Fear and hope and the uplifting brightness of crocuses

I guess for me this time last month the biggest difference was that I wasn't living under the sort of cloud most people with family in India are living under right now... A few short weeks and a world that seemed to be slowly but surely finding its feet suddenly seems a darker more uncertain place.

But I guess the thing is, if you believe in God, you've gotto believe in God. So far, thankfully, my family have been safe. Long may it continue and I can only pray for peace for so many who have been left bereft. The night does turn to day however, and so one continues to look forward in hope.

Closer to home, (I find the way my use of that phrase has changed over the years telling. But I suppose such is life, a constant progression of small changes that add up.) things seem to be looking up significantly. We continue to make use of the lengthening days. Days where the sunshine has started to feel positively warm! Hints of the coming summer.

This time I decided to give the moss a good fight before all the growing has started in earnest. The many mornings with the rake seem to have a made a difference, but the final outcome seems currently uncertain...

We have continued to go out on the bikes. Although there was the almost customary spring dump of snow that arrested the green from its blossoming march across the landscape everywhere one looks. Not for too long though. The crocuses we the first to fill in some colour in the world, but now more and more flowers, wild and otherwise, are starting to appear.

To be fair the snow and the following freeze, (barely dipping to zero overnight, but I was getting used to the warm so this dip in temperature feels rather colder than it actually is) and the howling winds that seem bent on stealing any warmth the sun might provide, have put a bit of a pause on the cycling excursions. But hopefully that might change sooner rather than later.

On the books front I couldn't really resist dipping my toes back into the Malazan world :). As a sort of compromise between full scale immersion and nothing at all, I decided to get the collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas. I finished the first last week and making reasonably rapid progress through the second. Weird and wonderful is probably a reasonable description?!

For one thing, it's strange to be done with stories set in the Malazan world so quickly. But at the same time, there is much that is hinted at. Given that these stories are roughly concurrent with events I read about over two years ago now, I'm probably missing a lot. At the same time, it doesn't feel like that's the point.

There's a sense of so much driftwood, floating, accumulating, and then being washed apart again more or less at random. Yet, in doing so, leaving a sense of a cohesive story arc. Yup, still loving Erikson basically :).

But before that, also read this month's book club book, co-authored by none other than Bill Clinton! Although I have a distinct feeling that he probably just wrote the first and last 5 pages and left the rest to Patterson. I guess I'd give The President is Missing a solid mediocre rating. On the one hand it was a pretty fast read. Good pace to the action. On the other hand, the President never actually goes missing... so you know.. whatever :).

The more things change, the more they stay the same

It seems this year one thing is going almost exactly like last year. (No, not the generally locked-down state of life :). ) I mean the weather in March. The beginning saw a fresh dump of snow, then sunshine, which by the latter part of the month pretty much put paid to aforementioned snow, and by the end, crocuses were appearing in our garden encouraged by the sun and relative warmth!

But let's rewind a bit. After a rather wet and gloomy end of February, the promised cold weather did arrive! But even though there was no fresh snow forthcoming, we ventured out on some old rather frozen tracks with mixed results. I do believe my general ability on cross-country skis has improved markedly since even a couple of years ago, as proved by the number of falls (very few :D).

The weather was starting to get nice in general though, helped no end by the lengthening days. A trip around Drammensfjord confirmed that the deepest winter was past. This was confirmed by the rapid rate at which the ice was breaking up and disappearing from the edge of the fjord. I was frankly shocked at the surface area that disappeared just in the half hour or so between the outward and return parts of our walk past a particularly sunny stretch.

Then came the pre-spring dump of snow! The most in a single day this whole season, it felt like! And we made the most of it with a few longish cross-country trips over the next ten days or so! The snow wasn't the best necessarily, but the weather more than made up for it. We'd also been picking less frequented tracks, much as we had throughout the winter, so it almost felt like we had the whole world to ourselves :).

As far as a farewell to skiing goes, that was right up there :). And a farewell it most certainly was as the temperature slowly but surely ramped up in the week after. In fact, by the beginning of Easter week, we were seeing double digits! It seemed like an early start to cycling wouldn't be the worst idea :).

