Snowy Sunrise

Secret Lagoon

The Secret Lagoon is actually not so secret. You book in advance and they cap the number of people that are allowed in. Compared to the notoriety of some other geothermal spas in Iceland, this one is certainly a hidden gem. It is considered to be the oldest geothermal pool in Iceland.

What makes this spot awesome is that these are natural hot springs. Water and steam  bubbles up from fissures beside the lagoon and flows into the pool area.  There is no concrete - just earthen banks and a gravel bottom.

The warm water holds 38-40 Celsius all year. Best of all was that it took all of 7 minutes to drive there from the house.

Sprint to the Finish

Instead of being responsible and packing up today, we did the following:

1. Went to Geysir.

2. Went to the wool cooperative at Þingborg.  By the way, that funny p thing is called a thorn.  So in Icelandic, it is pronounced thingborg. Þingborg was full of the handspun, naturally dyed wool Melanie had been hoping to find. 

3. Had lunch at the tomato greenhouse restaurant again in Reykholt.

4. Went on a challenging hike up a hill/mountain outside of Flúðir. In Icelndic,the slanted "d" character is called an eth. You pronounce it like the "th" in the word "the". The hill is called Miðfell and I think it might be a caldera. The hike took us up 160 metres to a perched lake.

5. Melanie and I went to the secret lagoon.  Ten minutes from the house - it warrants a separate blog post.

Outside of the wool cooperative

Melanie's wool.

Miðfell

Geysir

The Geysir area is close to the house, about 15 minutes up the road. It is a touristy spot, so we headed out early this morning to beat the tour buses.

There were only a half dozen other people there, so we had lots of time to enjoy the alien landscape.

A Blog Post for Benjamin

Caves are mysterious places. Yesterday we went into the deep Víðgelmir lava cave that was created about 1100 years ago. We got to see the location where evidence was found of a Viking outlaw having used the still-cooling cave as shelter.

Benjamin, when we entered the mouth of the cave, it was around freezing. When we got to the deepest point of the tour, around 800 metres in, we could have opened up our jackets. The cave was noticeably warmer. Hmmm.

As we got deeper, we were amazed at how big the cave was.

After the cave tour, we drove as far as we could toward the Langyökull glacier, until the road was rutted and the winds were too fierce to continue driving.

On the way back, we stopped to fill our water bottles with some delicious glacial water.

Smoked Brown Trout

Lightly brined, smoked using birch and field grass, served on top of rye bead.

Icelandic Brown Trout Hook Up

I had a great day on the river yesterday.  Two arctic char and one brown trout landed on the River Holaa.  The scenery was stunning and I had a great guide.  We were on the water at 9:30 and I fished hard the whole day.

This is one of my last casts of the day. I had a large weighted streamer on (green woolly bugger) and had a few hard strikes before the trout took my fly.  It weighed in at just over 1kg, which is a good sized trout.

Arctic Char Release

Horses and a Swim

Icelandic horses are pony-sized, sturdy and full of personality. We rode a few this beautiful misty morning near Flúðir with a local guide (http://ridingtourssouthiceland.com).

This aft, while Steve fly fished the other end of the lake, we went in the hot pools at the other end of the lake at Laugarvatn Fontana (https://www.fontana.is) and cooled off in Lake Laugarvatn. 

Icelandic Beer

Wikipedia tells me that beer in Iceland likely dates back to the island's settlement by Norsemen.

However, in modern times, beer was effectively banned in Iceland for most of the 20th century and the ban was only lifted in 1989.

Since then, a number of craft breweries have opened up.  Here a couple from my post flyfishing day.

Flyfishing Tomorrow

I have that sort of anticipation that one feels as Christmas day is getting close.

Tomorrow I have a guide booked to take me out fly fishing for the day. I am heading out on River Holaa which is about a 30 minute drive from our cabin. The scenery around the river is stunning.  When we were hiking earlier, we had a good vantage of Lake Laugvartn and River Holaa ringed by the mountains in the background.

For those that fly fish, weather conditions can make or break your day. I am fortunate as the forecast looks pretty good.

Plötulopi

At the Álafoss wool store yesterday, the ladies encouraged me to try knitting with Icelandic plötulopi, or unspun Icelandic yarn. They say that while it's fragile to work with, it creates a soft and sturdy sweater. Most Icelandic knitters use it, often working two strands at a time. It's beautiful stuff and I bought a number of wool "cakes" to bring home.

As I was doing groceries today in Selfoss, I walked into a grocery aisle full of wool, including the cakes. So I added some to the cart, beside the cheese and eggs.