{"id":428,"date":"2023-04-24T15:16:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T15:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/?p=428"},"modified":"2023-06-12T15:24:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T15:24:01","slug":"vik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/vik\/","title":{"rendered":"VIK"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We drove East along the coast of Iceland and turned off the Ring Road onto the DYRHOLAEY promontory and parked the car. The parking was free but the restrooms were not. From the lot we could see the gravel paths out to the bluffs and people walking along the grassy headlands. We headed out on a loop of the promontory with the East edge overlooking the large REYUNISFJARA black sand beach with some soaring sea stacks just off the shore. The Western edge overlooked another black sand beach with two sea arches in the the towering cliffs of REYNISDRANGAR beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Vik was founded over 1,000 years by the Vikings who saw the benefits of it’s strategic coastal location. Vik, which translates as \u201cCove\u201d, was an important trading post during the early years of Iceland\u2019s history and grew into a fishing and farming community. Throughout time to the present day the village on the cove has been a hub for commerce and transportation in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ambiana & Jakobi wandered ahead on another trail while Colleen & I stood above the beach gazing out over the sea to the two sea arches. We did a dancevideo shoot starring the sea arches and me and then I pulled out my binoculars and winced.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As we were pulling out of the SEJALLLAA parking I realized I was missing my favorite bandanna. It must have fallen out of my pocket on the hike back from the pool. I remembered the spot I had last used it to blow my nose and felt it was not that far and was worth going back for so I pulled over, explained what I was doing and began to jog back up the trail. It was a bit farther than I thought so I picked up the pace and was moving along nicely when suddenly I slammed to the ground, bearing the brunt of the fall on my outstretched palms and the left side of my chest.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I fell hard, and I told myself \u201cI’m OK… I’m OK\u201d as I got up and began to jog slowly to assess my injuries. My palms hurt as did my right elbow but my legs were fine so I kept going. Now I had to make this worth it and shortly saw my bandanna up ahead on the trail. Someone had weighted it down with a rock. Sigh of happiness; not lost after all! I picked up the bandanna, blew my nose, gripped it in my hand and started jogging back hoping the pain from the fall would ebb. Back at the car I raised the bandanna of success then pulled up my sleeve to reveal my bleeding elbow and got a band-aid before hoping back behind the wheel and heading back out to the Ring Road.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As I had pulled the binoculars to my face I had noticed that my chest still hurt from the fall. Ignoring the ache I scanned the REYNISDRANGAR cliffs and the sea arches. I had almost forgotten I had brought the binoculars on this trip. The cloudy last few days didn’t make for many long vistas to view and I can’t use them while driving where most of those vistas have appeared. Gazing now through the binocular lenses I travel out over the sea to the the cliff and the arches.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I imagine I am a neolithic fisher person riding the currents in search of fish and spy this coast for the first time, but wait, those arches which weren’t there in Neolithic times because the black sand beaches and cliffs of VIK were created during the 9th<\/sup> Century eruption of the sub-glacial volcano KATLA which looms over VIK submerged in the MYRDALSJOKULL glacier. So instead I imagine I am a Viking settler in the 10th<\/sup> century seeing these arches for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n

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What a wild scene it must have been to come upon this dramatic coast and be one of a small clan making a homestead on the bay; living on the edge of the wild unlike us tourists walking this tamed and gravelly pathed coast. But wildness still reigns here, KATLA lies slumbering beneath the ice cap and the most recent eruption of the EYJAFJALLAJOKULL volcano in 2010 affected not only VIK and the surrounding area but caused disruption to air travel worldwide by spewing tons of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Before coming to Iceland I had searched for an Icelandic TV series to watch and came upon one called \u201cKATLA\u201d<\/strong><\/em> which is set in a mostly deserted and desolate Vik devastated by an ongoing eruption of the volcano KATLA. Changelings in the guise of other people begin to emerge from the glacier and find their way to VIK to the consternation of the few people still there. I wanted to see a bit of the culture and hear the language and the series was surprisingly good; a moody meditation on loss and letting go and finding ways to go on. \u201cKATLA\u201d<\/strong><\/em> was filmed in VIK and as we drove through the town I looked for something familiar from the show but the only thing I saw were the famous sea stacks as seen from the town beach.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We made the decision to continue on to Skaftafell National Park and the campground there for the night. With Icelandic FM Radio for company we made the three hour drive along Iceland’s Southern Coast through beautiful green moss covered lava flows, under towering cliffs and small narrow waterfalls, past lots of horses and sheep, with glaciers and mountains in the distance growing nearer with each passing kilometer. Only the road and the landscape, no habitations just the occasional house and livestock. These homesteads sometimes had shelter for the animals within a cliff face; a cave repurposed with an added fence and gate ancient looking. Oh to live out here with this backyard to take in, explore and make something of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without people crowding the landscape you can feel the land, hear the land, take comfort in the land. And in Iceland the land is a newborn; land taking it’s first steps; magma to mountains; it is sacred to behold, the be amongst. Tourists as pilgrims paying homage to the majesty of the Earth’s becoming. And that is only natural. As a culture we have forgotten or not yet realized we are a part of the Earth. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the land we walk and all we share the planet with on land, in the sea and in the air is Sacred. Not $$$ Not some 2000 year old God. Love thy neighbor and do unto others as you would have them do unto you is the only creed; all else is propaganda. How many billions must suffer to support the billionaires and why please tell me do we believe this is just? Those are just some of the thoughts emanating through me from the land as I drive. Colleen taking a nap, Jakobi on her phones, Ambiana staring out the window, the road a ribbon rolling on ahead on this Icelandic tapestry.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We stopped for snacks in KIRKJUBAJARKLAUSTUR.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Past KIRKJUBAJARKLAUSTUR the sky turned dark and the clouds, smothering the mountains to the East, rose up and swallowed us into a world of black and grays with swirling snowflakes lashing at the windshield. The dark lava plains to the North swept up to the far off mountains, low gray clouds scudding between us like a herd of mythical Icelandic cloud beasts spewing a wet snow that did not linger long on the windshield or the road. There was a lighter streak of sky over the mountains ahead and I guessed that the weather would clear when reached them. We spent the next hour driving out from under the low blowing clouds, emerging from the snow squall and clouds lifting to reveal the massive VATNAJOKULL Ice Cap looming atop the mountains. Covering 14% of Iceland the ice cap is the largest glacier in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We turned off into the National Park and found the campground. There were two or three lots for the campervans and two big fields for the tent campers. To our delight there were three other tents in the fields. The bathroom block had heated showers and their was a small room with a sink to clean dishes along with a washer and a dryer. The National Park Visitor Center was a short walk away and we could see the foot of a glacier beyond it emerging beneath a snow shrouded range of peaks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It was cold and snowing gentle flakes as we set up out tents and cooked a slow dinner. We think the fuel we got is meant for a lamp as it does not burn very hot and takes a long time to boil anything. Good thing there is plenty of daylight! While Colleen cooked and I kept her company, occasionally doing her bidding, Ambiana & Jakobi went exploring and came back Ambiana telling us \u201cThere’s a trail we can take for an after-dinner hike to a waterfall\u201d as Jakobi groans \u201cnot another hike… :(:(:(\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Skaftafell in the next post…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We drove East along the coast of Iceland and turned off the Ring Road onto the DYRHOLAEY promontory and parked the car. The parking was free but the restrooms were not. From the lot we could see the gravel paths … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iceland2023.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}