humbled in hveragerdi with henry. iceland. 11.11.2013

today, i start my ring road journey around the coast of iceland. or so i thought. my plan? 10 days on the road, counter clockwise from reykjavik, with my new friend henry joining me for the first 2 days. then he will take a bus back to reykjavik. who is henry you ask? henry, is the person who's apartment i will be staying in for the next couple of months, while he is away. he has camped and hiked over much of iceland in all seasons. you should hear some of his crazy stories. so this one will pale in comparison to his; but nonetheless, for an urban toronto boy like me, definitely a humbling experience. today.

henry wanted to take me to one of his favourite places. in a small town called hveragerdi. 45 minutes from reykjavik. a natural hot spring hidden 3km deep in the volcanic mountains. "its beautiful, and peaceful there", he says. and its an easy hike. we begin the trek, the volcanos are active and we pass many ruptures in the mountains surface. some spewing, some smoking. some doing a little of both. and some just born. its grey and rainy out today. as we ascend the the first mountain, we encounter ice and snow on the trails, we didn't really wear proper footwear, but decide to go on anyways. its beautiful up here, vast stretches of nothing but mountain tops and valleys. an incredible waterfall along the way. photos were hard to come by today due to the rain, but my camera was around my neck, and my tripod on my back. 

getting wetter by the minute. we continue weaving our way up, over and across the mountains, seeming to take forever. parts of the trails becoming more dangerous. then in one brief moment, i lost my concentration, and i lost my footing and fell a couple of meters right on my chest, i could hear my camera bang (albeit lightly) against the ice beside me. a slight panic. but i manage to pull my shit together. hang on. and stop the slide. i look behind me, and thankfully, i see i would have just tumbled down about 60 meters on mostly grass. so, it wouldn't have been a fatal fall, just a very bruised or broken one. i had to yell, as henry was in front of me, but he finally stopped. i got up and we continued on. admittedly, it shook me up a bit. then i became quite furious with my camera. furious, that i had to always carry it around my neck, furious that is was so big, furious that it was raining and i couldn't take photos anyways, so why am i carrying it? i wanted to blame something for the slip. i realized after that, yes, carrying the camera and not getting to use it can be annoying, but that wasn't the real distraction, its the constant looking and searching for the perfect picture. walking and framing the landscape as you go. that can definitely be distraction, and not a good one in situations that might be dangerous.

so, i'm pretty miserable by now. both henry and i each have a couple of more slips on the way. all on flatter grounds though. i'm getting muddier and wetter by the minute. finally, what seems like 5 hours later, but was really only just over 2 hours, we reach the hot spring. a river flowing in the valley. peaceful. quiet. calm. but at this point, i am in no mood to strip 20 layers of wet clothing (ok, really only about 5 layers) and walk through mud to hop into the water. even after much encouraging on henry's part, i do not change my mind. henry on the other hand is eager, and gets right in. unfortunately for him, he found the cold part of the water first. disappointed, he looks further up stream and sees some steam rising, and make his way there. ahhh, much better. "its hot here" he says. "you should come in". nah. i'm still sulking. but during those 20 minutes or so that henry is in the water, i shake the anger and disappointment i was feeling. we are surrounded by all this beautiful nature. i am happy to just be here. in it. so, my camera and i become friends again :) 

now, its getting late. 4:30. the sun is already setting, and with the cloud cover. its going to get dark quick. we gather our things and make our way out. sensing my slight eagerness to get moving, henry says "don't worry, i know this trail very well. even in the dark. i'm confident to get us out". we wind our way back around and down the mountain sides. for me going down is always harder than coming up. gravity aways plays a more important roll when descending. its getting darker and the icy trails are becoming harder to see. we try to stay off the white patches of ice and snow, but that means walking across the slant, which isn't that easy either. we both have a few more slips on the way down, but nothing more than maybe a bruised knee or butt. with a feeling of relief, i think i can faintly see and point to where the car is. henry confirms, it is the parking lot. it took us just a little over an hour to get back out, but by the time we reached the car though, it was quite dark. 

we gathered ourselves in the car for a few moments; then drove to a nearby gas station, where we managed to change our wet socks, relax, and make ourselves some dinner. while sitting in there for the next hour and a half, we discuss our next destination. the plan? drive an hour and a half to seljalandsfoss (beside the glacier that erupted in 2010), sleep in the car overnight, and see the waterfall in the morning. then henry would head back to reykjavik, and i would continue eastward. as we are about to leave the gas station; me, still, wet and damp, and not particularly wanting to sleep in the car after that exhausting day, suggest that maybe we should just go back to reykajavik for the night, wash and dry our clothes, get warm. sleep in a real beds, and then i can just head out on my own the next morning. henry's eyes lit up at the suggestion, and he said "i don't know why we didn't think of that earlier". so back to reykjavik we went. both very happy with that decision. we celebrate our return with a couple of shots of 65% proof baijio to warm our insides. tomorrow, i will start the ring road journey again. this time on my own.

looking back at today, if only we had been properly prepared for the weather, even just spikes for our boots, it would have been a much more confident trek for me. will i be prepared next time? probably not. will it stop me from going again? probably not. 

more photos to follow on flickr.