Iceland 2014 Day 4 ~~~ To Gauksmýri ~~~

THIS BLOG WILL BE UPDATED LATER WITH PHOTOS!!

And today I leave Akureyri without ever visiting the city itself, to go back to Gaukmýri. It is not a very long ride and weather is looking great.

I enjoy my ride in Oxnardalur much more now, watching the many horses still waitng to be rounded up this weekend. It is a lovely sight of freedom to see them wander around freely, crossing or wading rivers or graze at the foot of the steep mountain slopes in this valley. Also plenty of sheep.

I stopped now at a waterfall named Gíl. Or at least I think its its name as the roadsign pointed to it and nothing else was there. Its completely different than the circumstances I had on Monday. And the roads were nice and quiet.

Of course this ride didnt take long compared to Mondays ride. Gauksmýri is exactly halfway Reykjavik & Akureyri. On my way I wanted to visit Hvitserkur and Kolarfoss. But both were gravel road access only. I didnt want to risk any more gravel damage to my car, so both also made it back to my to do list. What I dd pass was Þristapar. I was highly impressed with the book 'burial rights' by Hannah Kent which seems to be released in Icelandic recently. Its about Icelands last execution snd the whole story took place in the wide area around Gauksmýri. And þristapar had the 'honr' to be the place of the execution of Agnes. Since this story comes to life to me at this place, I stopped here, but didnt walk to the executionsite and the former grave of the two executed people. Im not too fond on that. But I do found it amazing that a clear bright full rainbow appeared arched over this site now grazed by sheep and horses.

I moved on and reached Gauksmýri few minutes later. It was early, I decided to check out Hvammstangi first. A supermarket and the wool factory. I talked to the very friendly lady there about making my own lopapeysa. They mainly produce machine made wool items and just a few lopapeysas and buns of wool, she directed me to the supermarket and a store sellng all kinds f handcaft things. Once I found that place, i found a rather huge Icelandic woman who did not speak a word English, or just one word. Sort off... She replied with ohoh yes on every question, while chewing gum openmouthed. What a store... I bought a few color léttlopi wool as the supermarket only sells traditional brown, black, white and grey.

Then I wanted to visit the seal center. But I had the luck it was closed for winterseason from 1st of October. Which was today. What a pitty. So I sniffed up some fresh seabreeze there instead.
It was time to go to Gauksmýri to check in there. Nothing else left to do so far.

At Gauksmýri I got another room than last year. One with a heater that didnt work. Very nice because the nights here are cold. Really cold and snow and ice are never far away... Luckily I wont spend too much time there.
At dinnertime I met my 3 companions for this years round up. I wondered where all the others are. Probably not interested in the extra day Gauksmýri added to the programm. But Im glad this year I have some other people to hang out with a bit, just like last year. Because Ishestar is also saying here, we all join in the bbq dinner. I really hope there will be the Icelandic meat soup some day too. The food is so good here. Im normal vegetarian but n Iceland it is difficult to maintain if you do not want to take extra pills with you. In Reykjavik they sell food to compensate, but in isolated towns like this, the only substitute is raw slaw and little fruit. I can not live here on a poor protein diet. Besides all this, Iceland has a better sense for livestock management. The main sources of sheep and horses are kept in freedom most of the year. I still would not eat horsemeat though, but it is tricky because it is so common meatsource here, you know it is in anything that is made of ground meat, like we would
do with beef. I can only comfort myself with the knowledge the animals live a healthy good life, compared to mainland Europe. . 

During the night there was probably a good northern light show. The times I checked I caught nothing. But I saw photos on internet showing beautifull auroras. Somehow my mind was not set to aurora hunting. I just was solid frozen in my bed and it made no sense to go outside if I would never defrost again. I better snuggled up under my blanket and wool blanket. Tomorrow I would finally go ride horses again, and see what I learned at Hestagard. I hope I will get on the horses all by myself. That would be victory!