The wind whipped against our lodges last night, and the rain lashed the windows. We hoped it would blow itself out over night, but it’s even stronger this morning.
We make our way to the main building for breakfast, where we notice that an Icelandic ranger has set up in a corner in case anyone would like to discuss their hiking plans for the day. What we hear is not encouraging – almost all of the higher peaks have next-to-nil visibility, and will be quite slippery after the rain.
My wife sits down with the ranger after breakfast and discusses our plans to do the ‘easy’ loop around the Hveradalir geothermal fields – but with 210 metres of elevation gain, that is deemed too much to attempt. We settle for heading down to the Hveradalir parking lot to see whether we can make it to the viewpoint. If so, great – and if not, at least we tried.
The roads are not fabulous this morning:
And the situation does not improve once we reach the parking lot. Our daughter is being buffeted by the wind, and feels like she can scarcely walk. We hope that the conditions might improve if we can just get down into the valley, but the path is slick clay – and the wind only gets stronger as we descend.
I manage a single photo of the wall of cloud and rain:
And then we get back into the car and return to Highland Base.
Conditions are not expected to improve significantly over the course of the day, so that raises questions about whether my son and I will be able to go eBiking this afternoon. Reception offers to shift our booking to tomorrow, but there’s no way we can stick around the full afternoon and then make the four-hour-plus drive to Akureyri.
I ask whether we can cancel, but the deadline to do so is 24 hours in advance – so we’d be out the full amount if we cancel now.
I take another look at the pounding rain, and I figure that either the weather will improve or they will either cancel of their own volition. No point in us cancelling now, especially if they aren’t going to refund even a portion of the cost.
We take a bit of time to rest and relax. The weather lifts a little and we wonder if we should consider going back to re-attempt Hveradalir – but no one has it in them at this point, and it’s unlikely the slope would have improved anyway. Yesterday’s ascent of Snækollur was an exercise in seeing what’s possible, while today’s stymied hike is an exercise in determining what’s practical.
Or in the words of advice issued to the immortal Keanu Reeves: “Don’t get dead.”
(For you iFit fanatics, this is also Tommy Rivs’ mantra.)
Off for lunch, where my wife has some delicious mushroom soup:
While the kids and I have burgers.
We’re not the only ones whose plans have been frustrated – there’s a busload of hikers who seem to have abandoned all plans of hiking and are instead setting up shop indoors. Not sure how Highland Base intends to keep them occupied, but we’re glad to have so much space in our lodge rooms where we can relax and watch the outdoors from the comfort of the indoors.
Even so, we do attempt the baths for a time:
Photo Credit: Highland Base
Not quite as relaxing as yesterday, as many of our fellow guests are also enjoying the baths. There’s a German family with young kids that has set up camp next to the stairs, making it difficult to get in and out – and while the kids aren’t out of control, they’re not exactly calm either. Highland Base has also failed to restock the towels. Nothing worth truly complaining over, but more grit in our collective maws after a frustrating morning.
Still, we find some calm, soak our weary bones and – eventually – I drip my way down the hall to ask housekeeping for some towels. Clouds hurtle past the moss-covered cliffs, and sulfurous steam soaks into every pore. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.
I inquire once more about the eBiking and Reception very kindly offers us the chance to cancel and receive a full refund. I expect the guide doesn’t want to go out in this weather any more than we do, and that’s before you factor in the safety aspect of it all. But we won’t question their motives – we simply express our thanks that we won’t have to face the difficult choice of eBiking in the rain or abandoning more than CAD$400.
We spend a bit more time reading and relaxing, and – to our surprise – the weather does genuinely start to clear. So we decide we’ll attempt a local hike instead. We cross the bridge, and wander along the river toward the free public baths and onward to Hveradalir. (For those who would rather not drive, there is a 11 km loop down to Hveradalir from Highland Base itself – though I doubt we’ll make it anywhere near that far.)
We start with summitting the local hillside, starting first with a few more shots of Highland Base itself:
We were in the furthest lodge to the right, which seemed to be the only lodge with two units that could be linked:
We cross the now-bulging river:
We start with summitting the local hillside, which gives us a sweeping view of the river valley:
We could carry on this way, but the winds up here are already stronger than in the valley itself:
The walk back down reaffirms our decision not to attempt this morning’s slippery clay descent. This portion alone is difficult enough – and the soil is relatively grippy. We are, however, already missing our hiking poles – we’ll have to pick up our own at some point.
We carry on along the path that winds next to the river:
The scenery here is different even from that of Snækollur – still stark, but with vibrant green amidst the rock:
But before we reach even the public baths – a mere 1.2 km from Highland Base – the wind and rain pick up once more, and we’re forced to turn back.
(But even so, we still manage close to 9,000 steps over the course of the day – so it certainly could have been worse.)
Back to the lodge once more, where for once I manage to wrap the day’s blog post before dinner – a rarely accomplished feat.
Speaking of dinner, there’s nothing new under the sun – so here’s a picture of the menu for those curious as to what’s on offer:
Despite these limited offerings, next time we would be tempted to stay at Highland Base for at least four or five nights. Given the lengthy drive, three nights simply isn’t enough to allow for the inevitable spate of bad weather. That isn’t to say that we’ve regretted our brief time here at Highland Base, or our lazy day watching the weather go by – far from it! We just really wish we could stick around for one last full day of hiking.
Ah, well. Time to pack our bags, then enjoy one last night of the wind howling through the river canyon.
But – late that evening, we spot a group of hikers heading out toward the public baths well after 9 pm. Did they forget that Iceland is not the land of the midnight sun all year-round? Because they come back completely soaked, using only their phone flashlights to guide the way:
I have no intention of leaving our cozy lodge, otherwise I might track them down to pass on a vital piece of advice: “Don’t get dead.”