Thor's Outdoors!: Approaching Eyjafjallajökull

Approaching Eyjafjallajökull - July 30

Leaving Kirkjubæjarklaustur the road turned southwest across an old lava field and then across Mýrdalssandur, a similar sandy floodplain as I´d crossed the previous days, now only south of the volcanos like Katla under the glacier Mýrdalsjökull. Not too long after starting, I caught up with an Austrian couple, Andreas and Sabine, that were heading to Vík for the day. We rode together for a few kilometres chatting about this and that. They had been touring Albania the previous summer and go on a trip almost every year! When I stopped for lunch later on, it was in a quiet little spot next to a creek not far from Þykkvabæjarklaustur. I learned the story of Katla, a witch that gave name to the volcano not far away. She had a pair of magic breeches! They would lend her the strength of running as far as she'd like without ever getting tired. I wish I had a pair of those! She once killed a man who borrowed them without her permission, so that he could gather all the sheep in the fields before the farmer came home! The rest of the way to Vík was rather quiet, passing all the lupines that had been planted in the sands to prevent erosion and keep the sand from building up on and closing the road. At Vík there was the first real climb in several days and once over that the landscape changed completely. Suddenly I was cycling through farmland with high cliffs on the right to the north, that used to be sea cliffs long ago before the sea receded. It was cloudy also, but once I got closer Eyjafjallajökull poked out of the clouds momentarily so I knew I was getting close to my stop for the night. I pulled in to Skógar at about 7pm, with plenty of time to eat, set up camp and have a look at the majestic Skógafoss before heading to bed.