Adventure with a Flickr friend.

Bhakti, my Flickr friend, came to Iceland for a weekend trip. He contacted me before he came, and we planed to meet at Sunday the 2. mars in Iceland, at his hotel.

When I looked out the window that morning, it was snowing and a strong wind, typical Icelandic winter. Well I didn't think we would go walking in this weather so I dressed casually, like every other day. I was at the hotel 10:10 in the morning and found Bhakti in the lobby waiting for me. I was a little late, had to take the snow of the car, and the traffic was slow also.

There is nothing which can prepare you for the Icelandic winter, except if you have been in northern country in winter of curse, and know haw to dress for the occasion. Bhakti have been to Iceland few times before, and was dressed for the weather of curse, real traveler and prepared for the winter.

We started by looking at Gljúfrastein, the home of Halldór Laxness, a Nobel price winner. His house is a museum, and is located in Mosfellsbæ, not far from Reykjavik. This was an interesting trip and well worth seeing. We had nothing really planed, apart from this. I then suggested to take a look at Rauðhóla in Heiðmörk and we did. The weather was not going down and as we came to Rauðhóla, there was heavy snow and the road was hard to travel. The car nearly got stuck in the snow as I was going further in to Heiðmörk. I had to stop and drive backward, as I could not turn the car until few meters back.

As this was not a good enough warning, I took the road to Bláfjöll (Blue Mountain). I wanted Bhakti to see the beautiful landscape and the great ski resort we have there. Just out side Reykjavik we took the road to Bláfjöll. It was icy and as we got further up to the mountain, the snow got heavier on the road. About half way up to the ski resort, we hit snowstorm. I just had time to stop the car before we hit a snow block on the road. There was a jeep stuck in there and the driver was outside in the storm. I got out of the car and walked to him. Asked if we could do anything to help. He told me he was waiting on his friends from the rescue time (Hjálparsveitin í Mosfellsbæ). They have been up in the mountains, training the dogs that day, to rescue people from snow slides, and they would be heading down the mountain any minute.

I realised (big surprise) that this was the end of the road, we could not go any further. As I tried to turn the car around, it got stuck of curse. So we had to wait for the rescue time also, to save us from this mess. We did not have to wait for long, till we saw 4 specially equipped jeeps heading toward us, down the mountain. These men are well trained and ready for anything when it come to rescue people, under extreme conditions. We were very lucky that they were there to help us. They got the jeep and my car out of the snow block, in just few minutes, with the right equipment. It was for them, like for us to stop on the street and say hello to some one. Great men and million thanks to them for saving our asses (my stupid ass anyhow ;-)).

For the rest of the day I toured around Reykjavik, and eventually dropped Bhakti of by the swimming pool in Laugardalur. He was going to have a hot bath after all that snow and cold weather. :-)

Bhakti got some photos from this trip on his Flickr website. Just fallow this link, if you like to look and comment on them. The photos in this post are taken by Bhakti, and used by his permission.

Have a nice day,

Ævar B. Jak.

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