More waterfalls

Our week in the cottage, day 4 (and my parent's 41st wedding anniversary)

Today's sightseeing was brilliant, although I was a bit tired after the ca. 160 kilometre drive (100 miles).

We began our trip at the farm Hellar in Landsveit to take a look at a big manmade cave, called Hellnahellir. There are many caves in this area, some of them not easily accessible. The most memorable story Páll, the guide, told us was the one he told near the entrance, at Dísu-krókur (Dísa's corner). There is a loophole through the boulder far down on the wall where a rope was fastened and many, many years ago a young disabled woman was tied and left there to spend long lonely days on her own. There are streaks and grooves in the stone all around the loophole where she is said to have scratched the walls. It's horrible to think about the situation of disabled and sick people in the old days, when people didn't know what to do and tried their best to cope. But then again...maybe the story is not true.

After seeing the cave we drove all the way round the mountain Búrfell, enjoying the view to mountains Hekla and Valafell, the magnificent canal and structures at the hydroelectric power station Búrfellsvirkjun and the lovely landscape along the river Þjórsá. We stopped a few times and this picture was taken at Hjálparfoss, a beautiful waterfall with columnar basalt on each side. Two boys (foreign tourists) were behaving a bit recklessly, trying to climb the steep walls while their parents just stood by watching this "stunt". I don't know what they were thinking!

In the evening we feasted on kjötsúpa and had a soak in the hot tub before going to bed with a book. It was waaaaay past midnight when I finally went to sleep after finishing the book I had started reading yesterday :)