8 June, 2011

With the snow and rain finally getting out of the way, it was time to get some exercise again! Iveta was keen, and brought a friend, Ruth, who has been added to the list of people that are keen for impromptu walks on weekends.

The weather was good, we had plenty of daylight, so we aimed for Húsfell, the next mountain east from Helgafell. I'd failed to get there back in Autumn, 2009 when I ran out of daylight, and into lots and lots of shrubbbery.

We walked the scenic route, along the north side of Valahnúkar, visiting the old farm of Valaból and looking into the tiny cave there, Músahellir, before continuing along and up the gentle south western flank of Húsfell. Like Helgafell, the upper sections of Húsfell are tuff (móberg) which always makes pretty shapes and patterns. We had plenty of time, so thought we'd make a loop north west to take in the crater of Búrfell on the way back, so headed pretty much straight down the fairly steep north slope of Húsfell, then over towards Burfell across the sand and lava.

Búrfell was nice, a good little crater, then we wandered down, following the canyon. I was thinking it was maybe time to start heading south again, back towards the car, but we met a couple who said it was a very rough way to go, across the lava, and that if we followed the canyon out, there was a nice path back to the car. We listened, and while we might disagree with the distances and the difficulty, the rest of the canyon was very pretty, and totally new to me. It would be a lovely picnic place!

There's even a well preserved (restored?) set of sheep round up pens at the end of it, and another old farm, with some rather deep fissures, allegedly with fresh water in the bottom, scattered about the place.

Eventually, after a rather longer than planned walk, taking the horse track, we were back at the car, lightly sunburned, and cooled our feet in the creek at Kaldársel before heading home.