We are all fine!!!

For those who perhaps scrutinize the news, you may or may not have run across a tiny article entitled "Iceland hit by earthquake" and this is to confirm that yes, for once they got the news totally accurate! Maybe journalists should stick to just the things that are TRUE and observable such as weather events from now on. It will be interesting to see in heaven, (where your whole life and more! is stored on video) how many lives were ruined by false reporting, twisting of the truth and lives shattered by deliberate lies parading as the truth......but that is an idea for another blog.........

Back to the earthquake! I had planned on going into Selfoss to do our main food shopping, but Eman wanted to take a drive towards Vik, to hunt down a specific guesthouse which he had heard was for sale. There is a beautiful house about 20 kms away which used to be owned by a doctor who wanted to open a health spa at the foot of a mountain called Lambafell. Evidently all the plans came to a halt due to problems. Now the house is being used as a guesthouse and we were sitting with the caretaker/manager having coffee when all of the sudden the whole house started shaking! Now this house is huge by Icelandic standards, and built of gigantic logs from Canada so the thought that this could actually start shaking was rather incredible. We ran outside for safety, and in the distance we could hear and see in the neighboring mountain the loud rumble of a rock slide coming down the near vertical slope. Soon a herd of Icelandic horses came thundering by to add just a touch more drama. Then all was quiet except the birds nesting in the cliffs directly behind the house who were in a bit of a frenzy I suppose worried that their eggs might have gotten shaken loose from their nests!

The kids were home, as it was the first day of NO MORE SCHOOL! Hurray! So they were just chilling...... Dom phones me all excited. But Buland being 50 kms from the epicenter near Selfoss, we experienced only the house shaking and nothing more. In Selfoss the shops had some big messes to clean up after the contents of their shelves ended up on the floor, but there were no casualties as Icelandic houses are very well built. I heard that the earthquake in Turkey where there was massive destruction was 6.7 in magnitude and this one was 6.2, so obviously a lot depends on how well cities are built to withstand an earthquake.

I am going today into Selfoss to do the shopping that I couldn't do yesterday and I will report back to you with any more outstanding updates on the situation! Stay well everyone and don't forget to write! (i.e. Leave a comment!) Love to hear from you!

On how I mistook the Island of Vestmannæyjar for a chicken farm.....

The windiest place in Iceland on Vestmannaeyjar


Cod drying on racks

Smelly!

Old water tank partly demolished by lava from the 1973 eruption


View from lava mounds of 1973 towards mainland and 2 more islands. Note small white speck on island on the right which is a sheep farm.


Another harbour shot


Harbour shot with me and a teacher from the kids' school


Me at old Norwegian Church replica on Vestmannaeyjar


Inside the plane...first trip

The farm Buland is out in the middle of nowhere in South Iceland, so of course there are not many lights out here except from a few farms in the area. There was one very bright row of orangey lights in the distance not too far away. They seemed to be on all night long and and had a definite shape. Being new I guessed that this had to be a chicken farm, you know where the lights are on all the time. So in surveying the landscape, I had pretty much concluded that this was indeed a chicken factory and had even imagined how it looked!

One day I asked the farmer if we could go and visit this chicken farm. He looked at me with a very puzzled expression and said, "Chicken farm? There's no chicken farm over there, those are the lights from the town on Vestmannæyjar!"

Monday the weather was all sunny and blue so I decided I'd go for a visit. If you want to be spontaneous this is the right place to be! The tiny airport is only a 10 minute drive from the farm. Check in time was for 1pm and the plane took off on schedule at 1:15. I was the only passenger! The pilot did inform me however that I might not make it back later in the day as they were expecting high winds and fog over the island, so I needed to be prepared. Fine with me!

Touch down in the little 6 seater plane was perfect and I also had the whole airport to myself. The lone employee called a taxi as there was no other way to get into town; I was heavy laden with inspirational books and calendars, so decided walking the 2 kms to town might not be the wisest choice.

I spent the day visiting many shop keepers and getting to know the locals. Quite a friendly bunch they are. Then in the evening I stayed at this very nice inexpensive guest house in the center of town because as predicted, there were no more flights to the mainland. The next day the weather was worse so I decided it was time to leave and the only way was to take the car ferry to þorlakshöfn and have my husband come and fetch me if I couldn't find anybody going back towards Hvolsvöllur.

Unfortunately my camera was nowhere to be found as I was leaving home, so the photos here are thanks to the kids' Danish teacher who took these photos from our first expedition. Thanks Ann-Sofie!