The few folk who are on the move... sidle off the bus at unexpected places and vanish into the moorland beside the road as if they lived in some bog there; or else the driver pulls up at some unaccountable point in the middle off nowhere and tosses out of the window some trifle, which usually lands in a piddle: a bundle of newspapers, a small bag, a parcel.
This book quite an interesting read - it just so happened to be set in Snaefellsjokull (jokull in icelandic just means Glacier) which was wonderful and has a very interesting commentary to make on Christianity.
It goes a little demented in the middle but is generally hilarious (and surprisingly informative, apparently the best time to eat fermented shark is after it has been fermenting for a good 13 years, before that the ammonia hasn't left it. My desire to try this is nominal at best...).
Anyway, so we got into Snaefessness at around midnight and the "sunset" was absolutely stunning (it still doesn't really get dark here at all), the colour burnt orange was everywhere. Also a plus at this site - we were staying in a house! Beds! Joy!
This placement's aim was to put in a wheelchair friendly path in an area called Arnarstapi where this is a massive statue of the giant Barthur Snaefellsas who got pissed off at humans and sodded off the glacier forever and apparently protects the area from evil. Sadly he doesn't do a very good job of it as there are a multitude of evil little artic terns who love dive bombing everyone (it seems that they have singled me out as a character to be particularly mean to. I've been dive bombed countless times, during two of these the arsewipes made contact with my head which hurt a lot and, icing on the cake, one day when I had both hands full one of these bastards shat on my face. Yes that's it, right in the kisser. Thankfully I had my mouth closed, my cheek/hair was no so lucky. The reaction of my charming team was first to laugh and then take photos. Fail. Why do so many animals hate me? A stupid chihuahua peed on my bag in Skaftafell (I would have kicked it but I had steelcaps on), these terns loathe me, what next?? Will I be attacked by a puffin? A skua (I bloody well hope I don't get attacked by a skua, those mofos are big). That said, there was a pretty incredible sight on the second day we were working here, for some reason they terns got all riled up and started bombing horses that lived across the road (Icelandic horses are stunning) and, if you ignore the fact that being bombed by these birds is seriously unplesant, watching these horses tear around wildly was a fantastic sight to behold.
Anyway most of the work has been great (some is experimental so it feels like significant amounts of arsing around have occurred at various stages which can be a little frustrating but I wont bore you with the details), the work site is just on these cliffs made of beautiful hexagonal basaltic columns, there are huge numbers of nesting gulls who aren't kamakazi birds at all and we've been getting in some pilot shark watching in our down time (we may have seen an orca once and whales are known to hang out in this area but no major sightings as of yet). As well as the path I've worked on fixing a bridge (a poxy job had been done with the rails) and today I helped fix a path on a volcanic crater, Saxholl, as the steps had become dislodged recently due to bad weather.
The crater work was great but my arms are a little worse for wear after having to carry rock from the crater's base to steps/other sections that required modification (the crater itself is very fragile so rocks couldn't be removed from areas off the path). It wasn't that they were heavy, far from it - when they erupted they must have been filled with air pockets - but they were pretty sharp. I'm building up quite a sexy collection of scabs and bruises I must say. Oh and my tan lines are exceptional - sock line, neck line, arm line, I possibly even have a fun little tan on my lower back due to riding up tshirts. I'm quite clearly irresistable :)
Anyway, so we got into Snaefessness at around midnight and the "sunset" was absolutely stunning (it still doesn't really get dark here at all), the colour burnt orange was everywhere. Also a plus at this site - we were staying in a house! Beds! Joy!
This placement's aim was to put in a wheelchair friendly path in an area called Arnarstapi where this is a massive statue of the giant Barthur Snaefellsas who got pissed off at humans and sodded off the glacier forever and apparently protects the area from evil. Sadly he doesn't do a very good job of it as there are a multitude of evil little artic terns who love dive bombing everyone (it seems that they have singled me out as a character to be particularly mean to. I've been dive bombed countless times, during two of these the arsewipes made contact with my head which hurt a lot and, icing on the cake, one day when I had both hands full one of these bastards shat on my face. Yes that's it, right in the kisser. Thankfully I had my mouth closed, my cheek/hair was no so lucky. The reaction of my charming team was first to laugh and then take photos. Fail. Why do so many animals hate me? A stupid chihuahua peed on my bag in Skaftafell (I would have kicked it but I had steelcaps on), these terns loathe me, what next?? Will I be attacked by a puffin? A skua (I bloody well hope I don't get attacked by a skua, those mofos are big). That said, there was a pretty incredible sight on the second day we were working here, for some reason they terns got all riled up and started bombing horses that lived across the road (Icelandic horses are stunning) and, if you ignore the fact that being bombed by these birds is seriously unplesant, watching these horses tear around wildly was a fantastic sight to behold. 
Anyway most of the work has been great (some is experimental so it feels like significant amounts of arsing around have occurred at various stages which can be a little frustrating but I wont bore you with the details), the work site is just on these cliffs made of beautiful hexagonal basaltic columns, there are huge numbers of nesting gulls who aren't kamakazi birds at all and we've been getting in some pilot shark watching in our down time (we may have seen an orca once and whales are known to hang out in this area but no major sightings as of yet). As well as the path I've worked on fixing a bridge (a poxy job had been done with the rails) and today I helped fix a path on a volcanic crater, Saxholl, as the steps had become dislodged recently due to bad weather.
Also got to do some touristy things on the weekend - stopped at Djupalonssandur Beach and Dritvik Bay to look at the remains of a ship that had been wrecked there as well as the stunning coastline. They had some fun lifting stones at the beach as well but were used by the old fishing communities for people to prove their strength before they were hired. There were "fullsterkur" (full strength) weighing in at 155kg, "halfstekur" (half strength) at 140kg, "halfdraettingur" (weakling) at 49kg and "amlothi" (useless) at 23kg. If they couldn't at least lift the last two, they could forget it. Sadly my rock skipping skills which improved dramatically due to my trip to Alaska have diminished. Upper body strength has considerably improved though in part due to some yoga positions given to me by Angie, a fell trail teamer (but in a different group) and the work as well. I'm going to have quite the pair of guns by the end of this let me tell you!
Loving Iceland to bits, the weather on the whole has been pretty good and there's nothing like falling asleep on a pile of moss. The only complaint I have so far is that the absense of trees and often rather smooth topography often make it rather challenging for one to see a man about a dog discreetly. This is especially hard when certain tourists follow certain people "too see what nook and cranney they were heading into" while possess freaking telephoto lenses. That tourist fails.
Loving Iceland to bits, the weather on the whole has been pretty good and there's nothing like falling asleep on a pile of moss. The only complaint I have so far is that the absense of trees and often rather smooth topography often make it rather challenging for one to see a man about a dog discreetly. This is especially hard when certain tourists follow certain people "too see what nook and cranney they were heading into" while possess freaking telephoto lenses. That tourist fails.
Today involved going into lava caves and observing human feces at light houses. Those tourists fail as well.
More to come as life progresses!
More to come as life progresses!
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