My eleven year old travel companion and I are old pals. We have had many adventures together the last few summers and engaged in some thought provoking discussions. No joke. He is pretty much perfectly fluent in English, in large part, he claims, thanks to YouTube. Today over a ready made sandwich and Powerade lunch at N1 (a gas station) I was asked, "What do you think of Global Warming?" I balked, taken off guard. How do I answer a question like this, I think to myself, as he waits for my response. How deep do we dive into this topic? "It's...bad?" I finally say. "Really bad." He nods, approving of my sparse answer. The next topic of conversation is what to bring with if you are stranded on an island. I want to tell him that I brought two oversized suitcases to this island I'm currently on and am still worried about running out of underwear, but instead play by the rules and say something about fire, water, shelter, etc.
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| My buddy, Viktor |
Our salon style luncheon ends and we head back to the car. We still have a good three hours or more of driving to do, and have a few stops to make as well. Our first stop is Grábrók, a volcanic crater that Erin Jones and I explored last summer. We march up the steps, Viktor with the joie de vivre of an 11 year old boy, and me with the energy level of a 90 year old man with respiratory issues. We made it up the stairs in record time (11 year old boys don't really stop to look around and take in their surroundings for long periods of time) and made a quick loop around the boardwalk at the top of the crater. It's a cool spot.
We spend the next hour in the car having a competition over who can do impressions of famous people and cartoon characters' voices the best. It isn't me... but I'm not sure it is Viktor either. He does do a chillingly accurate Donald Trump impression though.
Viktor explains the game Fortnight to me and tells me all about the tricks and tumbles he does on his scooter at the skatepark. He is very sweet and even humors me and laughs when I tell him a couple of stupid jokes.
We make it to our destination and go to greet his grandparents, who are working at the Icelandic Emigration Center/Museum. They run this museum, along with several other businesses and two farms in the area. I am so happy to see them again. Being in Hofsós with them is a perfect mix of comfort and adventure.
I work a couple of hours at the museum, getting to know some new staff members and reacquainting myself with everything. Lena, a woman from Germany is here helping for the summer as well, and she came back to Valgeir and Gunna's house (Vatn is the name of the farm) where we all enjoyed a delicious dinner made by Valgeir. We had just finished eating when Valgeir announced that there are some sheep in a field where they are not allowed, and could we help to chase them into the right spot? Yes! I loved doing this last summer, the few times I got to try it. Lena and I put on waterproof "horse boots" and get into the truck with Valgeir. He drives us over to the offending sheep, who are lounging in his hay field, eating up all the sweet, new grass. We are instructed to encourage them to move back up the hill and over behind the house, where they can access the correct dining area up in the foothills.
The sheep want nothing to do with us and immediately start to move in the right direction as Lena and I step out into the field. We follow them at a distance, pushing them toward the place where Gunna and Viktor are waiting to further herd them into place. The dogs, Birta and Max "help" by barking and charging. I don't know what instructions to give them to make them more helpful so I shush them instead. Everything was going swimmingly when we notice two lambs, one black and one white, separated from the herd and on the other side of the fence, right next to the road. There was no mother with them, which is not a good sign. They were wary of us as well, though not as much as the others and we somehow manage to convince them to come back through the fence (they did this completely on their own and we were totally lucky that it happened this way) and in with the rest of the sheep. As it turns out, their mother died and they are little twin orphan lambs. They are old enough to fend for themselves (a good 6 weeks old or so), so they're out there in the world making a life for themselves. If their little bums weren't so caked in dried poop I might have asked if I could bring them into the house for snuggles.
We get the sheep to the right field and are celebrating our victory when the little buggers find a way through a fence and break into yet another place they aren't supposed to be. We are given further instructions on what to do, so Lena and I take off again, trudging over the uneven ground after the sheep. We need to cross a little stream, but the orphan lambs are too scared to cross. When we try to scoop them up they scatter and take off back toward the farm. Valgeir and Gunna yell to us that the orphan lambs can stay and to keep following the main trouble makers. They will meet us at the gate across the other fields. We are warned to watch out for the rams in the next field and are told that we will have to walk through their field but to just scream at them if they look threatening. Um...oh lord. We make it across the stream and climb through the foothills after the rogue sheep. They make the journey look easy, but in too large "horse boots" and skinny jeans I do not manage to replicate their grace.
Lena and I wonder if we are going in the right direction, and hope that we understand what Gunna and Valgeir were wanting us to do. We finally reach a corner of the pasture where the sheep are stuck. The gate is closed. The problem is if we go over there to them to open the gate they will scatter and we might be starting this all over again. Plus, the two rams have managed to mix themselves into the group and we aren't supposed to let them through to the next pasture. The dogs are barking and making the already nervous sheep more antsy. Our shushing is ineffective. I can't say exactly how we managed, but Lena and I worked as a flawless team and managed to get the lady and baby sheep separated from the rams and through the gate. We were both incredibly surprised.
I didn't have my camera with, but if you want to have an idea of how this all went down, here's a couple little clips that pretty well illustrates my evening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGoKKhQPggM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zHmeTeLgMY
It was amazing.
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