Saturday, September 10, 2016

Iceland/Island


 
On top is Iceland's highest mountain, Hvannadalshnukur.  It can be climbed only when ice bridges span some of the crevasses in the glaciers on it.  This window of opportunity is shrinking yearly and now must be accomplished before June.
  A mountain that sticks up far from the highway in the eastern highlands is Herdjubreidj, its base is around 1200' above sea level and its peak is over a mile high.  We got nice views of it while driving for a few hours, and when we pulled over to read an information board about it there were a bunch of motorcyclists gearing up to ride in that direction on an F road.
  F roads are back country dirt roads that lack bridges at river crossings among other challenges, it's illegal to drive on them unless you have a high-clearance, 4X4 vehicle.  Our little compact car didn't qualify but did get over some pretty rough dirt roads.  We passed on a couple that were supposedly not too bad, but the ones to the glaciers on the South Coast were a little too rough so we walked in.
  The picture on the bottom is Hoffellsjokull, which like all glaciers in Iceland, is retreating rapidly.  What I found really amazing was the moss growing where the glacier had covered the ground just a year or two previously.

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