Try as I might, the pronunciation of these Icelandic cities just doesn’t roll off my tongue. Djupivogur, on the east coast was today’s stop. It’s hard to think that cities like this, with a population of 500, have been trading centers since the 1500’s but they have.
This was what I call a ‘bus day’ since it took 1 1/2 hours to get to the glaciers which are in the national park. Now mind you, the word ‘park’ is very loosely interpreted as all we saw was a gravel road which ended at the glacier. One does not walk on this glacier like we did in Alaska after being helicoptered in on a trip years ago. Rather, we walked up a very rocky path to peer down on melted parts of the glacier to look up to the huge ice with its expanse cascading down the mountains. Dom and our friend Larry went down the hill to capture beautiful images. Dom stuck his hand into the frigid water just for fun.
Next stop was the Icelandic horses where we were first treated to 3 young ladies proudly riding these lovely, sweet horses round their tracks. The horse farm owner took her 16 year old horse and raced him up and down the track in a manner I have never seen. She adds protective ‘cuffs’ to his front hoofs so he doesn’t injure himself while racing as the back hoofs actually can clip the front hooves in this style of racing. We were able to visit with the horses after their show. They were so gentle and calm and loved the attention.
One tidbit we learned about the sheep we saw along the trek: they stay in groups of 3; the mommy and her 2 babies. There could be a field of sheep and you would see clusters of three.
Also, the sheep are allowed to roam free throughout the town for months until early September. At that time the owners must travel throughout the area to gather their sheep which have been ear tagged. The owners are beginning to use chips on the sheep to better locate them. Can you imagine traveling all over the place in search of your sheep, looking here there and everywhere?
We rewarded ourselves with Afternoon Tea when we returned to the ship; actually trying to warm up after a ‘summer’ day in Iceland of about 41 degrees,
Tomorrow we are off to the Vok baths.
No comments:
Post a Comment