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Hraunfossar, burgers and swimming pools


Pictures are at the bottom...

A Saturday where you get up early, and hit the road? 9am?! But what about the bands? The women? The rock star life?

Sacrifices do have to made, and sacrifices aren't always sacrifices anyway. Guido, Wolfgang and I took off early one Saturday, heading for Hraunfossar and Barnafoss, past Reykholt. It turned out Wolfgang had never been there before, and with only a couple of weeks left, we had no time to lose.

First though, we had to drive a different way, just because, and then, just because, we decided to stop at Deildartunga for a look. I'd never stopped here, always sort of meant to, but never did. It's the biggest (most volume ejected per minute) hot spring in iceland, and provides all the water to Borgarnes and area. I imagine on a normal day, this would be pretty boring, but today, with the wind, and the still freezing temps, we found alll sooorrrts of different ice formations, freezing out of the steam coming off the pools. The ice buildup on the leading edge of the wire fence was particularly cool.

Still, with a lot of clothes on, and still getting bitten by the wind, we hopped back in the car and headed East, looking for a waterfall to lose our children into, Barnafoss!

We had the place largely to ourselves, though by the time we got home later that night, we discovered that the tourist season had pretty much opened that weekend. Still deserted out here, but town had far more tourists than even the weekend before.

Still, the wind hadn't died down at all, so perhaps the tourists were just being sensible.

Our day of course, had barely begun, there would be no perching on chairs in fancy coffee shops for us, oh no. We kicked it up a notch, and headed back to Borgarnes for burgers, chips and coke. And because the day was still young, we pulled out maps, and looked for somewhere new to go.

This led us on quite a drive, heading to Laugar, a pool of some repute. And quite a pool it was. A nice setting, fantastic view out across Hvammsfjörður, and a delightful pool lady who let us in well after closing. (She still had a big extended family or two partying in the pool anyway.)

Although all good things come to end, we were not done. After a good swim (sit) we drove back, taking the long way home, around Hvalfjörður and across Kjós before finally home.


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