21/08/2008 Iceland: Through the Looking Glass

First of the tourism days! Amazingly, it remained warm and dry, with only scattered clouds all day.

We first drove to the next valley to the east. There, geothermal springs and mud pools bubble and boil, depositing sulphur and gypsum around their vents.

Continuing our drive along the north road, we spotted small renovated cairns on the basalt flows. These marked the old horse tracks across the island - it must have been very different from today, with our well graded road raised above the landscape to allow not even the snow to gather on its surface. Further along the road, we stopped to see Herðubreið, 60km away, and to find out just how far it would be to the next petrol station, if we were to travel to the south (268km!).

Taking the north road, we then travelled to Dettifoss, situated on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, two amazing waterfalls over, under and between thick columnar basalts and volcanic sediments. The levels along which the river flows are controlled by weak sediments and ashes in the interbasalt layers. Chisel marks in the columnar jointing are mostly horizontal, and seem to follow isotherms, despite actually propogating horizontally.

Continuing to the north in the van, we turned off at Hólyatungur, where the path to the coast rejoins the road, and where smaller waterfalls can be seen running down the basalt. Thick jointing here is in narrow bands, overlain by thinner jointing, still mostly subvertical, but in places considerably oblique to this.

We then returned to the van, to find that Dan had unfortunately locked us out! James H had unfortunately left the other set of keys in the vehicle too, so we were stuck. After a brief and futile attempt to open my half-open door by using steel plating kindly lent to us by some Icelanders in their mid-20s who were busy fixing the toilets, and with a Spanish tourist in his 40s trying to unlock the door with his penknife, Dan finally decided to break one of the windows to get in. So, with a rock and his jumper, one of the windows was no more. My window to be precise. After a quick sweep up, a short lunch and a rapid change of dress (fleece, coat, gloves and hat), we decided to cut the day short and travel back to Húsavík to replace the window. Unfortunately, the men in the Hjólbarðaþjónusta (don't ask) only had a window for the left hand window - and so a return the following morning was required.

We then adjourned to the supermarket and booze shop to pick up 6l more wine and 7.5l more beer. But that wasn't the end of our excitement. On the way through, James Jackson had seen a bizarre oddity - The National Phallological Museum. Common consensus led this to be our next stop! Actually, the inside was less 'intriguing' than the outside, comprising 202 Icelandic 'parts' from blue whale to arctic fox - and even to homo sapiens! The 'erotic section' was a small cabinet covered with a black veil, with all the exhibits apparently the result of one man's search for the perfect sexual trinket - mostly bronze and plastic male and female figurines in various compromising positions. One poster caught JJs eye - a poster of a naked man, standing, with a woman doing a handstand on his member. I can't believe this feat was ever performed, but if it was, I'm stunned!

Finally, we had a meal in the Skuld restaurant in Húsavík - warm puffin and blueberries (JJ gave us a piece of his rare reindeer carpaccio too), followed by a pizza and with Egils Gull on draft. The trip home proved, I think, how useful good waterproofs can be - I didn't feel the cold at all.