Sunset at the glacier

On Wednesday we were supposed to check out the massive glacier Vatnajökull, but it was really foggy so we had to cross that from the to-to list. Fotunately we still got a good close look at it on Tuesday evening and we were treated to some amazing sunset scenery.

Tuesday - 1000m off track

We had decided to climb Mt. Bulandstindur (1069m) and we sat off during a very stormy morning. It's a pyramid mountain starting from almost zero and even though we didn't have a map we thought we'd probably find the trail anyway. We didn't! We circulated the mountain and then just took it head on, off track. We had to stop just shy off the top because the mountain were falling apart but we were still very pleased with ourselves. We finished off by having to wade through quite a deep river. The photo is of the surroundings as we had our snack close to the top.

Monday - off road and rain

We had planned for a great hike today and drove through 12km terrain which Hertz probably wouldn't have agreed with, but when we arrived to our planned starting point it was raining hard and visibility in the mountains was really poor because of heavy fog. The hike got cancelef and instead we went for a swim in a hot pool and then headed south. We eventualy ended up in the little fishing Djupavogur of which a harbour photo is attached. In the evening we had dinner at a great restaurant, after we once more went for a little swim in the local hot pool.

Sunday - a sunny walk

We haven't really been spoiled with sun so far but during a little Sunday hike along an eastern fjord we were treated to fantastic weather and spectacular views.

Saturday powerfall

We popped by Dettifoss, which is the most powerful waterfall in Europe (though not the biggest). The little yellow dot to the left is Ania. This thing was just massive

Mud bath

We found a thermal 'pool' in the mountains and decided to try it out. The bottom was soggy with clay but it was still quite fun. Besides from this one we have probably done another four thermal baths.

Steamy

On Thursday the 19th we hiked a couple of hours to get to an awesome geothermail area in the highlands. The nature was absolutely unreal.

A suite

Because we arrived early to the hotel we got bumped up to a two floor room. Concidering we payed for it using bonus points we can't complain.

Iceland - July 2012

It's once again time to dust off the old blog and head out on a new adventure. This time we're off to Iceland.

Friday - almost perfect

The temperature was down to 2 degrees during the night but we didn't experience it that cold at all. Maybe because we have had soon much colder in the past and were prepared for worse.

As we sat off the sun made an appearance and we gladly accepted the warm rays. It actually turned out to be the most fantastic day and we had an Amazing lunch overlooking a valley. At 4 we again reached Grovelsjon but we thought the weather was too nice to jump into the car and drive all the way to Stockholm so we decided to stay until saturaday.

After a quick look at the map we jumped into the car and drove to a place called Lövåsen. It looked like it would be possible to hike a couple of km up the mountain and find a good spot for the night.

The reality though proved different. We didn't find a good water source and the place was infected with mosquitos. We admitted ourselves defeated and two hours later we again found ourselves back at the car. The time was getting late and our feet and backs were soar but we needed a place to sleep. We again decided to drive back to Grovelsjon and hike a while up the mountain again to a good spot we has seen earlier that day.

Sitting in the car on the way back we drove pass a nice mountain hotel. We looked at each other and it was decided, our bodies didn't feel like climbing another mountain so we checked in at Storsätra Fjällhotell insted.

Thursday - 50/50

Today was both fantastic and really shitty.
In the morning we walked past a mountain lake and went for a swim..almost, because the water was super cold. But it was very nice. We then hiked for about 10km enjoying sun, clouds and some serious wind. Then it started to rain and even though the forecast was 0mm rain for the afternoon it never really stopped. We had decided to hike one of the highest peaks in the area but half way up we had to turn back because of the weather.

We decided for another route that took us through a 5km mosquito infected swamp that forced us to dig out our mosquito net's in panic. When we broke through the weather was getting worse again and the time was getting late. After a while we found a very nice place where we made camp. We expect a really cold night but that shouldn't be a problem since we are well dressed.

Wednesday - hello Norway

We woke up to some sever wind. The tent was very difficult to keep grounded when we took it down. After about an hour it started to rain but it never got really bad. After a while we walked a few kilometers through some forrest and for the first time we got to feel the anger of the evil mosquitos. We were hunted out from the woods and agreed that we would not be sleeping below the tree line anytime soon.

In the afternoon the sun peeked out and we could enjoy a very nice evening as well. We have set camp with a fantastic view of a valley, though it took forever to find some flat ground in between all the rocks.

