Thursday 12^th

After spending half a day at the hospital Armed with my drugs, feeling like I would live…… we made our way up to the northern peninsula – Trollasagi. The road was lightly covered in snow, and the weather cold but part of the trip involved 15kms of tunnels! For me that meant 15kms of road outside not in the cold windy conditions and 15kms we did not have to travel worrying about sliding off the road.YAY!!!

Finding ourselves at a cute harbour town called Siglufjordor (no, don’t ask me to pronounce it please…). Siglufjordur is a town of about 1300 people, and is the northernmost town of the Iceland.  It is described as “particularly beautiful fjord, and high and dramatic mountains that tower over the town”.Oh yes they do!!

It has many museums such as Herring Era museum, Folk Music Museum but discovering that they were all closed to winter, we settled for a hot chocolate and some samples of homemade chocolates! ( oh there goes the waist line again…and I really thought I was going to lose weight!!!!) There are many brightly coloured houses and restaurants, bright farms with churches, (and many churches in the middle of nowhere as we drove I must add- just a church), some of the scenery was quite spectacular in the colours presented! Yes, a beautiful colourful town against the white snow, but we continued on our journey, to Blonduos, a town where we simply lay our heads and slept.

Friday January 13^th

Ooh Black Friday as they say…but to us it was a gorgeous day! We left early as there was a lot of road to cover and many things to see! We were actually on the road by 8am…. the sun was not yet up (really…oh that’s a joke in itself) but we wanted an early start. A long stretch of road ahead of Marc with driving!

Through Borgarnes we made our way to the western peninsula (called Vesturland on the map). The roads were open but still with snow, but it was a beautiful scenic drive. Lunch, yes, of more soup was at Grundarfjordur with a population of 1000 people. We were now entering the world of the movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” where he skateboarded down a road into a fishing village called Stykkisholmur, (although we didn’t actually visit the township but went onto Grundarfjordur.) Though most visitors to Grundarfjörður arrive by road like us,  there are also thousands that come by sea. The Harbour entertains 30 cruise ships each year- and that’s a lot for a small village conveniently located in the middle of Snæfellsnes National Park. Yes, a cute village which does not have a lot but where its mountain is certainly one of the most famous mountains in Iceland and the most photographed one! Yes, you guessed it, we were one of those! It was indeed quite spectacular! Yes we snapped many pictures!

It was interesting that in this fairly isolated town, we learnt that the winter tourist season is starting to become as busy as the summer season, with many venues now staying open for the tourists like us who have braved the cold conditions! (Yes, they are cold!)

From here we travelled around the peninsula espying beautiful scenery with snow covered mountains (and I mean mountains- so high and huge). According to the map that our friends had given us there were some aspects of scenery to stop and see. Once of these was a crater called Saxholl.

Now the guide book says, “Saxholl is a crater which is easy to climb. There is a great view over the area from the top.” So, okay, let’s do it! Well marc wanted to but I wanted to stay in the warmth of the car..I mean I was still recovering!!

What an idiot I was! Looking longingly back at the  warmth of my heated car ,we espied the steps rising up to the top of this crater. But what a shock. The temperature on my iPhone said minus 9 degrees but that was without the wind chill factor setting in. It was ########## freezing! I am quite sure it was close to minus 20 degree with the howling wind finding any gaps in your clothing or, even when there were no gaps, meandering around corners and down necks to chill places that should be warm.

Still not quite 100% I decided I most definitely had rocks in my head as I climbed up this snow-covered crater with Marc as the icy wind blustered around as we wound around and around to the top. Taking the confirmation photos to say ‘we were there’, Marc’s fingers were going numb and my face was wind-burnt from the howling gale! I would so hate to die from the cold! It would be an awful way to die!!

Yes, we came down quickly
Yes, we went back to the car and kept jackets, gloves, scarves on as we sat for a while and then drove with the heater going on full – trying to cajole feeling and warmth into our frozen bodies.
What twits we were!

Now what do you think we see! A lava tube cave tour! Tourists were coming up and out of this venue, (which was right on the side of the road we were traversing). So of course, Marc stops, looks, asks, and yes, we could have a tour – it began in five minutes. Not given much time to think about it, to be able to  start to panic, not enough time to come up with a non-wimpish reason why we shouldn’t do it, so I consented and went on this ‘special’ tour as it there were only the two of us.

Being claustrophobic, I had lovely visions of Jenolan Cave in mind, of lighted walkways and easy meandering along well-lit paths to see the stalactites etc.I mean it was a cave tour..right?  I am not sure I was at all impressed as I placed the helmet given to me on my head and then handed a small black torch’ in order to see’. My confidence did a huge plummet as I looked at the small hole in the ground I was asked to descend!
And Marc smiled at me.

Down we went!
Down a spiral steel staircase into the depths of the lava tube!
Down into this hole in the ground
What was I thinking??
It was so dark, it was scary… no well-lit cave…just following my little spotlight of my torch into the depths of lava blackness.
I kept thinking of the words from Phantom
“Down once more to the dungeon of my black despair…
Down we plunge to the prison of my mind…Down that path into darkness deep as hell!”
Yep that’s where I was going!

 The cave tour guide with his explanations of various aspects related to the lava tube took us to three levels below the surface…with the last level 35 metres straight down. Yep- 35 metres… ….Oh you should have felt my heart thump apprehensively as we descended straight down the 35 metres via a steel spiral staircase. I felt my whole body start to shake as I glanced down (most stupidly I might add) at the cavernous mouth of darkness leering up at me ,ready to swallow me into its blackness,  lit only by the small holes of light of the guides torch below me. Claustrophobia and fear of heights combined…..my shaking legs trembled all the way down this staircase to hell as the water dripped intermingling on my Helmet.

Listening to our guide explain the formations calmed my racing heart as I stood of terra firma,  but then he asked us to turn off our torches.
What?
Turn off the only light we had?
Are you joking??
Was he mad?
But we did!
Oh my…oh my…if I swore, I would do so right now.
IT WAS SO DARK.
WE COULD NOT SEE A THING
I COULD NOT SEE ONE FINGER IN FRONT OF ME
And then he asked us to stop and listen to the sounds of the cave around us in silence. In the dark??
WHAT??
Yes, I could hear sounds…. not quite what he wanted me to hear…. I heard the sound of my hastening breathing, the sound of my  heart beat pulsating the blood and adrenaline as it tousled through my veins, saying “what are you doing what are you doing??”…..

And the torch lights come back on.
“Did I like what I heard????????”
I smiled sweetly at my guide.

Up we went back out of the yawning mouth of this lava lion ready to consume me into its hungering blackness, out of the depths of obscurity and dark……I am sure I climbed up faster than I went down.

Yes Marc took the photo of me to say “I was here”….
I am smiling… laughing outwards while inwards….really I could kill him!

You are supposed to do one thing a day that challenges you …. I am sure I could think of something else.