Dream Disney Trips - Travel Info

Susan Orlean on Travel in Dark Times

In her introduction to My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere
, author Susan Orlean writes about "travel writing in the new world that 9/11 seemed to have brought forth":

Should anyone write about -- or read about -- what it's like to snowshoe through Alaska or raft in Costa Rica when the world seemed to be falling apart? Would anyone in his or her right mind have any interest in leaving home when the universe seemed so threatening? What I said then, and still believe, is that human beings are stubbornly and persistently curious and that I can't imagine we will ever lose our desire to know about what lies beyond our immediate horizon. At a time when the world feels chaotic and frightening, writers who go out to see it and describe it seem more important, not less. Even fluffy, expository stories about pretty places matter if people are less inclined to travel, since then the writer acts as the reader's proxy, bringing back the world that most people might be reluctant to go out and see for themselves. At the most elemental level, the world's troubles are the result of people turning inward and turning away from whatever and whoever is different and unfamiliar. If a writer can make even one reader feel more open to someone or someplace new, I think he or she has accomplished something well worth doing.

I think the same thing could be said about the version of trying times we seem to be entering now.
Anzob

If you happen to find yourself in Dushanbe
, the capital city of Tajikistan, needing to drive up to Tashkent
, the capital of Uzbekistan, you can take the scenic
M34 highway.

Eventually you will come to the Anzob Pass
, about which the foreign office says
:

The Anzob Pass is still closed but it is possible to drive from Dushanbe to the North via a tunnel still under construction. Embassy staff are prohibited from using this tunnel when driving on official business. This road is particularly dangerous in winter due to icy conditions and frequent avalanches and drivers can be trapped for a long time if caught in an avalanche because of the uninhabited mountain terrain.

So if the Anzob Pass is closed, you can take the tunnel. Although the Anzob Tunnel is "still under construction," apparently it's possible, by times, to drive through it, as demonstrated by this this round-the-world cyclist
who shot video of his trip through the tunnel
.

If the Anzob Pass happens to be open, it will take some time; according to the United Nations Development Program
you can:

Drive from Tashkent via Khujand and over the passes to Dushanbe - spectacular, best done by driving first to Khujand and spending the night there in the UNDP guest-house, then leaving the following morning. The drive from Khujand takes 7 hours, but one should not hurry, so allow a full day. However, the southern of the two passes, the Anzob pass. Normally the pass opens for regular traffic in the last week of May or thereabouts.

I have come to know all this because I suddenly became entranced with the idea of attending BarCamp in Dushanbe on November 26, a dream that, alas, I'm fairly confident I won't realize.
Walking to Atlin

Google Maps now includes walking directions as well as driving directions. And so I can find that walking from Charlottetown, PEI to Atlin, BC
would take 54 days and 9 hours. I'm also warned:

Use caution ? This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.

Perhaps more practical, it's good to know that I should be able to walk to Halifax in 2 days
once the oil runs out.
Home

We arrived back from Iceland in Halifax late last night, having met up with Olle and Luisa, en route from Copenhagen, in Keflavik. We stashed ourselves at the Quality Inn by the airport, and then took a swing through Halifax proper this morning. Coffee at Cafe Ristretto, lunch at Wooden Monkey, then drive and ferry home for supper at The Noodle House
. Not a bad introduction to the east coast culinary scene.

Tomorrow we rejoin our regularly scheduled programming.
Highway 518

We didn't really have a plan for today. So we woke up and headed down to breakfast here at Hraunsnef Country Hotel
with only a sketchy idea of what the day would hold.

I choose this hotel almost completely at random: I knew we wanted to see something of Western Iceland, and that we wanted to be in the countryside, but that was about it. Iceland Farmholidays
was where I turned first, but they have a "you can't book a specific place" policy that didn't strike me as all that convenient. Hraunsnef, although a member of their network, also allows independent bookings, however, so lured in by their website
, I booked two nights. It wasn't until we arrived that we got some concept of the area.