Thursday - 50/50

Today was both fantastic and really shitty.
In the morning we walked past a mountain lake and went for a swim..almost, because the water was super cold. But it was very nice. We then hiked for about 10km enjoying sun, clouds and some serious wind. Then it started to rain and even though the forecast was 0mm rain for the afternoon it never really stopped. We had decided to hike one of the highest peaks in the area but half way up we had to turn back because of the weather.

We decided for another route that took us through a 5km mosquito infected swamp that forced us to dig out our mosquito net's in panic. When we broke through the weather was getting worse again and the time was getting late. After a while we found a very nice place where we made camp. We expect a really cold night but that shouldn't be a problem since we are well dressed.

Tuesday - Arrived

We left a sunny Stockholm just before 9 in the morning and about 7h later we arrived to Grövelsjön mountain lodge. We had just driven through some rain and it was a whole lot colder than the summer we left behind. Since we arrived quite late a both were tired we decided to just do a short hike. We walked 7 easy km and sat camp at the foot of the mt Storvätteshågna which is the highest peak on the Swedish side in this area.

When we were making supper it started to rain..of course...we are probably haunted by some evil rain god because no matter where we go it always rain. It was also very windy which made it a little chilly. Dinner was great and we will go to bed happy..

Grövelsjön

This summer we are hiking a few days around Grövelsjön in Dalarna (in Sweden). We still haven't decided exactly which route to take. Either we will hike from Grövelsjön around lake Rogen, into Norway and down to Grövelsjön again, or we will hike a smaller route below lake Rogen and do some peaks instead. We are probably leaning towards the latter since we will have less time in the woods (where the mosquito's live) and get better views.

We'll try to do daily updates on the blog but of course it depends on cellular reception in the mountains.

leaving

We had a soft morning with a really nice breakfast with fresh bread and home made jam on the patio. After having found the way to the airport we managed to get through the pain to check in and through customs and security check. Now we are just about to board the flight and start the long journey back home. We'll be bringing som sun so pleace remove the snow storms.

A long drive

We woke up early to get the most out our last full day in Chile. Just north of Termas del Socos is a strange rain forrest located where it actually shouldn't be, called Fray Jorge and we wanted to check it out. As we left the highway we realised that is was a 25km drive on a crappy gravel road to get there and since we were a bit short on time and we decided to turn back and head south instead.

We made a quick stop to be amazed by the enormous waves from the pacific that clashed onto the shores.

A little further south we stopped in the little coastal town Pichidangui for lunch. As usual it was a bit over priced compared to what was served and my 'seaf food soup' tasted a bit funny but Anias fish was quite alright.

The goal of today was Vina del Mar which we had heard would be a beautiful but slighly blant city close to the coast. We reached VdM just after 16 and then started to look for a place to stay. Quite quickly we realized that all of Santiago had come here for the weekend and pretty much all places had printed notes on the doors saying they were full. After 30min of getting rejected we drove down to the ocean to decide what to do.
The sight that met us was astonishing. On a little 200m stretch of sand we finally saw our "penguins". Though they were not really of the kind we had been hoping for but the many thousands of people that had packed themselevs on that small beach could just as well have been penguins, because that's what they looked like.

Now we had had it with Vina del Mar and thought that if all of Santiago had came here it would be a breeze to find a place to stay there instead. The first two phone calls was neegative and we actually started to get a bit worried but then we found what sounded like a nice b&b that had room for us and we grabbed it instantly.

It took about 1.5h to drive into Santiago and it was a bit of a shame that we didn't know this before because we could have saved quite a lot of time then. The place we found is called El Patio Suizo and is located in a vey nice area of Santiago and it is super cozy. We felt that the day would probably end on a high note after all.

We walked a good 30min to a restaurant called Cafe del Patio to have dinner. For a change we got some really good food and we practically rolled our way back home.

It was actually good that we went back to Santiago because this evening has really showed the city from its best and we now feel a lot more positive about it.

Tomorrow we are leaving Chile.
We have a soft morning ahead of us that we will enjoy here in the patio. The Swiss couple that runs the place have just baked a special swiss bread that we will have for breakfast and it smells great.

Contrasts

Today we really got to see many different sides of Chile.

We woke up in sunny Vicuna and had a long breakfast and then very slowly packed our stuff together as we enjoyed the morning sun and waited for some laundry to dry.

Heading out to the coast we stopped to have a walk on the massive dam just west of Vicuna. It's an impressive construction and beautiful to see all that water in the middle of a lanscape that is very close to being a desert. Here we also tasted Copao(?) which is the fruit that grows on cactus. We also had some juice from fresh fruit that was almost destryed from too much of the Chilean-never-ending-love for sugar.

