Hrafnagil Day 3: More Horses!
[Photos from Wednesday 22 July 2015, but text and layout from 01 $#^@$ September 2015. How?!?!]
Our super fun horse ride along a beach on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula had us hungering for more horse-time. We decided to book a tour with Pólar hestar a little ways north of where we were staying.
This time, Finnur also wanted to try riding, so our hosts graciously offered to babysit Emma for a few hours.
On the way to the horse rental we picked up Solla and Gunni’s oldest daughter, Arndís, who tagged along with us on her first horse ride.
All in all it went well. It was a little troublesome to only have one guide out in front, because some of the horses were fairly willing, but Bjarki’s was not, so he kept falling behind. Bjarki was also still pretty traumatized from the last ride (where his horse took off like a rocket for a short spurt) so the overall speed was kept down low.
At one point, the guide tried to allow us to sprint away from her (and Bjarki) and back again, but the horses were unhappy to leave their lead horse, so that didn’t go so well. I did learn though that shorter stirrups beat long ones (Hello there, near fatal accident!).
We were a happy group at the end though, so that’s all that matters. (13 images total)
Horses!
Some had already been brought to the house for us.
Our German guide giving a short lesson in English. We’re such newbies!
Anna on her horse. There was a second group there but they departed ahead of us.
The rest of our group mounted.
We rode up into the hills above the farm, out onto a lookout point, before heading back down again, looping further afield north to return by the main road to the farm.
Me (Hrefna) in a horse-rental-issued rain outfit. Happily it stayed dry the entire ride, and the clouds were high enough for us to enjoy some nice views. The yoga pants underneath the outfit belonged to our hostess though. So happy to have buttyful friends!
Siblings.
Sweet ending! One way to guarantee happy memories is to offer refreshments at the end of a trip. These were a huge hit!
On the way back, we stopped at a vista point of sorts to look at Akureyri.
The steam is hot water being pumped out of tunnels (updates) that are being dug through the mountain. The amount of water was unexpected, and I think excavations have essentially been halted while they stop the leaking, but I’m not sure. Anyway, this is yet another project that will go waaaaaay over budget and time estimations. What else is new?
That white thing by the lowest steam cloud is the waterfall of water being pumped out continuously… Eeeek! Still, by the looks of the villages that lay on the other sides the tunnels we drove through on the previous day, tunnels like these can make a huge difference for towns that are otherwise hard to reach.
Back at home base we ate a holiday caliber meal and everyone went to bed happy!