Holiday week - up north!

So after a furious week of lupin pulling (easily the most draining work I've done so far), we were set free for a week. Helard and I caught up with Bragi (the CSer who was going to drive us around for the holiday week) who took us to a charming cafe, Babalu (with the best Cheesecake I have ever tasted bar none) and then an impromtu tour of Reykjavik. I'd not been up to the Perl before (where the geothermal warmed water is kept), nor to the geothermal beach which I vowed to return to when I had my swimmers. Then Helard and I bummed around the campsite for a bit waiting for the others (Angela and Indi from trail team 7 - the other team on the same intake as me) to arrive - poor things didn't arrive until 10:30pm because while they were driving back from the Laki craters they got a flat, but in the mean time we did meet a bunch of people from the other trail teams who all seemed delightful. I'm slightly concerned as to what is being said about your humble narrator though as, when introducing myself to a couple of them I got the response "oooh *you're* Bryony". I can only imagine what they've been told...probably just warned against my sense of humour and rightly so, not everyone can handle the joy of puns.  

Anyway after very little sleep (for some reason the hotpools next to the campsite were open 24hrs, I find it hard to sleep when folk are screaming at 3am ...)we set off the next morning. The first stop I found somewhat troubling - it was where they slaughter whale once they've been caught and, depending on your view, we luckily/unluckily arrived when a whale was there (only happens a few times each year as the quota Iceland has isn't huge). I'm now rethinking my view on whaling, typically I'm all for people eating animals as long as it's sustainable and as cruelty free as possible (Iceland hunts minke which has stable populations and fin whales which are endangered) but watching this beautiful creature be slaughtered filled me with such sadness, especially when the innards had been removed and the whale was turned onto another side and blood just went everywhere (the slaughter proceess had been going on for quite a time by the time we got there and you can imagine how repulsive the smell was), such a magestic beast reduced to such a horrific sight. It seemed so unneccessary and such a dramatic waste. I can't really explain why I felt so awful watching it, possibly because it was a show of violence on such a large scale? I know a large proportion of it is anthropogenic bias. Maybe it's because the creatures are so huge or that its easy to get meat from other sources (Iceland gets so many things so right - all meat is free range and hormone free and sustainable which is why I'm eating it over here (that and I don't want to risk my iron levels getting crappy while I'm doing physical work)), yes it's culture but culture is adaptable. I don't know it's all very awful and I'm getting upset thinking about it so on we must advance!
We stopped a pottered around some volcanic craters which is always fun, passed by:
- a lot of hay bundles that had been beautifully decorated
- the most hideous church I've ever seen (modelled on a crater apparently)

- a hot spring right in the north right by the arctic ocean which featured in one of the icelandic sagas (these outlaws were living on a tiny island 7.5km away and occasionally had to swim through freezing water to the mainland and would warm themselves in the springs afterwards) and while it was stunningly beautiful there, for some reason a huge wall had been erected between the pools and the ocean so you couldn't see a damn thing! One of the two pools was also out of limits because people were filming a very low budget looking film hmmmm We opted to frolick about on the cliff tops instead. 
 A beautiful old church where the first viking to be born in America settled (these place was so old one of the gravestones in the cemetary was in viking runes!) 
Finally we reached Akueryi! bIt's a lovely little place with a gorgeous little botanic gardens (it's impressive how much they keep alive there considering the mean annual temp is about 4 degrees), a lovely down town section, wonderful icecream and fun couch surfers (Bragi, our driver, organised an impromptu meeting at a rather swish bar which made for a fun night out).

Day two was a lazy day: - after a nice relaxing start with some wonderful coffee we made our way to Husavik. We visited the hilarious phallic museum (containing specimens of every species naturally occurring in iceland (except for humans, however they do have some donors lined up and had taken casts of the members of the icelandic handball team that came 2nd in the beijing olympics).After this Indi and I went whale watching which was great. The landscape was astounding and we saw so many Minke whales, some got very close to the boat indeed which prompted me to make involuntary happy squeaky sounds. These sounds also made an appearance when I realised that many of the birds flying near the boat were artic puffins! Huzzah. We passed an island, Lundi island (lundi is icelandic for puffin) which had hundreds of them flying around which was so delightful (slightly less delightful were the two people catching a small number in nets and breaking their necks - puffin is eaten over here, it apparently tastes like fishy chicken - but in all fairness, it's probably the best way for any eaten animal to go. A whole life of going wheeeeeee and then a quick final few unplesant seconds. What's good to know is that these puffin hunters never take parents feeding their young (i.e. those carrying fish) so that's comforting. I thought the way the boat was navigated was very interesting - often they would head for where there was lots of birds feeding on the surface as minkes tend to feed close to the surface as well and even

if the whales hadn't make an appearance being surrounding by hundreds of puffins, gulls, things-that-look-like-gulls-but-aren't-and-are-actually-related-to-albatross, and the occasional gannett was quite something.

A wonderful wonderful afternoon followed by a nice evening - we continued to Asbyrgi, set up camp and spent the evening in a hot tub by the camp site.
Day three the 35km trek from Asbyrgi to Dettifoss (Europe's most powerful waterfall).

I've never been so knackered in my life. The brilliant walk took all day, the weather played ball (it was supposed to rain all day, but we had a few light showers and that was it. The overcast weather was also good because it kept the temperature down). There were some incredible basaltic rock formations, stunning waterfalls, fresh water springs (which tasted brilliant, forget that crap they pass off as spring water in Figi water bottles!), amazing canyons, water of the most incredible colours and one rather unanticipated river crossing (thankfully not the glacial river because a) I've never seen water move that fast in my life and b) the river we walked through was from a fresh spring and it was so cold it hurt, I can only imagine what glacier melt would be like), and rope climbing! Ha! I really liked the area near one of the waterfalls; the glaciers get a lot of silt landing on them which is of course washed away when the glacier melts.

In this one area the mist from the waterfall had caused all the vegetation to be covered in a thin layer of silt and so the landscape looked like someone had hit a greyscale button. Consequently, walking through it felt like being in one of those photos where everything is black and white but one thing of significance is filled in. :)
Ok the next day saw another lazy start (perfect) followed by a drive to Lake Myvatn (midge lake). The midges are such a pain in the arse, aside from the fact that they exist in mega swarms (we came up with a horror trilogy based on midges eating poor unsuspecting conservation volunteers), they love doing thing like flying down your throat, in your eyes, in your ears, up your nose. 
We wandered around for a bit around Viti and volcanic landscapes with boiling mud before relaxing in the blue lagoon - a geothermal heated swimming pool. Absolute bliss with the aftertaste of sulfur.
Wow this entry is getting long, might just dot point the last bits. Day 5 we wandered around Lake Myvatn, climbing craters, wandering around "dwarf city" (crazy lava formations) and seeing pseudo-craters and beautiful birds. The day was completed by catching up with Damien and Vasilis (our leaders from the first week who were working up in Myvatn) who showed us this secret swimming area. You climb down about 8m into this crevasse formed by the european and north american tectonic plates dividing and are met but the most beautiful clear water which was at about 40 degrees. Bliss. 
Drove back yesterday, the runtur was yet again participated in (the runtur is a bar crawl that occurs in Reykjavik every friday and saturday night). Started off at a rock/metal gig (saw a freaking awesome girl rock (+1x male drummer) group play - so great to see chicks in the rock industry. An excellent night was had. Died in bed at about 3am. Brain is semi active today.