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Day 14th Hvammstangi - Skjól

Diterbitake: 03.08.2017

The plan for today was to move further south and find a relatively central place to spend the night. The choice fell on the camping site Skjól. It is located on road 35 between Geysir and Gullfoss. The distance covered was about 270 kilometers. The weather was changeable, dry 11 degrees Celsius, cloudy. The dismantling of the tent and loading went quickly. The more you do it, the easier it gets.

At 10:30 am Suzi and I set out on our way south. If you want to cover kilometers in Iceland, you can't avoid the Ring Road. It was wonderful driving.



Although a maximum speed of 90 km/h is allowed, you can't go much faster or the bumps in the road will throw you off the saddle.


On the way, I stopped at a marked scenic viewpoint. It was located at the foot of a small mountain that caught my eye from a distance.


Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a volcanic crater covered in moss. From the parking lot, a wooden staircase led up to Grábrók. So I parked Suzi, put on my hiking boots (this time I packed them in a way that I can actually reach them). The stairs and walkways built here are very pleasant to walk on and prevent trampling on everything left and right of the path.





It is astonishing how small plants grow on the hard lava ground. Arriving at the crater rim, a sign indicates that this crater is closed, meaning it is extinct.



Otherwise, the sign could have been better placed at the parking lot.






We continued towards Reykjavik. Just before Arkanes, the Ring Road runs through a toll tunnel that is six kilometers long and passes under the Havalfjördöur.

About 1.70 euros, can't complain. The detour would have been more expensive.


Meanwhile, I turned onto road number 36, on which you can reach the Þingvellir National Park. The place Þingvellir is of historical importance to Iceland. If you want to know more, I refer you to Wikipedia. What is exciting here, however, are the cracks and rifts in the Earth's crust that have formed and continue to form due to the drifting apart of the American and Eurasian plates.







Here, an observation platform and an information center have been built, which is also visited by plenty of mostly bus tourists. You can already tell that you are getting closer to the capital and the main attractions. While many things were still free in the north, here you already have to pay for parking, and even visiting the sanitary facilities requires cash. However, the view from the platform is free and truly magnificent. Here, I also encountered the Asian guy again, who I had already noticed at Dettifoss. Armed with a mobile phone on a selfie stick about a meter long, he plows through the landscape. The phone always close to the ground, maybe I'm mistaken and it's a metal detector. He scurries around among the other tourists and seems to be everywhere at the same time. I suspect that if I were to ask him now how his vacation has been so far, he would say 'I don't know, I haven't seen the pictures yet.' Anyway, it's interesting to observe the other people. I think I'm able to recognize their nationality just by their behavior. It's also nice to sit in a common room, like the one at yesterday's campsite, and hear all sorts of different languages from all sides.





We continued through the national park. A beautiful stretch, but again, 20 kilometers before my overnight destination, it was treated to water from above. When I arrived at the place, I was able to take advantage of a short rain break to set up my tent. When I arrived at the restaurant of the campsite to register, a young waitress walked past me with a steaming pizza. It was clear that tonight there would be pizza.

Curiously, this place also has showers, but it seems that Icelanders only shower in the evening. Opening hours: 9:00 am - 11:00 pm.

I have now set up everything and am sitting in the restaurant. I just received a message from Jule. In a WhatsApp chat, we checked each other's locations and realized that we are both having fun. By the way, Jule also writes her own blog about her trip. Take a look, her post about the Faroe Islands went online today.

https://Jule-Graefe.de/spielzeitpause-auf-den-Faeroeer-Inseln/

I just devoured a delicious pizza, am writing these lines, and slurping... no, not whisky tonight, but already the second beer... Skál!

Wangsulan (2)

Alex
Du triffst aber auch seltsame Menschen..... ;) Das mit dem Þingvellir ist schon sehr interessant!!! "Demokratrie" mal anders. ;) Skál von hier aus!!!

Alex
btw: Wir lästern nicht! Wir beobachten, analysieren und diskutieren!