Day 4 Magnificent West part 2

We drove on towards Vidgelmir, a cave underneath a big lavafield, stretching out for 1500 underneath it. This area is also out of this world, but the roads are getting normal again. So before that, the tires of the jeep got inflated again to right pressure, but that was done already below Langjokull glacier.
Before we went to this cave, we visited Husafell, to go to a bathroom if needed and have lunch there at a what I think is a campsite/recreational area. 

Once at the site of the cave (we should have gone to another one, but there were people placing the highway road blocks, while it is forbidden to pass them, they usualy tolerate 4x4 to pass through, Isaak did not feel nice to pass those men by at this moment. So we visited the other less accesible cave or simply went there from another direction, I don't know...), we had to walk a bit before we reached the entrance of the cave. We had to go down and follow a pile of snowy rocks, with only a rope to hold on to. At this point I decided to stay above the ground safely, I don't have a very good balance, and I didn't want the rest of my holiday being ruined by this legbreaking boulders. I hated it because I know how incredible beautifull lava caves are from the inside. All colors of the rainbow, and this one is also famous for its ice sculptures deeper down. But we were not supposed to get that far. This cave is at private property and is officially only accesible/allowed to enter with a licenced guide to do so. If we were to go down, I am sure it would not be for a long distance anyway. But like I said, I did not feel secure about it to go down.

The entrance from a distance.

The area was very beautifull too. I imagine how this probably looks like in Autumn. My love for Autumn really made another statement here, because despite I love springtime terribly, I usually tend to forget that the springtime I love arrives in Iceland a bit later. Nature is still in process of waking up, and the colors are by far not as magnificent as I silently hoped for. But still, Iceland nature never is dull or boring. I just hoped to see fresh green grass, maybe dandelions flowering, lambs and birds in progress of nesting. Yeah it is a bit too early.

Endless mossy lavafield, stretching out for at least 3 km. The cave underneath for 1520meter

One of the two main entrances, however you can only go down in one. The other you might have to jump (Or just get there via the other one).

There is a hole in the roof ;-)

The roof of the lavacave with its beautiful rocks

After visiting this site, we moved on to two famous and very beautifull waterfalls. One of them is coming down from this very lavafield we just explored. Somewhere there must be a river flowing underneath this lava.
The weather in the west looked a bit nasty, and once we approached the two falls, it started to drizzle a bit. My decicion was made to first visit the fall most far away. Far away.... well 100 meter maybe. But I simply adored this moment to be there all alone, watching this epic bouldering and vicious looking Barnafoss. Barnafoss previously was named Bjarnafoss. But according to legend, at one Christmas Eve long ago, a mother did not find her children at home, while she asked them to stay at home. She followed their footsteps in the snow, leading to the Bjarnafoss, which at that time still had a natural bridge going over to cross from one side to another. The footsteps stopped on the bridge, and the children were expected to have drawned in this raging Hvita (White) river that has to push itself through a narrow crooky fissure having the waters falling down a few meters. It is not really a fall as the name suspects, but it is impressive to see. The mother however was not impressed about her childrens death, and cursed the bridge that no one would ever cross it alive again. The bridge was demolished short after this happened, some legends say it was an earthquake. And the falls got the name Barnafoss, fall of the children. 

Barnafoss

Barnafoss

Barnafoss is hard to picture as whole, since it is going to a narrow fissure and makes several bends and turns. Also the water is raging in white and/or  brightblue and moves extremely fast. It would be a certain death if you fall in the waters for sure. Probably that was the ground for the legend as well, because it is not known if this did happen.

Down the river as soon as the waters have come to ease a bit and turning bright sky blue, Hraunfossar joins in. Hraunfossar means Lavafalls. And many small waterfalls cascade from underneath the lavafield Hallmundarhraun bordering the river Hvita. The lava comes from a dormant volcano underneath Langjokull, and likely the water also comes from this glacier.

Hraunfossar

A waterfall halfway between Barnafoss and Hraunfossar

My best picture of this trip.... Hraunfossar

I just dreamed of how beautifull this must look in autumn. If I return to Iceland in October, which sure still is something on my mind, but is very very doubtfull... I hope I will be able to visit here again. At least this place is accesable with normal rental cars. It is not in the highlands, at least not behind the road blocks...

