They run for miles and can be hike. One of the best spots has an amazing waterfall and was the seat of the first Icelandic summer parliament. The council members would live in shelters for the summer months and read the laws out from a rock for members to relay to their communities. Some pictures attached.
So far so good. I then looked at the map and found a back road up to a large flag river valley that is pretty spectacular. However, for the last week the majority of Icelandic country folk have been up in the mountains rounding up their sheep and horses that have been grazing freely. All the herds are mixed up so the whole community, men, women and children have to help. It culminates in the sheep bring driven along a particular road to the Rettir site. My short cut was the drovers road!
When the first batches went past me I thought I was in the clear then looked up the road to see thousands more coming along. I u turned but was then stuck behind a couple of thousands sheep and horses. Add to that the fact that everyone has been in the mountains for a week, drinking heavily and are slightly mad!!
It took about 4 hours to do the drive that took an hour on the way out. However, I picked up a hitch hiker called Bjorkis who had been on his horse but it had gone lame so needed a lift home. We had a great chat in the car and I was angling for an invite to the big Rettir Ball but the hints didn't get through!
Anyway. Photos of lots of sheep attached and the traffic jam :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment