23 October, 2010

Needing a bit of exercise, and with a reasonable weather forecast I called a few people, and went for a walk out on Reykjanes with Iveta. My hiking friends are so reliable :)

Driving out of town in clear blue skies, we were a little bit disappointed to be driving in drizzle and grey skies as we headed towards Keilir, but fortunately, we drove out of it again, and parked the car at the test boreholes near Sogsel. We were planning a bit of a walk around to Grænavatn, which looks neat on the map, sunken into a hidden valley, and then across to a hotspring/geothermal area, Hverinn Eini, then back to the car. Hverinn Eini sounded interesting, "The One Spring" and even more alluringly, was only marked on some of my maps.

A lovely walk, up the valley of the Sog, with some nice colours, then onto a nice plateau across towards Grænavatn. A bit too many signs of dirtbikers and garbage, poor Reykjanes is not really treated as well as it deserves, but still a pleasant walk.

From there, up and over the ridge and down to the flat plains of moss and lava south of Keilir, towards this mysterious "Hverinn Eini"

We found it, we had a GPS, but it's really just a small area of steam coming out of some holes in the moss. We stopped for a bite to eat, then, with the last rays of sunlight bathing the mountains in golden light, we hiked back up to the car, and then home!