If you don't get the title of this entry look carefully at the udders of the cow (which one you ask, precisely is the answer). There is an island off the southern coast of Iceland called Vestmannaeyjar and the first part of todays plan was to take a zodiac boat tour of the island. So after observing the previously mentioned cows we drove to the headland where we thought we would find the tour company. Alas no tour company, only a ferry terminal. Only then did we discover that we had misread the guide book. The tours were conducted from the main town on the island. No more needs be said about our planning and research skills.

There is a famous hike in this part of Iceland called Laugavegurinn. It runs from a place called Porsmork (actually spelled ÞORSMÖRK and pronounced thorsmork) in the south to a place called Landmannalaugar in the north. It seems to be about 55km in length and generally takes a 4-5 days to walk. Well after the zodiac tour affair we set off to find the southern end of this hike which was reported in the guide book as a little forested oasis in a landscape that is otherwise pretty much bare alpine. What the guide book did not tell us was that the "road" to this place was barely graded river bed and numerous river crossings. So to get to this fabled place we bumped and squeaked along for a couple of hours regularly being overtaken by the now common place Icelandic off road vehicles with huge tires. We even saw one Ford van converted to 6x6. However the weather gods were good to us and we had a sunny afternoon with spectacular views of the mountains and glaciers.

Back on the main highway after our river valley excursion we stopped in a roadside parking area near the town of Hella.

Why the picture of the bus - simply because I liked the look and was impressed by how it seemed to handle the rough roads (we followed one of these for a while). It is a pity that once cannot buy that make (MAN) of truck in the US.