We reached the coastal city La Serena just after noon and stopped for lunch. It's an hectic city with quite a lot of traffic. The advantage though of driving in a bigger city is that one-way streets are marked on the GPS and that makes it a whole lot easier.

After having walked around the central plaza for a while we felt like a coffe and a tea. Chile have no cafe culture and it's a bit of a gamle to set your foot into something that is branded cafe. There is no such thing as order at the counter and that makes just having a quick coffee into a bigger project. Anyhow, we got our coffee and tea together with a massive piece of cake. We were a bit sceptical towards the cake because we had a similar one on the night we got food poison and we are not sure if it was from the food or the cake.

We left La Sarena around 16 and started to drive south. As the motorway followed the coastline the ocean simply looked to inviting so we drove off the panamericana highway at a no-name little town along the way. We dipped our feet in the cold pacific water and then enjoyed a fresh melon in the sun (sugarless).

In the late afternoon we reached our goal for the day. Termas de Socos is located at the end of a 2km gravel road off the highway. It's a place with thermal baths and the whole place is surrounded by nothing but sand, rocks and cactus. We took a walk in the cool Lucky Luke western landscape and then prepared dinner. When it got dark we watched the stars while eating some chocolate that had melted in the car when it was parked in the sun.

Czesc rodzinka! Blog mozna latwo przetlumaczyc poprzez www.translate.google.com - wystarczy skopiowac adres strony (http://www.almostneverlost.blogspot.com) i wkleic na stronie Google Translate. W ustawieniach wybrac trzeba jezyk( z ang. na pol.). Caluski Ania

from crap to stars

Yesterdays dinner came with the additional treat of food poisoning and we have been feeling quite crappy most of today. As we are approaching the evening we are slowly returning back to normal but I think we are getting a bit tired with Chilean cousine.

When it comes to food Chile don't have too much exciting to offer for a food lover and no matter where you go it's all pretty much the same. We did have some really good food down in Puerto Natales but that was an African restaurant. You can probably find some good food in Santiago as well but you really need to know where to look. We have understood that Chileans are a bit afraid to loose their face if they go into a restaurant and don't understand the meny and that might be one answer to the conformity of what's served.

The old French Consulate we stayed as was very charming at first sight but it was very run down and for sanity reasons we were happy to leave.
After we had breakfast we slowly drove inlands towards Vicuna. Every city in Chile we have driven through has proven to be a project in itself. The one way streets are spread at random and they are not indicated on the gps which makes it only useful for macro navigation. This morning it took ages just to get out of Coquimbo and we drove in circles several times. Btw for some reasons the drivers in Chile are in love with the horn on their car and downtown of any city/village is a constant honking symphony.

We reached Vicuna just after lunch and found a fantastic little garden of a hostel in the middle of town where we could camp. In the afternoon we just kicked back and lay under a tree enjoying the sun and treated our bellies.

This part of Chile is known for very few cloudy nights and there are several astrological obervatories located here. After the sun had set we took a trip into the mountains to see the Mamalluca observatory where we got to peek in their telescope and a energetic guide tought us how to use stars to navigate. Very little information actually stuck but it was an amazing evening.

Now we are enjoying a quiet night with the crickets under a star covered sky.

The scenic route

Today we decided to head inlands to check out the Chilean countryside and what we had been told was some cool rough nature. We left Los Vilos and drove a couple of hours east until we hit the little city Illapel where we had a slightly chaotic lunch; The waitress was really nice but didn't understand a word of english and even though we tried our best to speak from our dictionaries we probably scared her a little bit.

We continued north and as we drove through the mountains we were treated to amazing sceneries, almost moon like with lots of cacti and the occasional goat and donkey. It's crazy that some people actually live in this brutal environment, though not very many.

After a few more hours of driving through desert like mountain terrain we reached wine country. We didn't stop for samples, instead we headed back out towards the coast.

After a long but very nice day in the car we reached the coastal city Coquimbo, just south of La Serena. We found a room in what used to be the old French Consulate, now Hostal National.

Coquimbo didn't have much to offer in restaurant selection and we made what we thought was the least bad choice. We stuffed ourselves with something that made the Punta Arena junk food seem like Micheline quality and then we had coffee and tea in a friendly Brittish style cafe.

As we came back to the hostel the area blacked out and we had cozy candles in our room. The blackout only lasted 10minutes though and it was a little bit of a disappointment to be able to flick the switch again.

The picture is from Illapel where Ania has just gotten hold of quite a big water melon that we later treated ourselves to on the side of the road.