Day 9

Even though running to the toilet and back had gotten me warmed up a bit before going to sleep, it was not enough to get me through the night. It was raining and winds were very strong and some insight of sheer brilliance made the designer of our tent think it is a good idea to make air holes in the inner tent creating a draught of (admittedly) very fresh air. As we all know it is impossible to sleep when your feet are cold, I learned that a cold nose has exactly the same effect. In the morning, I really did not feel like getting up, but a call of nature will quite effectively do the trick and since I also like food, I figured I would manage to stick this day out as well (and as I mentioned, it did also help that people were very kind and helpful).
When we started our hike, it had stopped raining. I had two tyraps around each of my shoes that our guide engineered to help with my sole-problem. The first one came off within the first kilometer and the others followed shortly after, so I quickly went back to the sports tape solution from before. Luckily also this hike was not very strenuous (partially because I opted for the easy option around one of the mountains instead of over it). We went to a lake in an explosion crater called Ljotipollur, meaning something like ugly mud hole, but it in fact look quite pretty and serene, which I’m sure the Asian and American tourists that were being driven there by off-road vehicles agreed with. Seeing the clouds coming in again, none of us decided to walk all the way around the crater, so we went back to the campsite for lunch.
Willem and I wanted to take another hike in the surrounding highlands after lunch, but then it just started raining again. Not looking forward to spending more time being wet and cold, we decided to wait it out. There was the option to go to the hot spring at the campsite to take a dip with about a few dozen others, but we did not want to get our stuff wet without a proper option to get it dry again. Moreover that one blister on my heel did not look or feel very healthy, and since I don’t have good experience with infections that close to bone I did not want to get that thing into a crowded public pool either. Instead we took or books for the first time since our flight to Iceland and read them in the relatively comfortable seats of the truck. When the rain stopped we did go for a small walk around the campsite and I do have to say that I was quite amazed at how diverse the scenery at the three difference campsites was. The hills and mountains here appeared to be less rugged than at the other sites and more barren, but displaying a spectacle of colors, mostly red/brownish, but also greens, yellows, hints of black and even blues and white patches of snow.
Luckily, after dinner it was not raining, so we could again take a get-warm-before-bed walk. We walked up the path that we were going to take the next day, just to see whether it would be doable on sneakers. When it stopped being doable on sneakers, we walked back towards our camp and when we turned one of the corners on the winding mountain path we stared straight into the eyes of three sheep. Somehow sheep on Iceland don’t stick in large herds and they were mostly seen in groups of three executing their legal(!) right to roam freely literally everywhere. During the stare-down on this narrow path, I noticed the big horns on these animals (designed for head buds in rivalry fights, with the potential to crush tibias) and the nasty looks they were giving us. If intimidation was what they were going for, it worked. Willem and I looked for a spot where we could climb up the side of the mountain a bit. The first two then approached us looking very nasty at us and I warned Willem not to look straight into their eyes. Then, when they reached to spot where we were, they abruptly looked ahead and made a run for it, looking a lot less daunting all of a sudden. Then there was panic in the eyes of the third one that had stayed behind and realized that it was now on its own. It tried to look impressive while running towards us and although we were not falling for that anymore, we let it pass in peace as well (because that’s the kind of live-and-let-live people that we are).