Lunar landing in Reykjavik
The descent was a quick 20 minutes into Iceland. We rented a green 4-door Opel with license plate “TV 222″ and set out for Reykjavik….”Sweet Home Alabama” on the radio.
Surreal.
Have we landed on the moon? Where was the green grass? The waterfalls? The land around the airport was rocky–like a dug up construction site, for miles. Every now and again, we spotted red roof houses in the distance–across the rocks. It was early morning, nothing was open, the streets were empty.
Gullfoss
Jet lagged and without a home to go to yet, we decided to drive the 45 miles to Gullfoss waterfall. The morning sky was overcast…low, dark gray-periwinkle clouds squeezed a thin, bright white break of sky at the horizon line. We passed fields of short reddish-yellow grasses, blue mountains in the distance, very few buildings, and only one or two cars. We arrived around 9 a.m. Not another soul around. You heard the wind and the distant rumble of water–lots of water–and saw the far-off Langjokull glacier from the parking area. We followed the path and in about 10-15 minutes stood at the waterfall’s edge.
Good LORD! It was HUGE! Majestic! Loud! Gullfoss–“the golden waterfall”–is the River Hvita tumbling down a deep canyon 70 meters deep and 2.5 kilometers long. I read somewhere that it was to be dammed, until a farmer’s daughter walked to Reykjavik to protest. Now, it is a national monument.
We walked down some steep stone steps, embedded in the ground and slick with mist and moss. The path led us to an outcropping of rocks that change the path of the waterfall. There is a view point from here that puts you below the water fall (as it is falling into the canyon crack before the spit of land you stand on). It is a shocking perspective. Fear nearly rooted me to the spot. Bryan wandered on. I stood there–mist flying up at me in the waterfall’s perpetual rain. The sound was deafening. It was so green, the smell so freshly intense of moist earth. The wind alternated between playing and pushing. And I stood there. Locked into the moment that has become a dreamlike memory. We spent over an hour there, trying to absorb the spectacle.
