The Ultimate Iceland Roadtrip part 2

After car number three broke down on us last week, Ilona and I attempted another road trip in our 'new' staff car this week. We went to explore Snaefellsness, the western peninsula of Iceland. If you're planning a trip to Iceland in the future I can definitely recommend this area, it was beautiful and there were hardly any other tourists. We made it into a two-day trip and stayed in Olafsvik overnight but you can easily spend more time in the area. It is a little over an hour to drive there from Reykjavik and it's not far from the Ring Road if you're taking a tour of the whole island.

As we couldn't go whale watching last week (due to the car breaking down halfway there) we decided to try again on our way to the peninsula. So we stopped in Reykjavik and got on the boat for the morning cruise. And we got lucky! We had some amazing sightings. There were 3 or 4 humpback whales swimming, playing and feeding around our boat for over an hour. They got really close so we got a good look at these giant animals. This was my fourth time whale watching here in Iceland as I didn't see anything the previous times so I was extremely happy. In addition to the humpbacks we also saw a Minke whale. A pretty good morning!

After the successful start of our day we went on to Snaefellsness. We had a full schedule with cliffs, waterfalls, beaches and hotsprings that we wanted to visit. One of our first stops was a mineral spring. The whole village used the spring as their water supply and there was a tap where you could try some of the water. These people must really have gotten used to this water because I almost spat it out, the huge amount of minerals in it made it really disgusting. Another interesting stop was the beach at Ytri Tunga (with yellow sand instead of black this time) where a colony of seals was living. So in addition to the whales, we also spotted seals today. They were all sun bathing on the rocks, very cute! We tried to find Sönghellir cave by driving up a mountain on a gravel road with a sign saying it was 'impassable' but our little car made it up. The cave was a little disappointing but the view was definitely worth it.

I'm almost getting tired of all the waterfalls, almost because they are still super beautiful, there are just so many of them! We saw about a hundred more and could even see one from our hotel window. At most of these waterfalls though, we were the only visitors. I don't know if Snaefellsnes is not very popular among tourists yet or if it was just quiet but I loved it. We drove along the coast line where we saw some beautiful cliffs. In general, the scenery when driving around the peninsula is breathtaking, you don't even have to leave your car. My favorite stop was Landbrotalaug, a hotspring in the middle of nowhere. There were two natural pools, the one we tried first was around 50 degrees Celsius and we didn't last for more than five minutes. The second one was a lot smaller and 'only' 40 degrees with a beautiful view of the mountains in the distance. A must do!

Road to the Mongol Derby

I figured it was time for an update on my Derby adventure. Even though it is only in August 2019, it is on my mind almost every day. I must admit, sometimes I'm wondering what I got myself into (especially when we do our workout and I just want to quit). Other times I am really looking forward to riding through the beautiful country. Sometimes when I am in a really great mood I severely underestimate how hard it will be, but then I remember that only half of the contestants actually make it to the finish line. I am going to work very hard to make sure I will be one of them though.

As I mentioned before, it is a 1000km race on half wild horses, through the rough Mongolian terrain. I will have ten days to complete the race but most people finish on the 8th and 9th day (if they finish), so I will be riding more than 110km a day. That means around 10 hours in the saddle. I don't think I've ever been on a horse for that long at a time. Obviously part of the training is spending as much time in the saddle as possible. I am not sure how I'm going to do this yet, I'm either going to do lots of training with Vasti (she might die) after work, or find a job at another stable abroad in the months leading up to the Derby to spend all day around horses. Besides just riding, it is also important to ride lots of different horses, to learn to adapt quickly to different personalities. Going back to Horseworks this summer will be super useful as I will get the chance to train lots of different (young) horses. 

