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| A 4x4 with a demountable motorcaravan fording the glacial river of Jökulsá. The smoothed mountainside to the right of the glacier indicates that this was previously eroded by ice; since then the glacier has receded. |
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| This is how to ford a river Icelandic style - do it in a Unimog. It is interesting to note the depth of water on either side of the vehicle: the wall of water on the upstream side will push the vehicle downstream. However, the higher the vehicle`s clearance, the more water that can flow under the veicle. |
Úlfar`s
bus arrived just after 3pm. These massive 4x4 buses travel around the
country in pairs: one for transporting the visitors, the other was the
kitchen bus. This was the kitchen bus; at least I`ll be close to my evening
meal. Stefan stepped out; he was young, tall and slim. But what took me
by surprise was his attire: a pair of green angler`s breeches, the type
you would wear if you wanted to stand chest-high in water. Just what was
he expecting ?
After exchanging
greetings he looked at the back of the Land Rover. I was very proud of
all the shelving I had put in, not to mention the sink, curtains and fluorescent
lights. He pointed to the plastic boxes on the floor. "You better
lift them up off the floor." He smiled: he must have seen the shocked
look on my face. "It will be wet" he added. As instructed, I
dutifully lifted the boxes onto the cupboards and tied them down so that
they were now well over a metre above ground level. Surely that will be
high enough I thought. And hoped. "You follow me" he instructed.
I followed.
He sped along
the track with me doing my best to keep up. Back home I had decided to
fit an overdrive to the vehicle - partly to improve fuel consumption,
partly to allow me to have a bigger choice of gears at my disposal. With
the four-speed gearbox, the transfer box and the overdrive I now had sixteen
forward gears and four reverse gears to choose from. However, my present
choice of a very low gear was totally useless as I was falling farther
and farther behind Stefan. I told myself to forget the low gears, get
into a higher gear, speed up and find out what is happening ahead. And
no time for photographs.
We soon crossed
the eight rivers I had negotiated earlier. And a few more. We stopped
at our first major crossing, the wide and very fast-flowing glacial river
of Jökulsá. Just a kilometre or so away to the right was the
steep snout of Gígjökull, the valley glacier which was melting
to produce this cold natural barrier we had to cross. Immediately in front
of Gígjökull was the 40m-deep glacial lake of Jökullón
which was decorated with numerous icebergs. These were drifting serenely
towards the start of the river I was about to ford. There were a few people
about, most of them there to witness - and photograph - everyone else
crossing the river. I got out of the Land Rover and wandered over to one
Icelandic couple who were dressed in swimming costumes and wringing out
their wet clothes. They had got halfway across the river in their car
and got stuck right in the middle. I didn`t discover how they got out
but they seemed alright. Wet, but safe. We were next to cross.
Stefan decided
to cross in the bus then re-cross so he could lead me through the safest
route. Once over the second time he waited for me. Here goes, I thought.
My first really big river. I thought about what Úlfar had told
me. Don't stop, just keep going. The river was about fifteen metres wide,
probably about 40cm deep and very fast. The water was grey in colour as
it was laden with the rock flour the glacier had scaped off the mountainsides.
Consequently the river bed wasn`t visible, nor were many of its boulders
so I had to avoid the most turbulent water as that was where the biggest
submerged obstacles were. I kept in low gear, kept the revs up and kept
slipping the clutch. Then it happened. One of my front wheels hit a boulder
and momentarily halted the vehicle. I slipped the clutch and revved hard.
The engine kept going. Slowly the wheel rode over the boulder and eventually
regained grip on the gravel river bed. The incident took seconds but it
seemed an age. At least I had provided a spectacle for all the watching
photographers.
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