The day didn’t start very auspiciously: after the first climb, I didn’t feel very well… Cold ? Strange yogurt ? I don’t know, but Mathilde earned my eternal gratitude when she stayed with me and kept me company, and then to top it all, gave me her last stomach medicine…
After the medicine, I felt better, and my bouncy step was almost fully back when we entered the spectacular valley of Landmannalaugar.
It was also the day where I discovered the panoramic option of my camera!!! Wonderful!
Immediately we noticed that it was extremely touristic: after 3 days of absolute solitude (notwithstanding the sheep), we saw 4 or 5 people !! Worse, at the hot spring afterwards, there was at least 20 people! Quite a crowd! This is how I learned that my agoraphobic tendencies would get worse if I was to live as a hermit (which is not really surprising now I think about it). Still, it was a shock, and we were all a bit miffed, as if we had started to think that Iceland was our private island, and those were intruders.
Let’s not anticipate though, and go back to the Landmannalaugar valley…
The multiple colors exist because something about high temperatures, and chemical elements more or less present when cooling, and things happening, I’m not sure, so many pretty rocks on the ground, how do you want me to concentrate when there are so many pretty rocks on the ground? I wrote in my note that they were called ryolithic mountains (certainly to have a chance to shine in society), for those who are interested.
I have to admit that the pictures look like a paint color mistake, but no, it’s real!
Earth’s crust at this place is very thin. Yoan showed us boiling cauldrons: it’s funny, it smells like eggs, it’s fascinating and I felt a curious urge to put my hand in it to see if it’s really hot (do not do that, it is a very bad idea). It’s quite cloudy, phantasmagorical and noisy!
Mathilde and I were painstakingly sorting all the rocks of the valley to select a dozen or so to bring home, when Yoan signalled us that, if we want to spend some time in the hot springs, we had to go now and walk fast.
And so we did, it was a shame because we had to cross an obsidian field very quickly, and it is beautiful! Obsidian is a volcanic rock, black and shiny, very very beautiful, but you must not pick any of it up because if everybody does, there won’t be any left in Iceland. It broke our heart, but we didn’t pick any…
The hot spring was very nice… We relaxed a long time in it.
It was Mathilde’s last day. Back in the campsite, she left us, and went on to the rest of her trip… Who knows when we’ll see each other again, and in which part of the world?
It made me realized something: it’s already my last evening…
Come on Blue Owl, did I say to myself, pull yourself together! It means that you have yet another amazing day tomorrow!
I soon forget it, because it’s the big night of the Icelandic leg of lamb, and there are many things to do! What a dinner… I eat far too much, and spend the rest of the evening gathering the fascinating stories of the guides.
Guillaume’s story: the Ouch Ouch
In a country far, far away, on a rough and wild coast, beaten by the fierce ocean and the roaring winds, nests a majestic bird of an impressive wingspan, called the Ouch Ouch.
The Ouch Ouch is not evolution’s favorite. To breed adequately and to ensure the species survival in this difficult climate, the male developed imposing testicles which – despite being a hindrance to its flight and its silhouette, what with being a third of its weight – allows him to generously diffuse its genes and which impressing size attracts concupiscent looks from the females.
Unfortunately, with a tragic stroke of bad luck, the legs of the male didn’t adjust to his colossal gonads, and when, after hours of fishing and dignified flying, he comes back to his nest… well… poor creature, when he lands, you can hear his piercing calls:
OUCH !! OUCH !!
Hum yes, it is the only anecdote I thought worthy of scribbling in my notes…
This story awakened in me a strong curiosity about the reproductive system of birds, and I invite you to consult the Wikipedia page about it, it is quite interesting. Did you know that birds testes could grow hundreds of time larger during breeding season? Poor Ouch Ouch!!
No northern lights tonight, but a huge starry sky…