To be able to stay on a horse for so many hours a day, I will have to do lots of core strength training. I have a confession to make: I am super unfit. Or at least I was, I couldn't even do one push-up or crunch. It's a good thing I don't have an office job because I imagine it would be even worse. But together with Ilona and Mary, I started doing the '7 minutes' work out every day. We do the normal one and the abs workout for about half an hour every day. I am always very sceptical when I see those videos of people who do a workout for thirty days and lose half their weight. While I haven't lost any weight (unfortunately) I am definitely improving. For the first time ever in my life I can actually see some ab muscles when I look in the mirror ;)

Another advice I got from previous contestants was to take up running (in case you fall off and have to run after your horse, and of course general fitness and endurance). Unfortunately I didn't bring my running shoes to Iceland (shitty excuse I know), but once I get back to the Netherlands I will start! I will follow a training schedule, to be able to do 5km in 10 weeks. I tried this before a few years ago and kind of failed at it, so it'll be a challenge. I know there are people out there who can run 5k without training but that is definitely not me, I can't even run for three minutes without training. I am also thinking about starting swimming again, and dancing just because I love it so much. So yeah, now that you know how shamefully unfit I am, you can understand a bit better what I am facing here. But hey, at least I have a goal to work towards, and I really want to make it! I'll keep you posted on the progress. 

(You can also support me by donating here, I will be riding for 'Cool Earth', more on the great work they do later). 

Land of Ice and Fire

Iceland is often called the Land of Ice and Fire. A rugged landscape of volcanoes, waterfalls and glaciers. Some parts of the country you can only get to on horseback. Even though Iceland is getting more popular as a tourist destination, there are still plenty of 'wild' places to explore in this extreme landscape. Last week, Mary and I attempted another roadtrip and went off to see some less well-known spots. After a bit of car trouble we were off to Nauthusagil, a beautiful waterfall in a gorge. It was a bit of a mission to get there, you had to walk on slippery rocks in a stream, and part of the way was climbing along an almost vertical bit of rockface with only a chain to hold on to. But even I managed to get there in one piece, so I would say it's not too bad. The waterfall was pretty but the way there was even more beautiful I thought. And the best part was that there was nobody else there. It almost felt like you were in a different world as the narrow gorge sheltered us from the sun, I could see where all the stories about fearies and trolls came from.

After visiting the waterfall, we wanted to try if we could see the crest of the waterfall, so we attempted a little hike up the hill. We couldn't see it though so we decided to go higher, and higher, and higher. Untill we were at the point where we thought we might as well climb all the way up to the top of the hill, which turned out to be a lot higher than it looked. But we made it up there! And the view was definitely worth it. We saw the plains on one side and the snow-capped mountains on the other. It was gorgeous! And I wasn't even too exhausted, I felt a lot fitter than when Ilona and I hiked up Skogafoss a few weeks ago. The daily work-outs must be paying off. After our mountain climbing, we visited another beautiful waterfall (again no people there!) and ended our day with a swim at Seljavallalaug, the oldest pool of Iceland. The pool was in the middle of a valley, surrounded by beautiful green mountains and heated by a hotspring (but still not very warm, unfortunately).

Meanwhile at the stables, I feel like I know a bit better what I'm doing. I'm still not sure me 'training' horses is very useful but I perfected my tour guide talk (including all the fun facts I mentioned in one of my previous blogs). I still marvel at the view every time I go outside (we are surrounded by mountains and volcanoes) and I've met a lot of interesting people. We have weekly riding lessons and I am definitely making progress. I love trying new things but it is quite frustrating when you feel like a complete beginner when trying a new way of riding. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I always want to be able to do right at the first try. Of course I know that's not how it works but often I have to remind myself that it's oké to do something wrong and that is how I learn. The tölting is going better though and it's a lot of fun to do.

In other exciting news: Heleen and I are making heaps of progress with our horse travel business 'Centaur Trails'. We have our first official partners now, soon the website will be filled with awesome horse riding holidays all over the world. In June, our first client is going on an 8-day riding tour in Montenegro and I can't wait for all her amazing stories, photos and videos. You can follow our progress on instagram, facebook and twitter. In less exciting news, I am still horrible at website building, despite all my efforts and a lot of help from google. It takes a lot more work, time and skill to build a website than I thought. Thankfully Heleen is a miracle worker and able to fix most of my messes on the website ;)