25 July, 2013

I'd gone into work very early for a conference call, so when Logi called to check if I was keen for an afterwork hike at the "early" departure time of 5pm, I said yes for a change!

It had been a spectacular day in town, the first (and last) in quite a while, so it seemed like a perfect idea. We ended up being four, Logi and I, Karolina, who also went to Snæfellsnes with us in June, Katrín, a friend of Logi's from the rescue team, and her brother. Destination, Dýjadalshnúkur, one of the lesser travelled peaks on Esja.

It was still sunny in town when we left, with a few clouds on the mountains, but things were looking decidedly grotty when we got to the start. We decided to continue, on the hope to get above the clouds, and because, damnit jim, we came here to hike!

We hiked up onto the ridge, and sure enough, we got up above the clouds. And what clouds! The clouds had rolled in and swallowed up the world. We had a few mountains sticking out of a sea of white, more like being on a plane than just a few minutes from town!

Of course, being above the clouds meant we were in the sun. And it was sunnnnny and it was steeeeep (in parts) so I sweated and sweated and sweated, but we got there. Great views, really nice walk without a soul in sight.

Coming back down we descended back into the clouds, complete with fog bows! And goats! I'd never seen goats wild/loose, so that was neat.

Footnotes: We were a little under 4 hours car to car. And of course, the sun in town had only lasted for a few minutes after we drove it, it stayed buried in fog all night.