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born Icelanders are descendants of 38,000 survivors of the great famine of
the late 1700s caused by huge volcanic eruptions which blanketed the earth,

killed many plants, animals and people, and then plunged Iceland into a sort
of mini-nuclear winter thereby causing devastating famine.

Many people emigrated at that time to

Europe (primarily Denmark and the UK) and
to the United States to escape the human

and ecological disaster. So this event was

like Ireland’s great Potato Famine. There
were other unhappy circumstances, such as

the other European nations’ inability or
unwillingness to help the starving Icelanders.

Even Denmark, which ostensibly ruled Iceland at that time, ignored the
plight of its people. Icelanders were so poor they did not even own the

shipping vessels which carried their products to Denmark. The Danes

owned them and did not send them to relieve the famine.

We continued driving the many miles through the vast and barren hillsides
without growth or life of any kind, just snow, rocks and gravel. We reached

one river that was a little trickier than the others, so Magnus studied it a
while. A couple of cars reached the area while Magnus was checking things

out and he helped them get across. We waited for the cooking bus and for
the sister tour of Germans that had been crisscrossing our path all through

the trip to help those drivers as well.

DREKI HUT

Very soon after this last ford, we came to our very Spartan night’s

accommodation, the Dreki Hut, the only possible place for miles around.
This really is wilderness.

The largest building was a summer hut with bunk-beds on the lower floor

and a loft on the second story. To the side was a smaller bunkhouse. There
was a bathroom shed with 3 toilets for the men and three for the women