Under the counsel of our friendly host, we decided to spend the day looping up Highway 518. It was quite a journey: by my rough calculation we passed through about a dozen geologic epochs and just as many biological regions: we saw everything from verdant riverside fields full of sheep to bouldered Moon-like landscapes:

Highway 518 winds its way up one side of a valley and back down the other. At the apex of the loop you can almost see the Langj�kull glacier -- if we'd had a more powerful car we could have driven closer, but one look at the "F" road that led that way (the designation given to "you need a 4x4" roads) and we realized that we had to be content with a faraway look:

Down the other side we passed a little country church with an "organ" made of rocks:

And a little bit down the road an impressive waterfall that came out of the side of a river:

The tiny village of Reykholt was where we stopped for lunch. Alas we stopped at 2:06 p.m. and the only restaurant in town, at the big tourist hotel, closed for lunch at 2:00 p.m., so we had to be content with bread and cheese from the gas station (good bread, though). Reykholt is an important historic site in Iceland, a centre of literature and religion; while the modern and historic churches are indeed impressive, the museum under the church is moribund and not at all a must-see. We did learn, however, that it's time to cut Oliver loose next week:

At the end of Highway 518 is Deildartunguhver, the largest geothermal spring in the world: it spews out 50 gallons of boiling water a second, water that's piped long-distance to the towns of Borgarnes (34 km) and Akranes (64 km):

By this time the day was late, and Oliver needed to pee, necessitating a quick over-land jaunt to the gas station. Then back to Hraunsnef for a soak, another excellent supper, and, soon, sleep.
The Secret World of Ok

The silver lining in the rain clouds that have hung over Iceland since we arrived has been rainbows. All over the place. So many rainbows that we stopped taking photos, even though they were spectacular:

It rained all night last night, hard and steady. It was raining when we went to breakfast, and raining when we left breakfast. But, miracle of miracles, it was bright and sunny 30 minutes later when we headed out of Frost and Fire for the last time (capsule review: very nice guest house in an amazing location; recommended).

The sun made for a much better day, especially as it was the one we set aside to see the triple crown of Iceland's tourist attractions: Geysir, Gullfoss and �ingvellir.

From Hverager�i we headed east to Selfoss and then north toward Geysir. The road, like all paved roads we've driven here, was well marked and in good shape. Along the way we passed through half a dozen geological wonders, and just before Noon we rolled into Geysir, the mother of all "really hot water spurting from the earth" natural wonders and the one that gave its name to all others.

Geysir itself has been dormant for some time; fortunately its sister Strokkur is right beside, and it goes off every 5 or 6 minutes in a spectacular display of shooting water:

After a quick lunch of Northumberland Ferries-style pizza in the visitor centre, and a quick tour through the interpretive centre (not worth the 1600 kr�nur), we were back on the highway headed north to Gullfoss.

The same relaxed attitude toward public safety that we experienced yesterday with road construction carried on to the grand waterfall Gullfoss: the idea seems to be that if you are an idiot, you probably deserve to die, and they're not going to stand in your way. Which means that you have complete and total access to the waterfall, and can walk right up to its edge:

Children being children, Oliver announced that he needed to pee once we'd climbed all the way down the stairs from the hilltop viewing platform. Catherine, perhaps not so eager to go to the edge in any case, gamely volunteered to take him back up while I got as close as I, in my self-policing Canadian way, could manage while still maintaining proper safety protocols.

From Gullfoss we nipped back down past Geysir and then headed overland on gravel road 365 to �ingvellir, the spiritual heart of Icelandic government -- an assembly was founded there around 930 and continued to meet there until 1798. It also happens to be located at the end of scenic Lake �ingvallavatn, and, if all that isn't enough, is the site of a rather significant rift in the earth's crust.

When we parked the car and started off down the path to see �ingvellir's sights it was bright and sunny. By the time we got 500m down the path a freak rain cum hail storm appeared out of nowhere and we got soaked to the skin. As a result, save for reading a few signboards and getting a general sense of the spirit of the place, our true �ingvellir will have to wait until next time. Even without the democracy and the continental drift, it's a pretty beautiful place:

By the time we got changed into warm clothes we realized it was getting late, so we packed up and drove west to join the Ring Road, and then north, through a 6km undersea tunnel, through Borgarnes
and along to Hraunsnef Country Hotel
.

Hraunsnef is one of those places that has "labour of love" written all over it: it's a handcrafted hotel on a hill overlooking an impressive vista. There's a hot pot (Icelandic for "hot tub") beside a babbling brook, and a bang-up restaurant serving supper.

And for supper I had grilled salmon with garlic potatoes (excellent) and Catherine and Oliver shared an order of fish and chips (the speed of eating by Oliver proved that they too were very good).

