Gulfoss, Kjolur and a beautiful place to stay

Near Gulfoss, probably the most known waterfall (foss) in Iceland, I learned how strong the wind can be here. I really couldn't stand still. Add tons of little drops of water from the falls and you have a pretty extreme conditions to enjoy the beauty of Icelandic nature. The waterfall is huge with its two cascades. The second one is, in my opinion, much more impressive (you have to walk a few minutes to see it, and the best would be to somehow get to the opposite side of the canyon - if you have some spare time, try it). In the restaurant you can try a traditional (or so they say) Icelandic lamb soup for 1200 Ikr. It's a more tasty version of polish "rosół", with many vegetables. Worth a try.

Then comes a desert: Kjolur. You can see mountains and glaciers far away but between you and them: rocks, rocks, and sand. After a few hours you may get bored so I recommend buying a guide (Lonely Planet has quite a good one) and reading about curious details (you may want to leave Kjolur for a while to see Kerlingarfjoell, a believed-to-be outlaws asylum). Icelanders can tell you many stories about outlaws, most of them are mysterious and interesting. Only in this country I've heard that stories like this are often taken seriously as well as stories about "hidden people" or elves. That's great, why be so down-to-earth as we are?

We arrived in Saudharkrokur around 6 p.m. and we went to a local museum where everything that was supposed to cost money (entrance fee, a booklet about archeological discoveries) was made free for us just because we didn't have koronas (in 99% of places here you can pay with VISA, even for the showers at campsites). The museum wasn't interesting though, there were 4 rooms showing blacksmith's, carpenter's and some other workshops. As the history of the town was not longer than 150 years, everything looked quite normal to me, I could even recognize some tools used nowadays in Polish workshops. The thing I'll remember most from that museum was a crazy teenager desperately wanted to talk to us and have some fun. He gave up after a few-minute trying and he said we were shy people, but impressive was his ability to speak English fluently. How lucky are those countries in where this language is taught from early childhood...

For a night we chose another place recommended to us by our car owners. It's name is Grettislaug after a saga hero who bathed in hot springs after he landed there. It looked almost abandonned when we got there but a nice lady told us the price: 1000 ikr (sic! it's 5 euros!). There is a nice toiled and a heated kitchen hut (no owen, only an electrical kettle) AND two hot pools 30-50m away (free for campers, ~300 ikr if you only want to bath). On the West you can see a great mountain, on the East - the ocean. The only con is that there are no rocks to stop the wind so pitch up your tent carefully. As far as I understood, sleeping in a guesthouse is possible (10000 ikr for double bed + breakfast), you can also buy a trip to Drangey which is a nearby island. I think it's the most beautiful and comfortable place I've camped so if you plan to visit northern Island, sleep in Grettislaug!

Zdjęcia (2)

Komentarze (0)