[Photos taken 17 – 23 September 2022, posted online 21 May 2023. It’s wet and windy outside. ]
The hiking group was back in action, and this time the target was Ok, the ex-glacier (aka The canary in the coal mine of our collective doom).
The hike was “demanding” with endless stretches of rocks in all shapes, orientation, sizes, and colors. On the drive back I then somehow managed to bust not one, but two (!!) tires of the car, needing to get rescued by our guide, and then organize a pick-up truck to go fetch it.
The remainder of the week was spent in mild survival mode as I’d come to an agreement with work to end my employment at the end of the month.
We began by driving to Thingvellir, where we found the last public toilet for a while.
We finished driving northwards to Ok, and I was again reminded about the lack of vegetation as you enter the highlands.
The cars we arrived in, looking south-ish.
Off we went, first down a little dip, and then up, up, up.
The Strava recording of the hike.
Rocks and a little bit of life in between, looking north-ish.
There’s one particular stretch of land where you clamber up a fairly steep collection of rocks.
A spider!
Proof I was there.
Yellow rocks, grey rocks…
Signs of life.
Transitioning to bigger rocks.
Time for a snack!
We found a little bit of ice.
Fog rolled in, at least it wasn’t windy!
Oh, look, rocks! The sun attempted to break through.
Desolation.
The rocks got redder, some flatter.
Rusty rocks?
Clambering up the last little bit, by the edge of the “caldera”. I was glad to be wearing rather stiff-soled shoes.
The top of Ok is a caldera of sorts.
Coming up along the edge.
The peak in sight.
At the peak, yay! This is at 1 pm.
The top of the cairn has this geo-marker, moving it can lead to punishment (Röskun varðar refsingu).
The view from the peak.
We didn’t linger there for long, as a cloud was moving in.
More. Rocks!
10 minutes after we left the top, it got shrouded in clouds!
Oh, a joy for sore feet, some walking on flat hard snow!
Remains of volcanic activity.
After a small discussion, we decided it was time for snack #2, before hunting for the plaque.
The view from my snack-box.
Next up: finding the “this used to be a glacier” plaque. Thankfully our guides had the GPS coordinates, or we’d never have found it! It’s right there!
Everybody got their own photo of it.
Double selfie time!
Did somebody find this rock and think, this would be a good place for a plaque, or did somebody move the big rock it to this position?
And thus began the downward hike.
Did I mention the rocks?
Geese leaving for warmer lands.
The clouds had lifted, and we could see the colors in the mountains around us.
Our guide pointing and naming.
Oh look, a spot of green!
A respite from the rocks.
A small wait as one member of the group got band-aids after falling and scraping themselves. My goal was to not break anything.
More life.
Going down the steep wall of rock.
Hello gorgeous cars. As we hiked we spotted one group of young people in sneakers that apparently ran up to the plaque and down again, much faster than us. We also met a group that were carrying kids on their backs. We hope nobody fell!
Pretty clouds around 4:30 pm.
Goodbye flowers.
After clearing the gravel road leading up to Ok, my car flashed a low tire pressure warning, and when I pulled over one tire was completely flat. We alerted the guide, who was ahead of us, and then went about trying to use the tire-fix package that came with the car. (Finding the 12 V cigar plug took a ridiculously long time).
I decided to move the car a tiny bit further away from the roadside, at which point another tire started gushing air (!!) so we again called the guide who agreed this was hopeless, and that he would come and get us.
At least the car had a pretty view. But this was the final nail in the coffin of the worst tires I’ve ever had the misfortune of owning. I do not recommend Bridgestone Blizzak tires, they can’t handle snow or even sludge, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly.
What a luxury to have GPSs in phones with maps! This meant I could easily tell the car-fetcher where to go pick the car up.
I finally made it home at 8 pm after a long and eventful day.
Sunday 18 September 2022
I felt really bad, because I called the emergency number for the car-retrieval service somewhere between 9 and 10 am on a Sunday morning, and obviously woke the guy up. But he told me where to drop the keys off, and later in the day the car appeared in town. Unfortunately, it appeared at the wrong tire-shop (my winter-tires were being stored at another shop), but the guy promised to fix his mistake early Monday morning, which he did.
Still very dead.
In the chaos of the day before, where we’d had to stash car-seats from our guide’s car in my car, so there was space for us in his car, the purse of the lady that I was giving a lift ended up with the car seats. This was a great excuse to meet up in Hafnarfjörður for a purse hand-over.
I stopped going to this café in Covid times when the owner disconnected the router to keep people from lingering with laptops. But the food was still good.
The next-door apartment-block.
Pretty flowers still pretty! After this I met up with the guide, who happened to be close by, and gave him his car seats back with a multitude of thanks.
Monday 19 September 2022
Biking to work again. Autumn colors creeping in.
I think this was the day when I realized Emma was now easily big enough for Anna’s old 26 inch bike.
Tuesday 20 September 2022
What I was reading for Emma before bedtime. She was meh about it.
The problem with not moving for many many years is our inclination to not clear out cupboards begins to bite us in our butts. I don’t know what prompted this on a Tuesday, but I dug into the canned-stuff shelf, and found this gem, which at one point was pears or peaches in syrup. The best before stamp was 2013, and when you shook it, something hard rattled about inside. I decided not to actually open the can. I’m pretty certain this can moved with us from the US in 2010.
Wednesday 21 September 2022
My sanity saver became the barista at work, unfortunately she sometimes had to open late.
Buying tickets to a comedy show around Christmas time. Little did I know that I’d be sick that day, and Finnur’s sister would be “me”.
Me, supposedly.
Fall colors in town.
Out in suburbia, taking a walk while kids were in music school.
Idyllic.
A stream.
Civilization in sight.
Thursday 22 September 2022
Haircut time!
The rowing machine telling me that I was tired.
Ugh. This ended up being quite a viral winter.
Friday 23 September 2022
Anna became a repeat visitor to my bed to get help with her university homework.
