The Cold Gives Me a Cold

The following day we moved on from Jökulsárlón to near Höfn, a relatively short drive but we stopped on the way to photograph wonderful light over the hills a mile or two back from the coast, despite the fact that we could only see thick cloud. We also stopped to photograph a cute little yellow house where Lee used to stay in years gone by, and a particularly photogenic group of Icelandic ponies.

We checked in to the hotel quite early, as obviously this far up the coast they are not busy at this time of year. The other good piece of news is that Chris was finally reunited with his missing bag! (After "only" 5 days…)

We took lunch at the Kaffi Hornið. They’re interpretation of the Icelandic principle of "get at least this amount of money out of each tourist" is delicious fare, but portions at least twice the size they need to be. I had a steak sandwich, which was absolutely delicious, but looked suspiciously like a sliced cow between two pieces of bread.

After lunch we found the Höfn computer store, and I was finally equipped with a working mouse, which has transformed the work on my writing and images.

We then drove up to Stokksnes, a small peninsula in the shadow of Vestrahorn Mountain, the famous "witches hat" which extends over a black beach full of small black dunes, and also puddles which were just melting to give me some scope for reflections.

Unfortunately by the end of the visit the cold was starting to catch up with me – I felt very weary and had a dreadful runny nose. I managed dinner, but then went to bed and slept soundly for many hours.

I woke up somewhat rested but still feeling rough, and gave the group breakfast and morning trip a miss. Fortunately this wasn’t a major issue, as the weather closed in and those who went out were battling rain showers and the like.

We again took lunch at the Kaffi Hornið. I tried to negotiate a smaller portion, but failed miserably. Fortunately the fish & chips was less enormous than some of the other options.

I spent the rest of the day alternating between rest (not completely comatose) and sleep (out for the count). I just hope that come tomorrow I will start to feel a bit more human again.