The thing that has rather overshadowed the whole month in a way is the Covid situation I suppose. I was rather getting into the swing of things again. Being able to travel in to work once a week doesn't sound like much, but seemed to be making a significant difference to work and life in general. But then things turned rather rapidly south and Norway has ended up with more stringent restrictions than at any earlier point in this pandemic.

I imagine this had something to do with my decision to take the whole of Easter week off. It's not like there's a lot of opportunities to use vacation days, so I figured why not just another staycation :). After all the Christmas break was pretty awesome, under the circumstances. So yes, the early part of this week has been spent making yummy Easter food, eating said food, and cycling around Asker :).

I suppose the books must be mentioned :). It took me a fair while to get through Fire and Blood. The only Song of Ice and Fire stuff I'd read recently was the collection of Dunc and Egg novellas, and even that was a while back. In some ways that was quite nice I suppose, getting a bit of a fresh start. It was in general fun to get a bird's eye view of Westeros I suppose, although I have to say, why no map?!

Since then, there's been a couple of even more interesting books. The first was a book club read - The Rift. I have a suspicion that the person who suggested it is unlikely to be enjoying it as much as I did :D. A cross between science fiction, family drama and whimsical philosophical musings, it was like nothing I'd read before!! I thoroughly enjoyed the layers to the story, the different perspectives (special mention of the "factual" notes and descriptions of Fiby), and the lack of any certainty in the conclusion.

Now, generally, I'm thoroughly put off by some the above. In this case though, I found it quite mesmerizing in a way. Maybe some of that is to do with the times we are living in where certainty in general is hard to come by. Which in turn for me has re-emphasised the value of living in the now, clichéd as that sounds. A part of me wants to go find the other books Allan has written. Another part warns me about my experience with Mark Haddon. For the moment I just want to enjoy the experience of having read this book at this time :).

The other book in question was much simpler, light-hearted, and generally just funny :D. I'd noticed Highfire while looking to make up the numbers when ordering some books online, as one does, to get the free shipping. Eoin Colfer is an author I did quite enjoy, but hadn't ready anything by since the Artemis Fowl series. So an adult fantasy novel sounded like an idea worth trying out.

(Aside: Despite the convenience of online book-shopping, I have been really missing the feeling of going to a book shop and just browsing the shelves. Often with absolutely no intent or specific target in mind. Just letting my eyes glide over titles till something catches my attention. I suppose some of this enjoyment goes back to my days of hours spent in transit at airports where more often than not the most interesting things were book shops. But some of it goes back even further, to childhood days spent running around the book fair, trying to take it all in! So many books, so little time :). /Aside)

The book turned out to be hilarious :). Except maybe (spoiler alert) the mogwai decimation bit. That was ick. But the rest of it was a non-stop high octane, roller-coaster of action and teenage wise cracks :D. I suppose not everyone's thing, but I'm itching to suggest this the next time it's my turn to suggest books for the book club :D.

Of black sands and bright greens amidst glaciers and volcanoes

So, this is going to be an odd post. Probably. I've finally decided this is the right time to put down some my experiences from my trip to Iceland. It's only been five and a half odd years :).

To be completely honest, I didn't actually realize up until quite recently that I'd never gotten around to doing this!! When a friend recently asked me if I'd ever been to Iceland (and if so, what experiences I would recommend), I did what I always do and proceeded to dig up my blog post about our trip from August 2015. Only, there was no post! Just a couple of extremely short, gushing pieces posted from Iceland during said trip!

Now, I suppose it's not that big a deal really. I can easily guess what must have happened. There were too many photos to look through, life moved on too quickly once the break was over, no time to sit down and sift through my thoughts to actually put them down in a sensible way that could do justice to that amazing trip...

So why now? I guess it was just such an awesome week or so that the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to revisit it. Eventually, the only thing left to do was to go through the couple of thousand odd photos from the trip and try and recapture some of the magic :).

