turf roof and all the graves are protected by a turf cover, perhaps fitting for Icelanders that lived their lives in turf homes.

We took a nap, and then the skies seemed to be clearing.  We drove back to the gas station for dinner—yes, really—we’re finding them to be pretty good, and certainly cheapest.  We both got the lamb nuggets with fries and barbeque sauce (lambanuggar með frönsku og sósu), and Sheila added the salad bar.  Yes, a gas station with a salad bar!  A kind of puny salad bar, but still….

We finally hit the trail to Svartifoss at about 7 in the evening.  It completely lived up to all the photos we had seen before…it’s a gorgeous waterfall backed by basalt columns, like those that made up the “Church Floor”, but seen from the side and below.

We also saw some ptarmigan! They were easy to spot against the brown vegetation, because they still have their entire white winter plumage.

Then, at about 9 pm, we decided to walk out to Skaftafell glacier, though with some hesitation about the 1.8 km distance after the 1.4 km to Svartifoss and back.  Not that we can’t usually walk that far, but we don’t usually try it so late in the day, and after several days of mostly driving.  But with the thought that we won’t likely get another chance….

Totally worth it, even though we didn’t get any closer than this.  The sign warned about slipping gravel, sinkholes, and quicksand…. This glacier is in retreat, being 100s of meters back from its most forward position in recent 100s of years. That is why there are so many little icebergs floating the small glacial lagoon.

Then home, tired, but happy that we got to hike some, despite the rain.  So, no blogging last night!