Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.05.2018, Síða 46

In 1871, the famed poet and social-
ist William Morris decided to leave
London behind for what the English
then considered simply ‘the edge of
the map.’ Morris and a few comrades
packed their bags, caught a train, and
set out for Iceland.
In his now-famous travel diary,
he notes that, if we travel to escape
ourselves, we find it difficult to leave
ourselves behind. This is especially
true of the British. Upon his arrival
in Reykjavík, Morris encountered a
fellow Englishman who, after three
weeks sailing to get there, wandered
around downtown in the rain and then
took the next boat back to England.
I, too, am guilty of this. Despite
having visited the country eight times
in five years, I’ve never travelled north
of Bifröst or east of Jökulsárlón. Be-
cause in Iceland, the car is king, and
without wheels, I found it hard to leave
Reykjavík.
Not this time. This time, I would go
beyond cars.
All aboard the 57
When the Stræto 57 bus to Akureyri
rolls into Mjódd, its majesty is near-
blinding. Big, yellow, and blue in all
the right places: now this is a BUS,
here to eclipse you with its massive
headlights and its all-caps. The Stræto
#57 is a beast, ready to huff and puff
you to Akranes and beyond.
It is also glacially slow. Serving as
a public ‘country bus,’ it takes six and
a half hours to get to Akureyri, ver-
sus four hours by car. This makes for
an authentic cultural experience, in
which one can witness firsthand pre-
cisely how unimpressed locals are by
the jaw-dropping landscapes outside
the windows.
Without needing to pay attention to
the road, though, one can lose oneself
as a passenger in the land. The lava
fields steer you effortlessly towards
those distant mountains, growing
ever closer until finally, the fjords rise
up around you.
Four legs good,
two legs bad
It’s hard to see how anyone could
have ever survived on this island be-
fore cars—and without horses, they
wouldn’t have. Before the roads and
engines took over, Iceland was con-
quered by horses. They’re still one of
the more reliable modes of transport
available today, capable of traversing
the terrain better than any 4x4.

Our crisp morning ride through the
valley surrounding Akureyri is the
polar opposite of the bus journey. You
become a rider instead of a passenger,
navigating the land in dialogue with
another sentient being. In my case, it’s
a wobbly dialogue.
“I’ve been riding Icelandic hors-
es for years,” says Elena, our guide.
“They’re pretty… special.” A lifelong
horserider, she moved here from Ger-
many to work for Hestaleigan Kátur, a
horseback tour company based in the
valley by Akureyri.
Elena explains that the horses share
an important connection with the
land, and that their riders follow them
through the seasons. Every Autumn,
Elena packs beers into her saddlesack
and joins 3,000 other riders for the
annual Laufskálarétt round-up—by all
accounts, a rather debaucherous week-
end spent rounding up herds of wild
horses from their Highland pastures,
and one I am resolutely unqualified to
ever participate in.
Miami ice
Settled in the 9th century, Akureyri
is built around the natural harbour at
the end of Eyjafjörður. With 60km of
water, the fjord is vast, lined by moun-
tains that run all the way to the ocean.
It‘s exactly the kind of place that is
begging to be sliced up by a speedboat.
The express tour, with local guides
Elding Whale Watching Akureyri,
gives you the opportunity to do exactly
that. Steered by Iceland‘s first female
whale-watching captain, the Sólfar is
a small, high-speed RIB boat designed
specifically to get up close and person-
al with the local whale and cetacean
population. Encounters with hump-
backs and porpoises are frequent,
while minke and even blue whales are
known to swing by on occasion.
The boat shoots towards the mouth
of the fjord like a bullet, riding over
the waves. When we’re far enough out,
the engine is switched off, and we fall
into searching silence. A flash of a fin
“With a roar of the
engine, we race
down into the rift
valley, kicking up
clouds of black
dust in our wake.”
Travel
Distance
from Reykjavík:
380 km
Bus trip
provided by:
straeto.is
Whale trip
provided by:
elding.is
Horse trip
provided by:
hestaleiga.is
Bike trip
provided by:
amazingnorth.is
How to get there:
Bus 57, or drive
Route One North
46The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08 — 2018
The North Iceland
Pentathlon
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads
Words & Photos: Ciarán Daly
A whale makes a celebrity appearance
SPRING
SPECIAL
On all day tours in
May with Icelandic
Mountain Guides
+354 587 9999 · info@mountainguides.is · mountainguides.is
Valid on all departures
in May 2018
Book your tour online
or at the nearest booking
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