The plan had been a while in the making. A few of my friends and I had heard a lot about the natural majesty of Iceland. I'd also in the (then) recent past flown between Norway and the US via Reykjavik several times and seen first hand, albeit from a rather great elevation, some of said beauty. The general thing to do, however, seemed to be to rent a car and drive around the island, making short stops along the way.

This didn't really feel like the best thing to do, as all four of us wanted to dig in a little bit deeper into the charm of the Icelandic wilderness. We ended up deciding on exploring the south, on foot. Particularly, a two day hike traversing the Fimmvörðuháls trail, from the Skógafoss waterfall by the coast to the Þórsmörk valley just north of the now famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano, then spending the next four days using the Volcano Huts camp as our base to explore more of the incredible many-fingered valley that is Þórsmörk. Simple :).

The first and last days of the trip were spent meandering around Reykjavik to some extent, first waiting for the bus that would take us to our fist overnight halt at Hveragerði, and finally waiting for the flight to take us back to Oslo. Beautiful and uniquely characterful though the city was, it would really only serve as a footnote to what came between!

The first day ended with us exploring the hot-springs littered landscape around Hveragerði, giving us an early hint of the scenic beauty that we were to find. I also remember the outdoor hot tub, fed directly by water from one of the nearby hot springs! An amazing way to unwind, and, as it turned out, a good memory to hold on to for the next couple of days :D.

Early the next morning, we took the bus to Skógar. We did get a brief glimpse of several waterfalls on the way, including Seljalandsfoss, but Skógafoss itself was a sight to behold! A vast curtain of water and a constant thundering roar! There was even the sunshine to create the picturesque rainbow :). 

We soon climbed up to the top and started following the Skógá river back up into the icy heights where it was born. It was also here that we first saw up close the black sand, covered in bright green moss and a thin covering of vegetation, that remains to me the indelible image of Iceland. And of course, the sheep :D.

The early part of the trail felt quite busy, from memory. We even met a newly wed couple at one of the many waterfalls that are part of the Skógá river, posing for what I imagine would have been a memorable set of wedding photos :). But as the hours went by, the people became few and far between, until we neared the upper reaches of the pass between Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdallsjökull, its much larger neighbouring ice cap.

Soon we were into the clouds and climbing up along a mix of snow and that black sand I mentioned. I have to say, with no amazing views to detract from the strenuous climb and the oppressive closeness and dampness of the clouds made that last stretch one of the hardest parts of the trip. One can only imagine then, our joy, at finally making it to the small, cramped, but blissfully warm cabin at the top of the pass!!

Magically, almost, the clouds briefly parted to give us some astounding views of the lake and frozen landscape that the Fimmvörðuháls cabin is set amidst! Being an un-serviced cabin with no running water, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable stay, but the warmth and protection from the elements was the only thing that mattered really, and we were off again early the next morning. This time, with better visibility. Only just :). But even visibility of a few hundred meters can do wonders for one's mood. Not to mention a good night's sleep!

The trail was marked with stakes a couple of metres tall, but several of them were still buried under deep drifts of snow. (Remember, this was August :D.) The confusion of previous hikers had also not helped matters, but eventually we managed to find our way out of the thickest of the snow and clouds and were treated to the fantastic first views of Þórsmörk!

We were to spend the next few days traversing some of the many many trails that criss-cross this amazing bit of Icelandic landscape, and I have to say, looking back at the photos today, it never stops amazing me! Still, in many ways, crossing the Fimmvörðuháls pass was probably the most memorable part of the whole trip!

Entering Þórsmörk was in some ways like entering a different world! Wide riverbeds with meandering many-streamed rivers gleaming against the black sands. Verdant green mountain sides where you can see that the vegetation is practically just skin deep, the black underneath showing frequently. Steep-walled, hemmed in on three sides by glaciers, it is truly a wonder to behold!

After the long descent, it felt like having to make our way over the last ridge to Volcano Huts was unnecessary given there were a couple of other camps on the southern side of the valley. Except, neither of those camps had cabins or a restaurant! So I think in the end, it was a great call :D. They even had a pretty nice collection of board games for us to enjoy between walks and hikes :).

