Summer of rainbows, 2013

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In the southern part of Iceland we have had rain twice the whole summer. First for 25 days and then for 50 days. At least after 100 years the people in this country will have enough clean, fresh drinking water! This is what you have to say to survive a summer without sunshine, a summer so cold and windy that you have never experienced anything like it before. I think I have aged this summer more than any other – day after day hoping the sun will show itself, but all you see is rain. Ah! But again – I have never seen so many rainbows in one summer as I have this summer. Showers of rain mean there was sun somewhere in the sky. Let me show you some of the rainbows – or bifrost as the rainbow is called in the mythology.



By Dettifoss we managed to walk in dry weather and the sun broke through the clouds for just a few minutes. Then it started to rain again. One of my tourists had said earlier on the tour that every time the driver switched off the bus, the sun started to shine – or at least it stopped raining. When we were by the waterfall and the rain started I shouted to my group that this was most likely a sign from our driver that we were to return to the bus!



All my groups, my tourists have been nice – so far. However, I can understand now why the world cannot agree on so many things. What one nation thinks is the most important in life is not important for others. Say for instance, stick to time and do what you are told. Some of my groups have done that while others take their time in each place we stop. Some draw the curtains in the bus between places and only need 20 minutes in each place while others comment on everything they see on the way and take extra 10 minutes in each place.



My blind groups are great, so happy. There is always one sighted person with each blind, a partner to explain the landscape around. The first blind group had fantastic weather end of July so we did some extra like looking into a cave near Reykjavik. We were a bit frightened when one of the blind ladies walked so far into the cave that we were afraid she would not get back the right way. No worries, she got back and was thrilled to try a cave where you need to squeeze and hold your breath to be able to get into it.



The second blind group was not so lucky weather-wise as the first one. Rain most of the time but still – again – somehow the rain stopped when the bus stopped at sites to see. The snout of a glacier is one of the things my blind groups love. To touch the hundreds of years old ice with all the dust and ash on top of it is so special that when I finally asked them to return to the bus one lady said: Ah, do we have to! And so the rain started, simply like it were saying, yes you have to go back to the bus.



My last tour of this summer was a bit different. I had two people who rented a car and I was only their guide, sitting in the front seat trying to find places of interest to show them, find people to whom they could chat. We were all around Iceland for 7 days and it only rained one day, sunshine the other days.

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Photos

Skogafoss
Very often we see a rainbow here, or is it the chest full og gold hidden behind?

Bifröst
The name of the rainbow in the Norse mythology, Bif: something that moves; röst: a current

Gullfoss
Always so pretty

Solheimajökull
On the way to the snout of a glacier

Rainbow
Above the trees

Dettifoss
Muddy and powerful

Clouds in a game
We, the clouds, do not hide the sun out of spite, we are only looking at the humans in games