Page 17 - 2000 ICELAND

upstairs to roll the sleeping bags and pull all the gear back together for
loading on the bus. This too would be an almost daily ritual. On a hiking

trip, though, you need routines to keep everything moving smoothly so that
you don’t keep the group waiting.

Breakfast was in the same dining room and it was our usual fare. It was

overcast and drippy as we left this first “camp” heading for Gullfoss, the
Golden Waterfall. The ride was about an hour and it was still very foggy

when we arrived but at least it was no longer dripping.

We were let off the bus above the gorge for

our hour hike to the falls. It was a really
fine walk along a deeply imbedded and

narrow trail on the rim of the gorge with
really spectacular views down into the 70

meter deep ravine. The falls were terrific
but we had to fight the “eye and mouth”

midges all the way. We were really wishing

for our Alaska “head-nets.” The falls are in two levels and are quite wide
and full. However, because of our cloudy skies, we saw no “gold” in the

waters, even though we climbed the steep wooden stairs to the top of the
cascade.

Then back on the bus for a ride across the highlands, the desert interior.

This part of Iceland is pretty much uninhabited and it is easy to see why.
Actually, only two people live in this area year-round—a husband and wife

weather station team. This is really raw, new land! No soil at all and just a

pitiful few, very hardy plants pushing through the rocks.

The landscape is unbroken, flat, rocky desert except for the occasional huge
glacial erratic boulder cutting into the line demarcating land and sky. There

were long miles of this terrain with snow-topped mountains sporadically
seen in the distance. The scenes reminded us of Patagonia in so many ways.

The loneliness is palpable here (even more than in Argentina) because