Oliver and I each ordered Ok from the dessert menu -- a chocolate sundae with caramel sauce. Mmmm.

We're here for another night tomorrow, so we'll spend the day touring about western Iceland, relaxing in the hot pot, and, I hope, enjoying another meal downstairs.
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Early, early, early this morning we arrived in Iceland (our plane from Halifax touched down at Keflavik at 4:55 a.m.). With hours and hours to go before we could even begin to think about a hotel check-in, we took things easy: found Hertz, got the rental car keys, grabbed a coffee, parsed our new road atlas (best 2000 kr�nur I've ever spent!). So it wasn't until 6:58 a.m. that we hit the road:

It was 5 degrees C and raining when we left Keflavik -- just a light drizzle. Because our first night's lodging, in Hverager�i, was only an hour's drive away, we took the long way round, heading down to Grindav�k and the east along the coast, taking our time.

After curling up to die in a grocery store parking lot in Grindav�k for a few hours -- lack of sleep, jet lag, etc. -- our first real stop of the trip was at Selatangar
, an abandoned coastal fishing village about 12 km east. To get there we made our first transition from paved to gravel roads, and then a further transition to "gravel track" when we turned off the highway at the tiny marker that points the way.

Selatangar wasn't exactly on the tourist track -- we didn't pass a single car for the entire journey there and away -- and the rain had increased to a steady downpour by the time we arrived, but it was certainly worth the visit: the houses of the village, last occupied in the 1880s, were constructed of lava bricks, and many are still intact, albeit missing roofs:

One odd thing about Selatangar was the amount of garbage we came across strewn over the area: everything from fishing nets to deodorant bottles. At first I thought this was a result of rowdy Icelanders driving out and dumping their refuse on the site; then I realized that it was all coming from the ocean. I had no idea there was so much floating around in the water waiting to wash up in the middle of nowhere.

From Selatangar we continued east to visit Strandarkirkja
, a tiny perfect church right a stone's throw from the ocean:

We grabbed a coffee at a little place just up the road to tide us over, and around 1:30 p.m. we headed toward Hverager�i in earnest. Our journey was slowed somewhat by some hard-edge road construction: they don't seem to bother with flag-people on road crews here, so there was some harrowing "oh, that's a front end loader about to drop a load of lava rock" driving to be done. We emerged out the other end and hit pavement once again, and were in Hverager�i 10 minutes later.

Following the advice of Rough Guide, we had lunch at Cafe Kidda R�t
in the plaza on the edge of town: turned out they make an excellent burger and a serviceable asparagus soup and we left happy.

Frost and Fire Guesthouse
, our home for the night, was a quick drive through town up the hill. As with road crews so went hotel check-in: reception was empty so I picked up the house phone and the woman on the other end promised to be right there. She arrived two minutes later, walked me to our room, and then disappeared: no credit card check, no "what's the license plate number of your vehicle," no passports or ID required. Her only instructions: "you can use the pool and hot pot whenever you want." I could get used to this laissez faire approach to service.

And after a long soggy day, we were ready for a swim and a soak:

The air was 7 degrees C. The walkway to the pool from our room froze our feet. But the 38 degree water cured whatever ailed us and we spent a good hour lolling about.

For supper we headed up the road into Selfoss to eat at Menam
, a Thai restaurant. Very, very good Thai food too: coconut ginger chicken, spicy beef, deep-fried shrimp all served over rice with a salad on the side.

As I type Catherine and Oliver are fast asleep and the rain continues unabated. Tomorrow we're going to walk up the hill across the river to see the new geothermal action created by a 6.5 earthquake they had here in May, and then we'll do the Golden Circle, or at least part of it, before heading northwest to Borgarbygg� where we'll spend the next two days exploring western Iceland.

More photos here
(watch that channel over the week).
The Problem with Charlottetown
No Signature Required

I've used both my Mastercard and my Visa card here in the USA, in restaurants and shops in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and I've not once had to sign a credit card slip. Apparently, at least for purchases under $25.00, this is the rule here now. Weird.

Which is not to say that having to sign was ever a great security feature, but you'd think that the direction would be from signature to PIN (the model in Europe), rather than from signature to nothing.

Travel Posts on ruk.ca Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:35:12 -300

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