Water

Well, yes, it's an island, it's rainy, it's snowy, and fishing is central to the economy, but that doesn't convey how water in all forms permeates your experience.

Of course, you're never far from the sea.

Harlan on the island's west-most point, the trailing edge of Europe:

Rain swept through just about every day while we were there, and snow a couple days, and hail--the classic line that if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes, might as well have originated in Iceland.

Water is part of a landscape, the way the sky is.

Whether fresh or salt, it is glass clear.

And, of course, there are waterfalls, so many that you start to kid around, rolling your eyes about pulling over to snap pictures of yet another. The huge Gullfoss waterfall is magical with mist flowing up from the water that pounds down.

You can walk behind Seljalandsfoss waterfall if you've brought your jacket (odds are you probably have) or don't mind getting wet (odds are, you already are, at least slightly)--see the tiny figures left of center here:

Stop the van, another waterfall!

Dynjandi waterfall merited a long visit; I have a good video that's too painfully slow to load, so you'll have to go see it for yourself.

Water here embodies what could make for another post of its own about the contrasts in Iceland--forbidding, hard lava and thick, soft moss; uninhabited country and omnipresent sheep; living and breathing water while your laundry dries overnight: that is, anywhere you go, the water might be freezing or might be boiling. The center of Iceland has a big glacier and others are scattered over the island; you can drive close for access to this one (I could have included this shot in the Color post, no?):

Not all that far from this ice, water boils out of the ground.

I wish I could load my video of this little pool, center of this frame, as you could see and hear it bubbling like a cauldron over a fire, which I guess it is:

Iceland has the original geyser (Geysir); this one, Strokkur, is just a short walk away:

It fires up every five or ten minutes; you can sort of tell when it's ready to go because of the way the pool starts to surge and roll.

I was taken aback that it's not like a fountain, or a hose under pressure, it's an explosion, absolutely throwing water skyward.

Tank heaven

Harlan has made a photographic meal of some water tanks, so he has had to tolerate friends pointing tanks out to him ever since. But the tanks that used to hold herring oil at Djupavik did give him a veritable playground with his camera.

You can go inside two of the tanks now.

One of the tanks has wonderful acoustics, fun for whistling and singing. There's an occasional concert in it, even. Eva, the innkeeper, taught her son to skate in the other one when the water in it would freeze solid in winter.

Harlan spent some hours in the tanks with his film camera; these are just my snapshots for a flavor of the atmosphere: ethereal, mysterious...

Out again:

Djupavik

We spent the last few days of our time in Iceland in Djupavik, on the east side of the West Fjords.

It's pretty much just a few summer cottages and the Hotel Djupavik, in a building that served as the women's barracks for the herring plant that was built there in the 30s and long since abandoned, now the focus of an effort to keep it from completely disintegrating.

It offers a gorgeous, remote setting, utterly quiet other than the sound of the waterfall by the herring plant, the wind, and the shore.

Along with the hike we did to the top of the waterfall, we took in the local color and did a spectacular walk along the road around the fjord.

There's a gas station, perhaps closed for the season, but you could take a picnic there if you like.

It's windy, so the tree in this garden is carefully tied down.

This garden features a cold frame, enough for winter veggies in through the summer?

We made friends with Freya, the inn's border collie, who happened to be in heat, so she and the other dog in town, the neighbor's little puffball, were pretty distracted by each other.

We had some fabulous meals of soups, lamb, and fish, but we missed out on the fresh goose.