10:00PM As predicted, the ducks turned up around 9.30 looking for food, and the world appeared to be heading back to normality after the storm (talking to various people since, these storms happen a couple of times a year, though not with quite the same ferocity). Not long after the ducks had waddled back to the pond, we were on the road. The landscape had completely changed from a couple of days before, the wind and rain wiping out the snow and ice that had covered the ground for miles around, showing the miles and miles of lava fields that had been sitting beneath. The whole area had been farming land until 1783, when the nearby volcano Laki erupted in catastrophic fashion, destroying the whole area, killing up to 25% of the population and 80% of ... read more

Day 10: 9th October 2009 6:40 PM It’s difficult to describe just how strong the winds have been today, but I’ll give it a go. The ducks on the pond outside were blown sideways this morning and disappeared not long after. The pond itself resembles a particularly stormy ocean, the wind whipping up waves that crash against the sides. Even the sheep, those most hardened of weather-beaten animals, have taken refuge outside the front door of the hostel where they are sheltered from the worst of the wind. Perhaps the best way to describe its power, though, is by describing the waterfall in the distance, which appears to actually be travelling upwards, or at least it has stopped and the water is doing nothing more than spraying about at the top. After our cup of tea ... read more

10:15 PM There was no big rush for the shower this morning like there was in Vik. There are five people staying in Hvoll, including us, meaning we are actually outnumbered by bathrooms. This meant that this morning I was able to shower and shave without the pressure of thinking that I need to move quickly just in case somebody had to miss a bus or something just because I wanted to be clean. Not that anybody would be catching a bus from Hvoll, as it was a good 5km or so to walk to the main road, after which they would probably need to hitch a lift if they didn’t want to spend the rest of the day walking to the nearest bus stop. The plan for today was to drive out to Skaftafell national ... read more

8:20 PM By the time the car had crossed the south coast’s flat plains, gradually moved in an upward direction and then back down a steep slope into Vik, it was starting to get dark. We quickly checked into the hostel, which was more like a family guesthouse on the hill, and went straight out for a walk into the town before the light completely failed. The others seemed a bit dubious of going out for a walk at first, mainly because the howling winds seemed to be threatening to rip the hostel away from its hillside residence, but I think we all silently agreed that if that did happen, it was probably best if we were elsewhere at the time. On the way down, we took the main path that we had driven up, crossed ... read more

Day 6: 5th October 2009 11:15 PM The ferry trip back to Þorlákshöfn was calm and we cruised into the dock bang on time, which is more than can be said of the bus back to Reykjavik, which appeared to have been hijacked by a loony bus driver that insisted on getting us back at twice the speed, whether that meant that we bounced around for the entire journey or not. Once back in Reykjavik, we tried soup of the day (broccoli) in the sheep’s head cafe, which was surprisingly good, and not something I would have considered eating at home, then headed to the hostel. Reykjavik still had the same below-freezing temperatures as when we had left a couple of days before, but now the sun was gone and the arctic winds back. Once we ... read more