Each day for the next four days we explored the area around us. There were the trips over the Valahnúkur mountain with the fantastic views of the river valleys and mountains all around. There were several trips through the woods around Langidalur and Húsadalur, including some hikes into the foothills of the Tindfjöll mountains. The two trips that I think rate special mentions were the walk along the Stakkholtsgja canyon and the hike all the way to the top of Rjúpnafell!

The canyon wasn't far from where we were staying, but there happened to be a convenient bus route that would pick us up from Volcano Huts and drop us off at the mouth of the canyon. It also gave us first hand experience of the local modes of transport that needed high ground-clearance and high travel suspensions. It was off-roading heaven :). Can you imagine an off-road bus? Well, seeing how the roads tended to disappear under moving rivers, that's exactly what is necessary.

The canyon itself was a beautiful example of water and wind doing their thing. In between all the other hikes, this one stands out for the feeling of being tucked away from the rest of the world :). We decided to walk back instead of waiting for the bus. Something that involved fording a few rivers ourselves, and also watching a train of horses do the same!

The longest of our hikes in Þórsmörk took us to Rjúpnafell, the second tallest top in our vicinity, providing the best view available of the ice caps and glaciers surrounding Þórsmörk. The day was probably one of the best in terms of clear skies and sunshine the whole week! Which was helpful in a way. Unlike a lot of hikes in Norway, on this one, you could see the destination from absolutely miles away! Given the steep nature of said destination, the closer we got, the more nervous I got :).

Given the loose nature of the trail underfoot, the climb up the steep mountainside felt a bit precarious, even though the views from the top were mind-blowing, and definitely worth the effort :). But then there was the trip down. One of our group had suffered a twisted ankle the day before, so it was only the three of us that made it to the summit to enjoy the panoramic views. But there we also found a French lady who'd hiked up there on her own. Having made it to the top, she was somewhat unsure how she was going to make it back down when we appeared! I do wonder from time to time what she would have done if we hadn't :).

To be fair, the trip down was significantly easier than I'd imagined. We just had to make sure all cameras and other equipment was safely stowed away leaving both hands free, and once we started down a straight stretch, we didn't try to stop till we got the the turn. Plus no looking anywhere other than straight down at where I was putting my foot next :). Exhilarating would probably be one way of putting it!

As if the hikes and natural splendour weren't enough, we even got to see some pretty spectacular northern lights a couple of times during our stay in Þórsmörk :). Truly a week of highlights!!

In the end when it was time to return we took one of the off-road busses back to more civilized roads, at which point we transferred onto a more regular bus back to Reykjavik. But not before a quick stop at Seljalandsfoss :).

I wish I could say the return trip went off like a charm :D. Hiking around for a week with all your belongings fitting in a 25l backpack tends to result in a less than ideal state of being when it comes to nice restaurants letting one in for dinner :P. However, there was this amazing seafood place, appropriately called Fish & More where we enjoyed great food, judgement-free :). 

Then it was a long wait at the Harpa Concert Hall enjoying the interesting architecture and reflecting on the truly wonderful week that had been. It was a rather late night flight, and just when we had gone through check-in, we found out that there was some uncertainty as to whether it would depart that night at all! Several hours of waiting at the airport to find out what was going on, followed by not enough hours of sleep at one of the small hotels around the corner from the airport later, we were finally on our way back :).

So there we have it! The long lost Iceland post :). Two of our party have left Norway since, but there's always been a feeling that we want to go back. Maybe explore another part, the north, west, maybe even a roadtrip. For a rather small country, there's truly a lot to experience in Iceland.

--

As for the here and now, it's was quite a nice few weeks of skiing up until about a week or so ago. But since then the Mercury has shot upwards to consistently above 0 :(. The snow is still in evidence, but much reduced. I'm still holding out hope that a forecasted downturn in temperature will result in an upturn in cross-country skiing, but we shall see.

In the mean time, the days are getting longer and with it, life is getting brighter. Variant B.1.1.7 notwithstanding...