Behind two hills, A Swimming Pool - 02/09/08

Last time I wrote we had just finished our circuit of the ring road and were about to start our summer work at Hotel Edda in Skogar. Well, last week the hotel closed for the winter and now we are planning our departure from Iceland.

Skogar is situated about halfway between Hvolsvollur and Vik on the south coast of Iceland. It is a village of 23 permanent residents, and at least the same number again of summer workers. Close by is Icelands oldest swimming pool, built into the side of a mountain, hidden in a valley about 10km away. Francesca, our German friend who we lived with in Reykjavik during the winter was also living and working in this region of south Iceland during the summer and we always planned to meet at this swimming pool but somehow, something always got in the way.

The summer went very quickly. We both worked evening shift on the dinner buffet, Monika serving and I in a position in-between the kitchen and the dining hall, keeping the buffet replenished and helping the chef. The hotel manager, Karin, was very friendly and cheerful and together with her daughter Alma (in charge of the restaurant) and Almas boyfriend Steini (the much put upon receptionist) they provided a good base for the others to work for. The head-of-housekeeping was a 75 year old woman called Magnea who has lived her whole life in Skogar. The chef, Margaret, has been there for several summers, probably in her mid-60’s. She did not leave the hotel from the beginning of June to the end of August, only venturing outside to put the trash out or oversee deliveries! Everyone started the summer full of enthusiasm but no everyone maintained it throughout. Two maids left at the end of June and a further came and went before the summer ended. However the arrival of two really hard-working Polish girls and two almost as hard working Czech guys helped us survive. The only member of staff that continued to annoy me was an Icelandic girl working as a waitress who was lazy, only did the jobs she wanted and always wanted special favours, as if she was higher than everyone else. Somehow she managed to make those in charge think she was a model employee for the whole summer! Oh well, there’s always one!

Hotel Edda Dinner Buffet

We had about 6 days off during the whole summer but used them all to good effect. Also as an employee of Icelandair Hotels group we were entitled to use all Reykjavik Excursions buses for free, which was handy! This was in return for housing a feeding the bus driver on the Reykjavik-Skogar route for the summer. Our resident driver was a guy called Fusi from Hvolsvollur, an excellent guy who I spent a lot of time discussing football and football betting with.

On 28th June there was a free open-air concert in Reykjavik to raise awareness for environmental concerns over here. Olof Arnalds provided support for the twin headliners of Sigur Ros and Bjork. I couldn’t imagine being lucky enough to catch Icelands two biggest acts in one concert, let alone a free concert in a beautiful park on a summers day. Needless to say it was fantastic, the only downside being the large groups that missed the point of the concert, and of behaving in a generally civilised manner, and left large piles of empty cans and bags of rubbish all over the park!

Sigur Ros at the free outdoor concert

In July Monikas mum came over with three of her friends and they borrowed our car for another circuit of the ring road, and they were even more weighed down than us! They made their first stop in Skogar and we joined them on a trek up to the Fimmvorduhals pass. This is the longer section of the Thorsmork to Skogar trek over Fimmvorduhals, which passes inbetween two glaciers, Eyjafjallajokull and Myrdalsjokull. Unfortunately we were not able to get down into Thorsmork but just looked from top of the pass down at the 3 hour descent before turning around and backtracking the way we came. The route from Skogar waterfall up to the pass is about 16km so it was over 30km round trip. The weather was terrible on the day but after a few kilometres we climbed above the clouds and passed between the glaciers in blistering sunshine. Amazingly we got terribly sunburnt from just this short time, the sun reflecting off of the ice and snow to make it even worse. Before they left Iceland Monika and I went to Reykjavik to collect our car and to say goodbye. It was a sunny day, a luxury here, and we made the most of it.

Milada and I on Fimmvorduhals pass

The first weekend in August is a massive bank holiday here and almost all of Reykjavik descends on campsites in the countryside for drinking and debauchery. Some of our friends from Reykjavik - Sandra, Elinborg and Palmi and various assorted small children came to visit us and camp at the beautiful site under the waterfall. Unfortunately the weekend was a total washout but we still had fun playing games and BBQ’ing.

Sandra, Elinborg and Monika

Another freebie from the Hotel was the chance to go snowmobiling so, after weeks of delays and rainchecks, we finally made it there. We drove close to the glacier but had to take a large off-road truck-bus the final few kilometres. Monika and I shared a snowmobile but I have to say I was probably the slowest driver there. The guide told us to floor it and just before the end everyone overtook me, I had the feeling they had been frustratingly stuck behind me the whole way! We swapped at the mid point and Monika drove us back to the truck, me hanging on for dear life and shouting at her to slow down and stay on the bloody trail!

