Tag Archives: Iceland

Jun4

Laxdela and the saga of Kjartans

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Wednesday, 15-May-2024


Just a quick post with a neat placard and some pretty waterfalls.

As I was driving up toward the Westfjords, and my new campground, I found myself going through a mountain pass. I love mountain passes. Something about them seems… primal? Alive? More… legendary.

Well, as fate would have it, this mountain pass was legendary. And this placard by the side of the road explained it.

I stopped, read the sign, flew Droney around, and appreciated the cold mountain air. I reveled in the smell of snow, and stayed a bit longer than I needed to. That’s the whole point of the roadtrip, right? I mean, I’ve seen placards and historic markers on the side of roads in the United States, but I can’t think of a time I’ve had the freedom to stop and learn about them… Next time I travel across the country, that’s the goal.

For now, I met that goal in Iceland. And learned about the sad tale of Kjartans, and how you can’t always have everything you want.

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Wikipedia link to the saga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxd%C3%A6la_saga

Jun3

A walk out to Eldborg crater, by the farm

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Wednesday, 15-May-2024


I’d camped the evening before at the Snorrastadir farm campground, made some quick dinner, and then got to bed a bit earlier than normal. It was nice.

As a side note: The farm was, interestingly, the first place I’d met someone in Iceland who didn’t speak English – the young man who took my payment and helped me refill the water tank in the van understood just enough English for us to communicate (thanks to lots of gestures).

Anyways. What going to bed early meant was that I hadn’t really looked at any nearby adventures, except to notice that there was a small sign saying “trailhead” right near the entrance to the camping area of the farm.

After some coffee and a pastry, I grabbed Droney’s case, a snack and my rain gear, and headed out into the unknown. To check the trailhead, of course – I wasn’t going to just start a trail without knowing the details! Come on, now. That being said, I totally did head right into the trail as soon as I checked the distance – I could see the crater from the trailhead, and it looked like the total walk looked to be either 4km or 8km (I couldn’t quite tell if it was measuring one-way or not…), but neither distance was any real concern.


I headed in, gave my sister a call so we could chat and catch up, and found myself at the rim of the crater just about when she arrived at work and needed to hang up the phone. Beautifully perfect.

I soaked in the view, flew the drone around… I mean, yeah. I don’t know how to describe it except that Eldborg crater is the perfect crater for a volcano. It’s out of every book and movie that’s ever had a perfectly stereotypical crater – steep sides, sharp rim… I mean, true story, I felt like there should be a secret lair in the middle. I flew Droney down to check for one, but… I was still tempted to glissade down myself to make sure.

It was creepily perfect. I loved it.


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Jun3

A mountain hot spring – Krosslaug hot springs!

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Tuesday, 14-May-2024


I mentioned briefly in my post about the Fossarrett waterfall that I’d planned on going to a hot spring spa, but it was closed for cleaning that day, right?

Well, I wasn’t going to let that keep me from some good old Icelandic hot springs. That’d be giving up! And Ben doesn’t give up! At least in this specific situation!


Thankfully, I had a giant in my corner – Google. Maps showed me a hot spring nearby, not too far off my planned route, that looked perfectly serviceable…. I loaded up the maps, put some music on, put the van in gear, and charged ahead.


It… uhh… Okay. Something about Iceland that I didn’t know. Not all roads are paved. I mean, sure. I know about that; sometimes, roads aren’t paved.

What I’m not used to it highways not being paved. I didn’t even consider that I should think about checking to see if the highway was paved! I mean, it’s on google maps as a major road!



The road to the hot spring wasn’t paved, is what I’m getting at here.

But you know what? It wasn’t that bad. And I wasn’t in a rush anyways, so driving slowly wasn’t a concern or worry or anything… I kept going. Why not, right?



I’ll tell you – it was worth it. 110% worth it.

When I arrived, there weren’t any cars nearby. I mean, heck. It looked more like an abandoned trailhead in the middle of the deep Oregon wilderness than a marked hot spring. It had an informational placard, though, so… parked, grabbed a towel and my book, and headed in.

I found a beautifully made hot tub in the middle of the wilderness.

We’re talking a cement patio around it. Nice rocks edging the pool, enough room for three or four people… this hot spring was a literal luxury jacuzzi. And I had it all to myself!

Worth it.