Waterfall Trolls & Glacier Trip

2019-07-23Friends, Iceland, Us Standard

[Photos taken 23 – 24 July 2019, posted online 08 March 2020. Very chilly but gorgeous day outside.]

Our second set of house #2 visitors, aka Adda, Halli and kids, were in an adventurous mood, as this summer was a stay-cation for us all, after we’d spent 10 days in Florida together in February.

We therefore used the time we had with them to check out nearby tourist traps and go snowmobiling on a glacier (!!!), as well as just trying to relax and enjoy a few days away from life as usual. (50-ish photos total)

Tuesday 23 July 2019

Emma by a troll family picture, a troll-sized seat and pretty waterfalls in Grímsá (Gríms-river). The house in the background is the Fossatún hotel/restaurant/cafe, and they maintain this fun troll-themed area.
Map of the Grímsá river from ja.is . It’s a collection of waterfalls, the most known being Tröllafossar (Troll-falls), hence the troll theme. One of the parts is is called “Viðbjóður” or “Disgusting” as a dead body was once found there.
Earlier that day, Bjarki got his wish to drive the big car.
I claimed some charge-internal-batteries-alone-time at the usual cafe in Borgarnes. The view was magnificent as always.
So yes, around four in the afternoon, Emma was about to die of boredom, so I decided to take her to this trip-advisor-suggested spot, about a 10-15 minute drive away from house #2.
We found a troll’s head.
I got cooked!
Barren landscape, Iceland style.
Where will it land?
The scariest goalie there ever was…
Only slightly scary.
Prettiness.
Looking around we were happy to find berries!
About to be eaten!
Concentration in action.
Four hours later, around 9 pm, I was back there again with the older kiddos, who’d spent the day lounging with screens in front of their faces, and were in dire need of oxygen.
Poor Bjarki…
Mid-boil.
I was totally the slow one on this trip.
Trollwords?!
I think one of the older ones was shaking the log from the other side! With the sun going down, it got chilly fast, so we skedaddled back to house #2.

Wednesday 24 July 2019

We set out before lunchtime to Húsafell, to meet up with the glacier-trip company.
Hats on, and sitting inside the Big Truck.
Father and daughter.
The ladies.
Off we drove, further inland to where Langjökull currently begins.
Glacier visible in the distance.
Quite close to the edge of the glacier the company has a house, where it keeps overalls, helmets, and gloves. While we all suited up, our guide began letting air out of the ginormous tires, so they would have better grip in the snow.
It’s hard to be a house in the middle of nowhere.
Waiting is hard.
All suited up.
Oh yeah!
Doing our best duck-faces.
About an hour after we’d first entered the big truck, we set off again, this time to drive up onto the glacier itself.
At the edge of the glacier. A few cars had driven up to the edge and stopped, and people were milling about.
Meltwater flowing in what was probably wheel-tracks some time ago.
Small cracks…
The specks in the upper left corner belong to the Into the Glacier tour. The specks straight ahead were our snowmobiles.
By 2 pm, we’d made it to the snowmobiles.
The five of us before setting off.
We decided Emma would start out in front of Finnur, as we weren’t sure she’d be ok sitting in the back seat, hanging on for dear life.
Where we were on the glacier according to the GPS on my phone. Húsafell is the greenery below where it says “Kalmanstunga”, and house #2 is the upper yellow marker.
About 30 minutes of snowmobiling later, we stopped to admire the view, and swap kids. Emma sat behind me (and did great) while Bjarki rode with Finnur on the way back.
Snowmobiles are surprisingly big! It took a little while to get used to steering them, mine kept wanting to weer off to the side a bit, and it took a bit of force to get it to behave.
Obligatory selfie.
Shortly after 3 pm we were back in the big truck, and making our way down off of the glacier.
At the foot of the glacier.
A glacial traffic jam? We stopped at the red house in the distance to return the gloves, overalls, and helmets, while the guide re-inflated the big tires so they would survive the gravely road ahead.
Foliage? What foliage?
Approaching the woods surrounding Húsafell.
Back at Húsafell at 5 pm, after a successful trip. There are a bunch of tours to neighboring sites of interest that depart from Húsafell, so hopefully we’ll be back before too long.