It was an early morning to get to the lava caves before our horse riding expedition. Vatnshellir Cave was actually the setting for "Journey to the Center of the Earth." We missed the 11am tour by a twenty minutes, so bought our tickets for noon and headed to a "black pearl" beach a few minutes up the road.
Djúpalónssandur had a walk up to a lookout over the beach and the Atlantic. It was blustery, but not awful as we walked to the edge and saw the cliffs around it. I hustled down the dirt path to the beach with the last ten minutes of our trip, and found these lifting stones that were used for strength competitions with sailors, the beautiful round black stones, and a bunch of twisted rusted metal from a trawler that wrecked there. I hustled back up the valley to meet everyone, driving back up the bumpy, one-lane road to the cave.
Our guide, an Icelander from Hellvar, introduced the area to us. Lava flows from Snæfellsjökull coated the valleys about 1700 years ago, and a crust formed on top while molten rock flowed beneath. The top remained as the lava continued downhill, leaving a cave under the surface. In this spot, the layer collapsed, and an entrance was rediscovered in the 70s when the Ring Road (Þjóðvegur) was being built.
There were three chambers in the cave. The largest had "balconies" around a central "table" that the troll lord presided over from his "throne", until one day he burst through the table with a beer in his hand, leaving a reside (that was actually a calcium deposit). The tour guide asked for a singer in the group (and Alisa declined), then he offered to sing a verse of an Icelandic song. It resounded beautifully in the chamber!
The middle chamber, which we'd entered in, had two stalagmites which were created by lava oozing up from a hole in the bottom of the cave. I'd never heard of a formation like that before! While it looked like a different body part, the pillar of rock was called "the thumb." We passed a sign with the name of the city on the other side of the world (from Jules Verne's novel).
The final chamber was down a long spiral staircase. Water droplets were falling from the ceiling and echoing around the cave. The back of the cave was cordoned off because the lava rock was too soft to walk on. The guide had us all turn off our flashlights, the only light in the cave, then had us listen to the "song of the cave."
We wound our way up, and our guide locked the silo door that protected the entrance.
With a few hunger rumbles, we headed to a nearby cliff to eat for the twenty minutes before our horseback tour. The cliffs were called Londrangar - very windy! We were getting sprayed from something, either rain or the ocean from 100 feet below, then huddled in the car to eat our sandwiches.
We arrived at Lýsuhóll and suited up for the smattering of weather that we'd be driving through. A dozen or so horses were in the barn, with a few with saddles on. The guide picked us off one by one, least experienced to most, and we ended up with our collection of shaggy, potbellied horses. Alisa got Reykur, which means "smoke" (since Reykjavik means "smoky bay"), and I got Tíbrá. Rachel rode Maístjarna with Mark on Nasi. Kamila and Tommy were on Vinur and Kaffi, and a very impressive black horse was for our guide.
We started off at a walk from the barn. Despite knowing that Kamila was an absolute beginner, he gave pretty much no instruction. Pull to lead, kick to go, pull to stop. His horse started off, and mine was quickly overtaken by Alisa's, who was insistent that she be first. We went through a few fences as the sun came out, but, five minutes later, it started spitting on us. Around that time, we moved into a trot - very bouncy, so I attempted to post. Icelandic horses have a fifth gait called a "tolt." I'll need to do research to figure out exactly what that is, but we might have done that.
The rain increased, and so did our pace. We were galloping and rain was streaming down our faces! I was giddy with excitement, holding on and laughing (and being thankful for my helmet). The horses in the pasture next to us joined in - it was a only a pair, but it felt like we were part of a herd!
We trotted, walked, galloped, and continued around the circle through farmlands. A stream was iced over, and the leader's horse refused to walk through. He attempted to led Mark's, which resulted in his horse nearly rearing - good thing he's the most accomplished rider! I had to kick mine through, but I wouldn't take no for an answer, so Tíbrá made it through. Kamila's was next, and didn't sweat it a bit - the guide said they put five-year-olds on it, but I'm pretty impressed if they gallop with little kids. It was just on the edge of out of control!
As we were headed back with wet laps and bruised butts, the guide happened to mention that he had more full, waterproof overalls. He just didn't expect it to rain. We all rolled our eyes; it'd been raining off and on all day for us!
Back to the stable, we dismounted and said our goodbyes to our loyal steeds. We changed in the farmhouse, then headed off the peninsula. I tried to steer us by some basalt cliffs, but it was 5pm, so pitch black. No luck.
The only dry clothes that Rachel had was a pair of pajama pants, but I managed to convince her and the others to stop by the Settlement Center. It had great reviews, and it was that dose of history that we've only had a bit of that I was looking for too.
Thankfully, it was pretty casual - a gift shop had a nice restaurant up top, then a basement and a first floor on the other side with audio guides. The first tour we went through was of the original settlers of Iceland - found, then purposefully sought out. The southern coasts were populated first, and a bunch of maps showed where different early settlers and sagas took place.
The second tour was an interpretation of Egil's saga. He was a trickster poet with a moody father and highly regarded older brother (whose widow he eventually married, because, you know, everyone dies). The saga referenced an early game similar to hockey, witchcraft by a queen of Norway, and much valiant fighting (or just stupid fighting, depending on how you look at it).
We were close to some of the locations - there were pictures of what the farms look like today, and the red-roofed buildings looked like many that we had passed.
The restaurant was still open, so after a gander at the gift shop (a pretty good one), we sat down for a quiet meal.
We were seated next to the back wall upstairs, which was the raw stone of the hill that this building was constructed into. We'd been seeing a lot of clusters of buildings in the middle of trees (Iceland has essentially be clear cut, so planted trees) or against hills as wind protection. Some, such as the Settlement Center, went a step further to just embed themselves into the landscape.
The server was on point - he recommended the horse steak (it was very good) and the fish soup (with a red broth base and a bunch of yummy stuff in it), and we all tucked in. For dessert, what's more Icelandic than a lava cake with local ice cream?
We have another two hours of driving, during which there were at least four seasons of weather changing all the time, until we got to our tiny cottage (with a hot tub out front) within the Golden Circle.
No comments:
Post a Comment