Iceland Day 5
Friday Morning: 2nd of March
The night in Egilsstadir was probably the most relaxing on the whole trip, even though the cat kept slapping me in the face over the night.
Again we started early this time to a waterfall with the name Hengifoss. It's one of the highest falls in iceland and is located very remote in the valley plus a 3km hike.
We arrived to an empty parking lot. I turned of the car and it was silent for a couple seconds. Then the wind started picking up, shaking our car and making loud noises. Well, I thought, you are in Iceland maybe only once so f*ck it. Packed in four layers of clothes and a ton of gear on the back we probably started breathing hard after the first 5 minutes. It was the first time outside where I actually felt hot even though the weather was really cold.
About half way up you pass a waterfall called Litlanesfoss. It's layout is really nice between cliffs and basaltic rock. In hindsight I'd even say it offers the better options for photgraphy, since you can have different angles from top to bottom and you can even hike to its pool. I can only speak for winter time tho.
Wrapping up and heading on, on the track to Hengifoss, hiking did not get easier. We reached kind of a flat area where the water from Hengifoss seems to break up in couple of smaller streams. It was nicer to walk because it was flat but at the same time we were worried about breaking in - Which eventually happened. From the left side a small creek was coming down. I stepped on the rocks and got over pretty well, but Marco slipped on one of the stones and cracked the ice. In that moment I wasn't looking. I just heard the crack and it sent a shiver down my spine. When I turned around he was about to pull his leg out of the water. Good he was wearing his waterresistant pants and winter boots. The gear didn't let to much water through. We got away lucky.
Standing on the bottom of Hengifoss was overwhelming. Seeing how the water is making its way through ice and snow. Showing itself then hiding again under a frozen winter wonderland. The spray forming all kinds of shapes. Icicles, frozen bubbles and a funnel where the water was falling in from about 100 meters above. And again it was just nature and us. To me it seemed like everything stopped for a moment.
Back at the AIRbnb we showered, tried the selfmade bread and had a talk with our host Elsa. She was such a kind person and we all agreed to come back some summer for better weather and longer time.
Starting our way southeast we had to head over a pass. On the roadside in Iceland every once in a while there are blue, electronic signs with letters and numbers on them. The first two were letters like NE, SW, E etc. which I figured are cardinal directions.
And then followed numbers. To this day I have no clue what they mean. We assumed either wind speed or visibility. This was the first day the number was two characters and RED...
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