Today was the day to climb a mountain! For my birthday! Yeah! We can do this! Even though we have never done this before…! We were going to attempt to hike up the glacier on Mt Snaefellsjokull, lovingly known to our group as “mt snikkysnorf” before we learned to say things in Icelandic.
The night previously we had received a request from our guide asking us to show up an hour early as the weather seemed like it was not going to be cooperative, and probably rainy, for the later afternoon. We layered up with many waterproof and fleecy layers and we set out for the hut to begin our trek.
Our guide asked us if we had rain gear as it looked like the rain was going to start earlier and earlier in the forecast. The rain would definitely be snow further up the mountain, so we would not be going to the peak, but instead we would be going up a small ways to walk on part of the glacier. Yes, we were ready.
We got a bit of a history lesson about the local town. Baldur is seen as a local spirit of sorts, as he watches over travelers and people who are out in the area and ensures their safe return. He is not always successful – as there are signs of people who have gone up on the glacier without equipment or knowledge and have met with a bad fate. But not us – Baldur was watching 🙂
We headed up the mountain and the rain began pattering down early. We were headed to the ski lift left behind by someone who thought it was a good idea to start a ski business in the middle of a moody glacier. Bad idea – but the road was still there. And all the garbage from their business venture…
The higher we got, the windier and rainier it became. The rain turned to sleet and attacked us in our faces as the rain blew it harder. I don’t think it has ever sleeted before on my birthday. We got as far as the ski lift and had to turn back. We were nearly to the glacier – we had just made it to the snow line. The weather was very miserable.
The mountain was still beautiful despite the horrible weather, with the mists curling around the valleys and peaks. It just wasn’t a very pleasant place to be at the time. The guide mentioned an Austrian philosopher who said that the rain was like kisses from heaven. Heaven must have been pissed that day because the kisses were very stabby. Water somehow had sneaked up my sleeve and into the inside of my jacket. What is the feeling of dryness?
Before going to the bottom, we went to the singing cave, a cave that gets its name from the good acoustics of the internal chamber. The singing cave was originally home to the first settlers to this area as they were building their huts and settling the land around Snaefellsjokull.
Still extremely wet, we headed back down to a next door cafe for some delicious birthday hot chocolate. The hot chocolate and fresh cream here was top notch and it was well worth the long wait while she was out back catching the cocoa beans.
On the way home, we went to a local hot springs which was famous for its carbonated algae water. The hot springs will heat us right up!
They were in a small, unassuming building which was labeled “swimming pool.” We weren’t even sure we were in the right place as the name was different from what was in the book. At this point, I would swim in almost anything that was warm water, algae waters or not. But praise be – it was the right place! Lýsuhólslaug! We paid our ten dollar entry fee and dashed on in to the welcoming waters.
This pool was much less glitzy than the Myvatn nature baths. The geothermal pools were outdoors (in the rain but whatever): one large warm pool and two small hot pools. The large pool smelled vaguely of broccoli. It was very slimy and you could wiggle your toes in the slick algae at the bottom and sides of the pool. It was much less gross than it sounds, maybe because I was expecting the slipperiness. They even had pool noodles!
We had our fill of the pools after an hour and headed back to base to wear actually dry clothing and eat my birthday feast. We had low patience for finding more food and the soup shop was apparently no longer open, so we went back to the place from Monday night and feasted upon more fish. What a glorious but wet birthday!
We had so much soggy clothing that we ran out of heater space. Rhett’s shoes somehow became soaked inside despite being waterproof. We determined the only method to dry them to a wearable state within the next ten days would be to apply the hair dryer to them. I gave it a 7 out of 10 on the good idea scale. This will dry the shoes quickly. We are so smart.
Except they are ten years old and have had ten years of foot smell deposited in them. As soon as the hair dryer started up, the smell, the horrible smell began emanating from the bathroom. It was like a wave of ten thousand sweaty feet washed over the small flat. The village was going to need to be evacuated if they didn’t dry soon!
He was still very proud of this idea. We all survived. Somehow.
