Snæfellsness 2

 We lucked out with another pleasantly sunny day, and decided we would first go to the REAL National Park Visitor Center, then go around to the north side and return on the only paved road we hadn't yet taken...the little bit of Route 54 that cuts through from the north side to the south side between Ólafsvík and Buðir.  It looks pretty wiggly on the map, so we expected some nice scenery.

This long-sought visitor center was also quite small, but had a lot more information packed in.  Unfortunately, we've been to Iceland so often that we knew most of the "interesting facts", so we didn't end up spending very long.  But there was a sign out front, indicating that the Lóndrangar sea stacks that we took so many pics of the day before, were only a 15-minute walk.  A walk sounded good after 2 days of mostly driving, so we grabbed our jackets and cameras and set off.

Always be leery when locals tell you how long it will take to walk somewhere. The walking wasn't exactly straightforward.  There was a very well-travelled trail, with red-topped white posts every so often (except when the trail was neither obvious nor marked). Part of the trail was packed dirt, part was cobbled with beach stones pressed into the mud, and part was just very large-grained sand (i.e. pebbles of assorted sizes). This "potential sand" was....interesting to walk on. Not quite as hard going as beach sand, but not really solid footing either. Every step shifted just slightly as you put weight on it.

Watch out for sinkholes!

There's a path there....

Ummm....sure....

Nor was it flat.  There were some steepish bits to climb up, which would have been a snap if we had thought to bring the hiking poles. After about 45 minutes of this 15-minute walk, both of us had removed our jackets and were enjoying the brisk sea air.  We ended up not going quite all the way, as we had more plans for the day, but we still got some nice shots.

The walk back went a bit faster, as it always seems to.  By then it was lunchtime, so we went back to Arnarstapi to try a different cafe.  We went to one that seemed to be named simply "Restaurant", and had some lovely lamb stew and a piece of incredibly-delicious chocolate cake with whipped cream.

We decided we might as well check out the rest of Arnarstapi and went down toward the harbor.  There was a nice viewpoint and a small bird cliff. We saw some people up on a hill across the road, and thought we would try the view from there.  As we crossed the entrance to the boat ramp, Lars went SPLAT! Face down on the asphalt. As he was lying there catching his breath, a young man came trotting up and helped get him seated on the curb, then went back to his van for some water and paper towels. Lars was bleeding pretty good from his forehead and the bridge of his nose.  Incredibly, his glasses were unharmed, though they did a number on his nose, for sure.

Another young man (French? Belgian?) came up with a whole first-aid kit, and we got Lars somewhat patched up. He seemed a bit disoriented but generally coherent (in two languages, I can't judge the quality of the Russian he came out with). We all helped him up, and he was surprisingly steady on his feet as we walked the short distance back to the car.  Our Good Samaritan with the paper towels turned out to be from Boulder!

Anyway--that was the end of that day.  We went back to the hotel, where I commandeered ALL of their ice cubes for an ice-pack (I brought a small, old-style ice bag in case my ankle needed it at some point). He lay down with it on his forehead/nose and soon went to sleep.  He woke up after about an hour and I changed the provisional bandage with some gauze from the hotel first-aid kit. He was still coherent and not showing any signs of concussion.  I notified his daughters about all of this.  Erika contacted her step-daughter Alix, who is a nurse, and we got more solid info on what to watch out for.

He took another nap, woke up, ate dinner, and felt good enough to go for a short walk up the road.  It's so cool to hear such different bird sounds!  Redshanks, Whimbrels, Plovers and more.  Not exactly the sounds of an evening in Westminster, CO!

He slept well (better than I did, frankly), got up, took a shower, ate breakfast, and then felt a little "off", so he lay down for a while.  I took our bags out to the car, as we needed to return the rental by 11:30.  He was feeling better by then, so we drove the 2 hours back to Reykjavik.  We had a small scare about where the next gas station was (is it better to go back to Arnarstapi, where we know there's a station, but then we'll be at least an hour late turning in the car....or to go on, where we THINK there's a gas station....???).

There WAS a gas station in the right direction, luckily.  We were only about 20 minutes late turning in the car.  Then we took a cab to the Hotel Grand, to meet up with the tour company and get a good night's sleep before setting sail tomorrow.  After consulting with the tour people, and using Iceland's version of Dial-a-Nurse, we have decided Lars is good to continue.  He is still showing absolutely no signs that anything happened, except for 2 black eyes and a sore nose.  Not even a headache...he must have actually caught a glancing blow on the pavement, so he's scuffed up, but otherwise seems pretty fit.

So that was enough adventure for today! Except Sheila seems to be starting a cold, so there was a walk to a pharmacy for Vitamin C and some ColdZyme throat spray. Hopefully it won't be too cold and rainy on tomorrow's bus tour of the Golden Circle!

By the way... Lars ate all of his fish and chips and salad, and about a third of my burger. I think he's fine.