Afram Island

Iceland

I'm mostly going to keep this a picture slideshow. We spent about 10 days in Iceland biking, hiking, scuba diving, and swimming in hot pools. It's a beautiful country.

Dani touches two continents @ Silfra in Pingvellir National Park. The water is 35*C and Dani's dry suit leaked at the neck :-(

More Silfra photos

Dani is probably really cold @ this point - but its hard to know when you are under water.

Above is the largest and deepest part of the rift.

Tom and Clarence were the trip leaders

We also went on a three day mountain bike ride around the Hengill volcano and Havergerdi.

Above is Instilladur translated by me to mean "inside the mountain"

Some of the riding was deep troughs of sheep track  others were road. Sections like the one above were great singletrack!

Many thanks to Iceland Activities and our guide Uli for organizing this awesome trip.

Above was a really cool section of trail where a stream had cut through an old lava flow.

Said stream - had to hike under a snow bridge to get there.

We found the Troll! Lots of witches, warlocks, trolls, and elves in Iceland.

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Uli took a lot of pictures - which was great because we are never both in pictures from a lot of our trips.

Above - Dani rides great trails through the valley back to the cabin.

Below - hanging out at the cabin after our ride - and ready for lamb soup!

Day 2 - of the bike ride required a hike-a-bike up the volcano to a high valley inside the mountain. There was one "hot" river here, where we stopped to take lunch.

The geothermal areas can be dangerous or "Haetta". Fortunately - if the land gives away and you are lucky enough to fall into a newly formed hot pot the Icelanders will name it after you.

30 mph into the river.

We rode through countless rivers. It reminded me of childhood biking - where the trails were not manicured and you rode on them regardless of the weather.

Below is the valley that contains "the" hot river of Iceland.

It is near Havergerdi - and is very popular with Icelanders and tourists for very good reason.

Above - cooking a lamb of leg in the ground w/ geothermal heat.

Below - relaxing in a hot pool after a long day of riding.

Breakfast @ said hot pool.

It was very windy biking down the river back to town.

We were able to get in and out of the river as we rode.

Back in town we jumped off some small cliffs into the semi-warm river - and warmed up in a nearby hot pool.

I took a camera too - and added some of my photos below:

Now - moving on to the Westfjords....

@ Dynjandi - the largest waterfall in the Westfjords. This is one of the smaller ones below the big falls.

Below the large falls. Sorry - no pictures of the entire falls.

We spent two fantastic days in Pingeyri - a small fishing village south of Isafjord.

This was one of my favorite stops on the trip. Above are the Iceland Alps - the highest mountains in the Westfjords - and some of Iceland's most impressive peaks.



Above/Below -  are the reasons for the UtahTransplants eventual winter return to Iceland.

We rented bikes again from the Cafe Simbahollin - a local coffee, art, and culture center.

The Pingeyri penninsula has a rough road around the seashore that provided access to old farm steads, all of which were long ago abandoned.  Above is the lighthouse at the cape.The ride included a 3k climb over a mountain pass.

Dani rides by seashore cliffs covered in moss and ferns from the snow melt above.

Examples of long forgotten farm houses.

That mountain - it just speaks to me.
From Pingeyri it was on to Isafjord, where we took a ferry to the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve for three days of backpacking.

The best part about Hornstrandir was NO SHEEP!

and stunning mountain/ocean scenery.

Below - Dani hikes from Hesteyri - the small village where we started our hike.

Below - climbing one of the mountain passes between the Holmvik and Hornvik.

Unfortuntaely - this was our last day of good weather. The weather turned for the worst once we reached Hornvik. Which was a shame, because it had some stunning ocean side cliffs that are the highlight of the area.

The next day it started to rain....  and the wind,rain,snow made things sort of unpleasant. We ended up on an early boat back to the main land. Because per that boat's guide - there would be no more boats for several days! Good thing we made it back in time for our flight.