Our 1993 trip - the 6-day Snaefellesnes Peninsula tour
In 1993, Charlie and I, Erika (our daughter) and Mary (my sister) packed up our bags, left Northern California and flew to Reykjavik for a three week stay in Iceland.
In addition to sightseeing in the southwestern part of the country with our friends Sif and Stefan, part of that 1993 trip was a weekend ride in the country for all four of us, then a weeklong ride at the end of the trip for Charlie and me. Our friends in Reykjavik recommended that we take our tours with the Ishestar riding company. During the weekend ride at Leirubakki, near the volcano Hekla, I learned that you do not ask to ride spirited Icelandic horses or ponies. A horse they call "willing" in Iceland is one that "runs away with you" in the US. Charlie definitely won the race home that day. (That's another story).
After taking a bus from Reykjavik to Siggi and Olof's house at the eastern end of the Snaesfellsnes peninsula. Charlie and I met the other riders for this adventure and met our guides.
The main reason to ride out the Snaefellesnes peninsula is to run across the beaches. When the tide goes out in this part of Iceland, large sandy bottomed bays are exposed. Some of them are miles across. On one large bay - near the end of the week when everyone was more experienced, we held back our horses and let the herd go ahead. Then we did a mad dash across the bay to catch up. The horse I was on had a wonderful flying pace, and we just flew. Splashing through the low spots with salt water and mud flying everywhere. How exhilarating!
On one day we crossed a not so old lava field. The horses knew to go single file on the narrow path. It went up and down with seemingly no logic to the path. Strategically placed piles of rocks were what the old-timers used to find their way through this area. I was glad horses don't suffer from vertigo when we were right at the edge of some crevasses.
This ride ended at Arnarstapi, a village at the Snaefellesnes peninsula's Western end, and at the base of the dormant volcano Snaesfellsjokull. This volcano is where Jules Verne said you could journey to the center of the earth. Instead of going inside it, we arranged for a snowmobile ride to the top of it. As we traversed the slope to the top it kept getting steeper and steeper. As the passenger, I had to hang my bottom off the snowmobile on the uphill side to keep us from falling sideways the other way. We still blew it 2x. I was ready to quit then, but was convinced otherwise. Finally we got to the top and enjoyed the panoramic view for awhile. It felt like Edmund Hillary. The journey down was probably the most terrifying experience in my life. I am not a downhill skier, but that day I went down an expert slope at full speed.
I have to tell one more story about that snowmobile trip. Our guide was a young, tough Icelandic fisherman who spoke no English. When we all got to the bottom he was waiting until we all caught up. Then we proceeded off as a group. Ragnar's vehicle took that opportunity to stall out and wouldn't start again. We held back and Charlie provided some assistance that got it started. The group had disappeared, but there were plenty of tracks to follow. As we were starting out to catch up, the guide returned with no passenger. Ragnar explained to him what happened and he said okay and zoomed off to catch up again. He took off over some drifts and was stunt riding. Jumping from drift to drift. Well, he blew it and wiped out. We caught up and he was lying in the snow. Since Ragnar is a medical doctor, he went to check the guide out. The guide was standing up as he got there but had dislocated his shoulder and his right hand seemed to reach all the way to his ankle. To my amazement the guide tucked his hand into his jacket, got on the snowmobile, picked up his passenger and rode back to the vehicles. Ragnar said he was complaining because he had an important dance to go to that night and hoped the doctors wouldn't take too long to fix it!
Return to Top