Snowmobiling

The final break we had was in August as my Mum and her husband came over for a few days. We took the chance to revisit some of our favourite places such as the golden circle (Thingvellir, Gulfoss and Geysir), the basalt columns and the beach near Vik, and Seljalandsfoss waterfall, as well as Skaftafell National Park and Jokulsarlon lagoon further east. The weather was infinitely better than our previous visit and therefore the views were also much better, it was probably the prettiest possible setting for a picnic. Unfortunately the clouds had come in by the time we got to Skaftafell but it didn’t matter, it stayed dry and the grey sky added a gloomy aspect.

Mum admiring Jokulsarlon

After finishing at the hotel we used our bus passes again to get to Landmannalaugur, an oasis of ryholite rock formations and mountains in the unforgiving interior of Iceland. It was our first experience of interior Iceland and was well worth it. The bus took us from Hella past the active Hekla volcano and into Landmannalaugur. We hiked around Landmannalaugur for the afternoon before returning to the campsite and relaxing in the natural hot spring.

Landmannalaugur is the jumping off point for the Laugarvegur trek, which is so beautiful it is fast becoming one of the worlds great treks. The next day we set out. The first part of the trek is climbing up the multicoloured mountain Brennisteinsalda and along the ridge. It is quite tough going and then there is a long section, probably 8km or so, of up and downs before going over a small pass to the Hrafntinnuskur hut. Along the way we met a Czech guy called Jirka who asked to trek with us, I didn’t mind but he had the annoying habit of walking 50cm away from either me or Monika. We normally trek at least 20m apart so this was quite irritating. Luckily his English was pretty bad and I didn’t speak much Czech with him so I soon shook him off to annoy Monika!

Monika at Landmannalaugur

For some people this 12km stretch from Landmannalaugur is day 1 but we got there before lunch so pressed on. Although we always trek at our own pace and don’t take any notice of the guide tiems given we had a good reason to press on anyway, a huge storm was forecast to be coming in within the next couple of days so we wanted to get as far as possible before it set in. The afternoon trekking was slightly easier, mainly descent but still affording stunning views of the surrounding mountains. We camped the first night by the lake at Alfavatn. All along the trek are mountain huts with campsites and as it is part of the Fjallabak Nature Reserve wild camping is prohibited.

The second day we set out early but were hampered during the morning trekking by a series of rivers that we had to ford, barefoot. Most people had sandals to change into for the rivers but ours were damaged long before this trek so we had to go barefoot. One advantage of this is that you have to concentrate so much on each step that you forget the biting cold of the glacier river! During the morning the scenery changed from the brightly coloured mountains to thick greens of moss covered hills, and in the distance the forests of Thorsmork. We reached the hut at Emstrur (16km) for lunch before pressing on the 15km left to Thorsmork. The terrain started to flatten out as we got closer until we reached the last river crossing, a deceptively strong current trying to knock us off our feet as we waded through the knee high water. Bearing in mind we were carrying all our gear we really didn’t want to fall in! I thought Monika was going to fall over and she thought I would but in the end we both kept our heads, and our footing! The last hour to the campsite was through the wooded hills of Thorsmork, one of Icelands premier natural tourist attractions. We finished the four-day trek in two days, and not a moment too soon, just ten minutes after we arrived it started raining. Luckily we had a secluded place to camp and our tent survived the night. The wind was so strong the rain was falling sideways. Unfortunately this meant that the next day they closed the Fimmvorduhals pass so we could not work all the way back to Skogar. The rivers at Thorsmork were so high from the storm that the mountain bus could not get through and we had to rely on one of the monster truck jeeps that Iceland is full of to get us through! Then we met the bus who managed through the other 9 rivers and took us to Hvolsvollur. It was a hairy ride and I was just irritated that the group of loud, ignorant Canadians sharing the bus with us did not realise the danger they were in nor express gratitude to the bus and truck drivers that ‘rescued’ everyone.

Landmannalaugur

We met Fusi in Hvolsvollur who took us back to the hotel. We bought beers in Hvolsvollur as we were there during the two hours that the Vin Bud (Alcohol shop) is open daily. As in many of these small towns that have a VinBud it can be found at the petrol station, something I cannot quite grasp the logic of!

The next day we drove back to Reykjavik, following Fusi most of the way. Since then we have been tying up loose ends and preparing for the next part of the journey, heading east to Seydisfjordur before taking the ferry to Bergen, via the Faroe Islands and driving through Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany and back to Prague.

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