Eating snow… Egilsstadir, Iceland

Egilsstadir, Iceland Day 15, 6th July 2014 Eating snow… Day score 8. Packed up the tent and walked back via the Information shop to the airport as I needed to buy any sort of decent map. I’ve now converted Krona to pounds easily, you just divide by 200. Anyway I worked out I have just bought a £12 map!!! They said things were expensive here, but really! Sitting in the arrivals lounge at the airport where there is power and web, a couple of guys are waiting for a plane. The one is a local tour guide the other a rich American going on about how expensive his fishing trip for him and his mates will cost and about percentage profit of their fishing trip and Icelandic business profiles. Why can these people never switch off and stop banging on about business business business… The plane arrived carrying the American’s friends they were waiting for and he told the guide that the plane was a Ferrari. I thought he meant it looked like a Ferrari, but no, he told the tour guide “Yeah, it is a Ferrari, one of the most efficient aircraft ever made, costs a fortune!” I had to put him right and called out “It’s not a Ferrari, it’s a Piaggio P180 Avanti! It is Italian, expensive, stylish but unreliable and over rated, so like a Ferrari, but nothing to do with Ferrari.” He replied that “Yeah ok then, well the engines are built by Ferrari.” I told him “I can’t see how as the Piaggio is powered by two Canadian Pratt and Witney PT6’s?” It shut him up… I can’t stand people who bluff out duff info trying to impress… I spent all afternoon either sitting here looking at weather or sorting out emails, while watching Foker 50 planes of Air Iceland arrive with their even blonder passengers and depart back to Reykjavik with new. I also spent some time out with the plane trying to dry my clothes that got wet. I left the front luggage bay open the day I arrived when leaving in a hurry with the police. I went to pay for camping again only to find no bank card? Dam… Oh heck, I left it in the machine at the information desk when I bought the map… I ran back and peered through the window. There it was, behind the paying desk. I’d get it tomorrow. There is a big waterfall in view high up in the hills and I asked the camp lady if I could get up there, she said there was a path off the road. So at 10pm at night, I put on my running shoes and set off to run up or climb a mountain? Instead of following the road I thought I would just follow the river up to the waterfall. Gosh Iceland is beautiful. I played with birds and the wildlife, who all seemed inquisitive and annoyed by my presence in their environment. I climbed to the stunning waterfall and then higher to the snow line where the snow melt was feeding the flooding river. It was a shame for the little bits of cloud or I could have seen my midnight sun, as it was still above the horizon after midnight, but I couldn’t see it, just pink cloud… I’m not going to say I ran all the way to the snow line, but I did run all the way back to town. Very satisfied with the day I slept well with my tired legs. Thought for the day: It is a beautiful country…

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