August 10, 1999
Waffles for breakfast. Iceland has the best instant waffle mix. It's in the dessert section for you Americans that eat them for breakfast.Rained much of last night, cleared briefly while I was making breakfast, rained more, stopped while I packed my gear, then a driving mist for the last half of the sands. It stopped as I started the 3 km steep climb. Near the top some guy came out and took my photo. When I stopped to check out the fulmars soaring along the cliff tops he came up and asked if I'd like a copy of the photo. Turned out that we live about 8 km apart in Seattle. The weather improved and stayed fine for the rest of the day. In Husavik I stopped for stove fuel, food, and my usual viking raid on the bakery. I thought about staying there, but then I thought about a short ride into Akuyeri tommorrow, and that idea won. Rest of the ride was pleasant and mostly flat. Camped at Fossholl, a tourist hut 1 km away from Goðafoss. Met 3 Italian cyclists and later had my first encounter with the German "family o' five" cycling team. As evening came on I found that I had Goðafoss all to myself. The falls is just short of a half circle in shape, with water pouring from four places at two different levels. þorgeir, the lawspeaker to the AlÞing from this area was tasked with deciding whether Iceland would be pagan or christian. He spoke that Iceland could not be both or it would be a country divided and so declared that Iceland would be chrisitian. He the gathered all of his pagan idols and threw them into the falls, hence the name Goðafoss, which translates to God Falls.