After a short but time enough to picture visit to this site, we continued our way to Reykholt. It is normally not included in the program, but we had a lady in the group who did very well her homework about the history and sagas of Iceland, so Isaak stopped at Reykholt and put a smile on a face. At this place Snorri Sturlson lived and wrote his eddas. We did a very short walk over the area, Isaak drove around to pick us up, as efficient as ever. It is wonderfull how they try to make everything possible in a most flexible way. We looked at the pool that Snorri had constructed (Snorralaug). And it more often made me smile, because I used to call my (female) cat Snorrie all the time not aware it is an Icelandic name. So if I see a Snorri name I remind my little furball. :-)

Our next and last scheduled visit was to Deildartunguhver. The biggest geothermal hotspring of Iceland. A small mountain in the middle of nowhere that sprouts many many small bubbling and thrushing hot water wells. The sulphursmell was not very bad, but the colors the waters made to the rocky hill are amazing. Together with the bright green moss growing in abundance, the orange and red rocks color perfectly along with hot waterfalls, steamvents, hotsprings a paradise to picture. But the damps were a pest, however Isaak said there was not a lot of damp. Normally you won't see a lot at all. Maybe the air was just not humid enough or the weather too good. Damp more loves wet, moist and rainy weather. But then I remember, it started to rain a bit when we arrived there.... Myth busted...

A hot waterfall at Deildartunguhver

This site produces hotwater for the area around it. And it is funny to see that everywhere small rivers run with hot water, damping their way. I wonder if it would be safe for animals to be out in the fields, but if I know my cats, they are often very carefull with hot water. Without ever touching it.

After we left for our remaining one hour drive to Reykjavik by Hvalfjordur, it stopped raining again. A beautifull rainbow appeared behind us over the area we just visited. I never saw such a bright rainbow so close. We did not have a lot of time to picture it. Just a holdback on the road and open window to take a picture.

The area we drove through was the typical Icelandic landscape, of isolated farms, with waterfalls in their backyards, coming down from the high cliffy hills rising up in the sky. I would so much love it to live at such a place. Common a huge waterfall in the backyard. I would feel like a kid in a candy store. With endless fields to keep horses.

Epic views.....

Drive around Hvalfjordur

Mount Esja from the other side

When we drove around Hvalfjordur, we passed a now 'closed' whale factory. Still the boats were docked, Isaak said they probably had another purpose. I doubt it. Iceland still hunts them. I had a discussion about this with Isaak. I am not against whaling itself, if it involves a species that is common, like minkwhales. Why can we discriminate between cow or whale, it is equal worse. But we discusssed that Iceland usualy get equalled to what happens on Faroer Islands. It is not the same, that masacre is medieval and heartbreaking. I refuse to believe in Iceland it would happen that way.
But well, it remains a sensitive issue to some. I believe it is hypocrite to eat pigs, chicken and cows, and mourn about whales and dogs. I have nothing against eating any animal. I am against the way they are tortured and killed, and the killing of endangered species or species that are just killed for health lies. THAT makes the difference. But even if I saw whale meat in the supermarket and could not resist to take a closer look (because I believe you need to have your information before you can argue about something) I would never ever eat it. Learn about the theoretic facts is my limit.

At Hvalfjordur we stopped at another nice waterfall. I think it is called Fossarett. The sign says so. But since this is also a site of importance, maybe the ancient sheepcoral here is named Fossarett. But 'foss' is waterfall so it is maybe a waterfall cleaning station? Me and my fantasy ;-)

Fossarett

And that is basicly where the day ends. Well... 30 minutes driving to Reykjavik, around Mount Esja. Iceland is so beautful and I have only seen a small part of it....

This might as well be my last blog, because I have no more plans. Tomorrow is my last day in Iceland, going to do some shopping, that is basicly all.
And then I can count down again to a yet unknown date to return to Iceland. I hope it is really soon, but I am afraid, very afraid I will be stucked to my fucked up country for a while. I came here to find work, but I only got the information that it is hard, even most Icelandic people have 2 or 3 jobs to earn a living. Though the unemployment rate is very low here, I probably would only be lucky for summer jobs. But who knows what my received email adress will bring me. :-)