Reykjadalur - Hot springs river

For the first time in 4 days, the sun came out and burned the mist and rain clouds away revealing all the glaciers, waterfalls, and trails along the ring road we hadn’t seen on our way to diamond beach. Unfortunately it was also the day of our longest drive of the trip - a 5 and half hour journey from diamond beach to Reykjadalur (smoky river in Icelandic) hot springs river.

Trying to squeeze in as many hikes on our drive as possible, we arrived at reykjadalur at 11 pm after a long day of various hikes. The house was in the hills off dirt roads. It was dark and the air smelled sulfurous. Immediately upon arrival we noticed the toilet didn’t flush. I emailed the owner about the situation and he offered to come by the house in the early morning. Great, the toilet was a modern bowl-less contraption with flush buttons mounted to the wall. The owner spent 15 minutes opening the wall to try to ascertain the problem to no avail. I told him we would just use a bucket of water to flush. He apologized profusely and left. An hour later, a plumber arrived at the door. This time, I could hear muffled wrench sounds and banging for a prolonged period of time. As he was working, B. woke up and asked me what was going on, and told me he had to piss. I told him to go relieve himself in the front yard. The moment B. was relieving himself in the front yard, the plumber knocked on my door, showed me a plastic flush valve assembly and told me he had to go into town to find a replacement valve. I looked outside and saw B. run to the backyard midstream to hide. The plumber rode off, and we decided to leave. We weren’t going to be able to use the bathroom with the plumber coming back. I contacted the owner, who apologized again and offered to refund our night’s payment, and told him we were leaving. I was not about to wait around and supervise a plumbing repair on my vacation.

Under these chaotic early morning conditions we went to the trailhead for reykjadalur. Southwest of Reykjavik near the Keflavik international airport is the Blue Lagoon. A lavish famous man made thermal spring spa with silica water that people spend great sums of money ($100 timed entry fees) to soak in and pamper themselves with underwater massages and various skin masks and fine dining options. Many people stopover on flights from Europe with the sole purpose of soaking in blue lagoon. The night before our departure, we intend on visiting the blue lagoon, too, to see if it’s worth the hype. I rationalize my impending visit as a chance to analyze the blue lagoon from an architectural standpoint... to study it in terms of design of pleasure environment. In comparison to blue lagoon, reykjadalur is its antithesis... a ‘free’ hot spring. The cost of reykjadalur is the 4 km strenuous hike up the windy switchback paths to an elevated valley near the summit. A line of cheap tourists like me formed a large snake of parked cars at the trail head. The source of the hot spring river is an extinct volcano that was active 120,000 years ago. The valley which extends to the base of the hills providing cheapskate access has been carved by glacial erosion.

The first thing one notices in climbing the valley is the smell. Sulfurous mists waft through the air from steaming mud pits and geothermal outflows. The next thing I noticed were the white sheep. Indeed, these sheep visit the valley, and enjoy longer grazing seasons here because of the heat provides prolonged access to vegetation. I found the sheep to look quite peculiar in that their whole bodies are white. The typical white sheep I’ve encountered so far in the Iceland countryside or in farms have dirty shit stained long haired woolly asses. I began to suspect the sheep soak in the springs too, sitting their asses in the water to clean themselves. As I hiked up the valley, I thought about the beauty of the valley, and optimally positioning myself upstream of sheep and their ass douche water if possible.

Near the soaking section of the hot spring river, several cauldrons of 100 C sulfurous mud pits greet the weary hikers with an intense smell and dense mist. Walking through the mist, one sees a series of wood pathways and platforms and a series of man made rock dams which hold the running water at different depths. Unfortunately I saw a group of clean sheep right by the bathing spot. Hikers can choose a section to soak in depending on their needs. Some choose to lie floating in very shallow water, others like me choose to sit in deeper water to simulate a ‘blue lagoon’ experience. The air temperature was around 5 C, while the water was 35-45 C. The water was murky brown with river detritus (hopefully not sheep shit particles) floating around. On the sides, people change clothes in plein air, or in front of minimal wood walls open to nature. Most the visitors are European. Some Americans can be heard in embarrassing loud voices saying the most vacuous things (like what skin care product they like, or what diet plan they’re on, etc...) Once the muscles are soaked sulfurous and soothed, people dress and head down the valley past the steaming river and flocks of white sheep to their cars.