There is a richness in the North that the lush green of the South can’t touch.
Somewhere North of Dettifoss
(Even the Icelandic map doesn’t name this place.)
It’s stark, and “stark”, we know, is “strong.” You feel your strength here. And clambering over all this broken stone let’s you feel your tendons too!
They’re all winding when wended on foot.
Hafragillsfoss
That’s because they wind you in and, wound up, you look behind and what is there? Only the wind. And when you turn you step into the wind in that direction too.
Who says you can’t…
… squeeze water from a stone?
Heck, in Iceland, where even the land itself is alive, it’s commonplace.
Watch your step!
Jökulsá á Fjöllum
Calling this landscape with its fire vent at Sjónípa volcanic diminishes it and makes its strangeness safe.
Wouldn’t it be better to write a guidebook to strangeness, and begin again?
Only the heads remain.
Big guys, though!
Whoever said Iceland was never inhabited by big game!
Near Hafragilsfoss
The wind lives north of Dettifoss, in a landscape in perfect balance: what is neither hard nor seeking shelter is blown away, yet in these flows the wind is often denied purchase and sent on.
Walking is not the point here. Standing and staying, those are the triumphs. If you walk, you will not see.
Water that enters a fall zone and flows down through air to the centre of the Earth, before being stopped by stone, first attempts to find its original level by climbing back, before the Earth draws it away. Have a look.
Dettifoss
People come from around the world to experience this power. What at first appears to make one small and insignificant actually makes one large because as humans we live in what we see. We are the waterfall. Keeping a little distance is safe, though.
When you are caught by a veið, or a plane of gaping energy, that can devour you without a trace…
… where everything (and soon you too) is thrown, or strewn, around without sense…
… it’s best to create memory, and sense, or you will be lost, literally. Cairns like the one below are the Parthenons of Iceland. Don’t touch.
And don’t make more! That would be like destroying Shakespeare.
Even if the highway-building crew starts it, please resist translating cairns, energy gathered from throws to make wide space close, into an image of yourself as witness. This isn’t magic or art. It’s architecture and language. The path to history through them should remain open. If not, why go to Iceland?
~
Images from between Hafragilsfoss and Dettifoss, as well as on Highway 85 to Vopnafjörður.
So, lunch. That would be nice. Why not the Apotek in Reykjavik?
Highly rated. A rather desolate environment, sure…
… but you came here for desolate, right? The bracing subarctic! And there is a fine menu. Why, the hamburger is only about CAD$40. Add a Gull, of course, and it’ll be around $55.
What? That was a whole day’s food budget? Not to worry. There are other options. The road to Seyðisfjörður, for example, or just off to the side, in case there’s a car. Serving travellers for 1100 years.
Neðri Uðafoss
The menu is simple.
Bilberries and Rainwater
Add a Skyr for CAD$2.00…
It even comes with a clever little Chinese folding spoon, which you can keep as a souvenir! And you can wander while you eat.
Efri Selfoss
Bring a coat, though. It’s Iceland! Oh, and dessert is the same as lunch.
But that’s OK, right?
15 grams of protein!
A Farm in Iceland 