Of the things I thought I would never see in life, snow in May is definitely one of them. Although technically it was the 30th of April. Anyway, in typical Icelandic fashion, my last day had about three different types of weather. When we brought the horses in from the field in the morning, it was snowing. On my morning ride it was almost sunny and in the afternoon I rode in the rain for two hours. And so my last view of Iceland was the same as the first: a dreary landscape from behind a bus window. But somehow Iceland manages to still be beautiful, even on a rainy day.
On one of the rare sunny days, Mary and I went to one of the Westman Islands, just off the south coast. We took a ferry that made us feel seasick after about five minutes but it was definitely worth it. Again, there were not a lot of tourists here. We took a walk around the island (it's only 5x7km) and didn't see anyone else on the trail. It was a beautiful walk, we hiked along the east coast with its steep cliffs and amazing view of the other islands. The trail went through fields with sheep and horses and we ended up at a bird hide. This was apparantly a good place to spot puffins, the bird this island is famous for and the reason we came. You guessed it, there were no puffins in sight. The only one we saw that day was made of wood...
We had a lovely day though, with 7 degrees and sun it was a summer day in Iceland! We had lunch at a cute little black beach and walked back to the harbour following a path through the fields. Unfortunately it didn't say anywhere that the path was a dead end, we ended up at an airstrip that we weren't allowed to cross. As we had to be back in time to get on the ferry we decided to try and go around the airstrip by climbing a few fences and walking through a lava field. At one point I honestly thought we would get lost on this tiny island, but we made it to the ferry in time.
After a nice dinner with the girls and a walk along the beach where a random dog and a cat joined us, my time in Iceland was almost over. I guided a few more tours. Least favorite tour guide moment: one of the horses bolted because a guest started screaming. Then it was time to go to the airport, where I had to spent the night because my flight was at six, no point in getting a hotel for those few hours. It wasn't too bad though, I managed to sleep a little on the plane. It's good to be home again, see everyone and ride my own horse. Although I must say she looks a bit strange, after only having seen Icelandic horses for two months ;)
