Tuesday 30 September 2008

Ferdamennska 1, bjørgunarsveitina


from friday to sunday anna and i were on ferdamennska 1 with bjørgunarsveitina.
this is a course where you navigate with map and compass, rapelle, using VHF and tetra communication and sleep in tent.
we started friday evening at 1830 and left Arsæll station at 1915 and drove eastwards. they wouldn't let us know where...
at some time around 20.. we stopped at an isolated farm east of Nesjavellir power plant. after weighing our back packs, mine around 21 kg and some around 10, we took some things out of mine and put it in some of the others.
we headed out into the darknes all 22 participants and walked fore around 2 hours. during the walk wich was slightly uphill it was raining and blowing, something i'm not used to... arggg
we came to a place where we could camp for the night. after putting up the tent we had a snack and went to bed.
during the night i was freezing a bit as the temperature dropped and snow was falling in the mountains above us!
the next morning we where woken up by one of the instructors. he told us we one hour to be ready to leave the place with everything. most of the group wasn't ready to leave at the right time, but for half of them it was mayby the first time in a tent...
for the next couple of hours we were walking around in the terrain as one group, which made decisions difficult, but we made it to a sheep pen, where we had lunch in the sun shine. the weather had changed constantly between rain and sun!
after lunch we where divided into groups of 4 and left our back packs and went for a 3 hours orientation march. the weather was fairly good at that time.
i managed to fill one of my boots with water during the hike!
back at the sheep pen the groups slowly arrived in the setting sun, though 2 groups were missing for some hours, they just had a longer walk than us...
again we where divided into groups, this time 2 groups, one for a longer walk and one for a shorter. i managed to go for the long walk. this was all the way up on sulufell mountain 450 m, and darkness was coming. 7 of us started walking at 1815 this time with our back packs and quickly covered the distance to the foot of the mountain where we had a rest after crossing 2 rivers. we ate some bread and filled up with water before heading for the summit.
we managed to get to the top just before it got completely dark and rainy. the view wasn't much but it was great to have been there.
quickly we decended to a less hostile environment and got a new heading from the base. this wasn't to good as we ended up in a ravine filled with water wich, during night time was impossible to cross. due to some communication problems we had to make a longer walk to find the other group, which had by now camped on the other side of the river.
after walking on compass bearing for quite a time we found them and could get into a dryer and warmer place soaking wet from a lot of rain.
i went to bed at around 0100 but at app. 0430 we where woken up by shouting and lights from cars saying we had 20 min to get ready and move out. from some of the tents i could hear "nooo", "why"... it was just like being in the army again!
another orientation march in rain and darkness, lead us out into the hills in groups of 5. during the first 1 hr 20 min we had no water and were feeling it as we got head acke and felt energy just leaving the body. luckily we found a river and some water and "fueled up" again! at 0800 we arrived at a farm and the orientation part of the week end ended. agian we had a hot brew and some food while waiting for the cars to take us to a rappelling site.
the rest of the day we spent climbing up a 10 m tower and rappelling down it.
during the car trip back to town most of us fell asleep when the driver turned on the heater...
back in town we washed the cars, the equipment and stored all the gear before we could go home after a good week end in the icelandic nature.
anna and i went to the heitapottur and the went down-town to vegamot for some pizza and burges with my cousin olli and his girlfriend elisabeth.
the feet a bit sore and blistered after the trip but looking forward to the next one...


Friday 19 September 2008

trip to the blue lagoon

YES! i know this was a week ago but i don't have internet at my place!

when basse and kirsti arrived in iceland we went straigth to the blue lagoon, since kirsti haddn't been to iceland before.
the price was very high, almost the same as going 10 times to the thermal pools in reykjavik, but it's something you just have to try when coming to iceland for the first time!

view from my appartment


this is the view from my appartment.
the weather changes alot these days.
the changes are quite rappidly and can go from sunshine to rain in no time. but when it's bad you can always go to the thermal pools and relax and afterwards in the coffee house...

Thursday 18 September 2008

the golden circle...


on monday kirsti, basse and i went on the tourist trip "the golden circle". thereby seeing Thingvellir, the oldest parliament in the world and the rifting between the eurasian plate and the north-american plate, then over the mountains to geysir and the hot water, ending up at gullfoss and enourmous waterfall and then back home to reykjavik, via selfoss and hveragerdi.
we were quite lucky with the weather as it was only raining when we were driving or when we where leaving the sites!
autumn has come to iceland, with red and brown colours everywhere. what a beuatifull landscape!
i have put out some more pictures on my web page.
come visit Iceland!!!

Wednesday 17 September 2008

earth quake

yeasterday while i was in the shower an earth quake of 3,7 hit Reykjavik. i didn+t feel any thing, but my brother, anna and kirsti felt it while they were in bed. most interesting.

i spent the whole day in school, while my brother went shooping and taking a look at the local cafes.

last night we were invited to my uncle silli and aunt helga for dinner. we had some lovely food and a nice stay.

the weather has been absolutely crazy last evening and night, with a lot of wind and rain. today it's much better.

Thursday 11 September 2008

Björgunarsveitina

yeasterday anna and I went to a meating in björgunarsveitnina and joined it. they have a lot of courses in first aid, medical training, hiking, driving, all kinds of stuff that is good to know, especially when you in the land of fire and ice ( and rain ) ;0)
you meet new people and new friends and get out of town doing exiting things.

when i was on Svalbard i was in the Red Cross and this will be quite similar to that.
this will be good :0)

Wednesday 10 September 2008

field trip to solheimajökull


yeasterday i went with my teacher, ivar and anders to solheimajökull. we where there to take a look at the place wehre we are doing some field work next year. it was raining most of the way, but the visibility was good enough for us to see what we wanted to see. it was very good for me to see the area and the surroundings where i will be conducting my field work next summer.

this summer i will stay most of the time indoors in Öskja, at the university, reading loads of articles and getting useed to my new life form...
a few pictures are now out on my web.

my little brother and his wife will arrive here on friday for a weeks visit to iceland