iceland: Day 4
After great food, a great night's sleep to the sound of a hard rain, and a morning breakfast bar I was off to get one more day of exploring in before Boston called me back. I had only three must-do items still remaining, the first being trying to find both a second hidden waterfall back at Seljalandsfoss where I had visited first on this trip, the second to try to jump in a hot river at Reykjadalur, and the third to go to either Fontana Hot Springs or the famous Blue Lagoon and spend hours soaking in hot springs. A fourth must - do was to try and spend more time at Thingvellir National Park - but I didn't hold out much hope for having enough time to do all this and make it back to Revkjavik for the night in order to catch my afternoon flight out the following day at Keflavik.
Having to pass the waterfall on my way back as I drove the Ring Road - the pretty much only paved major road around the whole country, I decided to make that my first stop. Amazingly enough I jaunted up a total of four off route waterfalls, skirting wire sheep fences, and literally walking up rivers on the side of the mountain to reach the base of some of these little falls. As the biggest - DUH - moment of my trip , not a few minutes walk West along a gravel path from Seljalandsfoss is an almost unvisited "secret" falls Glifruboi. With the rain coming down like an Olympic Peninsula shower - the icy deluge didn't dissuade me from taking off my socks and shoes and walking barefoot up the icy stream into the mountain to see the falls as they cascaded down within the mountain itself. Well worth some slightly numb toes! I spend twenty minutes or so drying off from my hour of waterfall hiking and proceeded to drive the 1/2 mile back up the access road to Route 1. It was at the intersection with Route 1, the Ring Road, that circumstances changed very rapidly for a vacation.
(WARNING: what follows is an account of a vehicle accident and injury (no deaths) and subsequent rescue - if this would be disturbing to you please move on to the next text box after the photo)
A young Thai women and her male friend were driving up from Reykjavik along the same route I had taken not a few days prior, and distracted by the magnificant views, the gentleman appeared to not have looked for oncoming traffic before turning into the road for the waterfalls. Hit in their small two door rental economy compact car on the passenger side, at around 70mph by a Mercedes SUV, I unknowingly drove up to the scene of a terrible accident had had unfolded only moments earlier. Seeing a group of huddled people standing around the shoulder of the road I threw on my soaking wet rain jacket again and walked over. The young Thai women was motionless on her back, dragged out of the car by witnesses, and was having a young Icelandic women who appeared to be an off-duty EMT try to wrap her bleeding head, she was alternating between moaning and being trying to move. I immediately asked the Icelandic EMT if I could assist her - as she alone was trying to stop massive bleeding from an open head wound over one of her eyes that was filling both her eyes with blood every time she tried to open them. She quickly requested that I assist her, and I proceeded to take control of the head wound and spinal precautions, in case of unknown spinal fractures or trauma. With the cold rain and 20 mph winds whipping into us both, I confirmed that someone had called 112 (the Icelandic Emergency number) and had the bystanders form a body shield around us to help protect the patient from the biting cold. With the male friend distraught and frantic over the injuries to his friend, we confirmed that he had no visible injuries or complaints, and had him sit in a car until help came. The women driving the SUV was also visibly uninjured, and to her credit did what she could to help - before people realized she was the driver of the SUV and had her also wait in a car for the medics. With both hands firmly gripping the young women's head, and holding the bandage down on her forehead, the Icelandic medic tried to assess for any other injuries. The women quickly started to become hypothermic, so I had one of the bystanders go back to my still running Jeep and get out my ZPacks 30* Quilt which I had them spread out over the patients torso and legs and use their body weight to both keep her from moving, and try to keep her warm. As the patient started to regain her senses, she started becoming hysterical and screaming "I don't want to die" over and over while grabbing at our faces and trying to sit up. Still concerned that purely due to the speed of the accident and the fact that her whole side of the car had almost been ripped to shreds by the accident, we continued to hold her down - and I kept talking to her, as she understood English and could speak it well enough to be understood. As she started convulsing and saying she couldn't breath we realized that she likely had internal bleeding that was starting to choke her - and we barrel-rolled her onto her side and used fingers to sweep gobs of blood out of her mouth. As the minutes stretched on, we got word that the ambulance had an ETA of only 20 minutes (it had been about 10 minutes since they had been called). We continued to check pulses, keep pressure on the wound, and ensure that the women didn't move for the next 20 minutes. About 5 minutes before the ambulance arrived, two women came up that indicated they were nurses, and assisted us further in trying to reassure the women, and keep her as motionless and warm as possible. Neither worked of course - as the near freezing temperatures had started making this 100 pound women begin to shiver and her lips turn slightly blue with the cold. During this time the adrenaline from the accident was wearing off for our patient- while the pain of her injuries continued to make themselves more and more known through screaming. At a few points I had to scream in her face to wake her up again as she seemed to start to fall asleep or scream and moan in cycles, and ensure that she kept moaning or talking or anything - as once she passed out we had no idea of what may be going wrong.
Two ambulances and medic cars along with two police cars arrived after what seemed like forever, but consider the remote location, was incredibly fast to have arrived only 25 minutes or so from the time of the accident. I continued to hold the head as the medics used a scissor stretcher and secured it around her before we all lifted her up and walked her into the waiting ambulance. Hands covered in blood and starting to shake myself from the cold, the Icelandic medic who was first to arrive motioned me over to a police car - where we proceeded to use a full box of hand wipes and bottle of anti-bacterial foam. A tourist bus parked just yards away also called us over and gave us another box of wipes to use as we stared at each other in silence. I never got her name, and we never talked directly after loading the patient in the ambulance, but we shared a look and a nod of the head and that was enough. We had showed up to help when help was needed, and now our job was done, and we could recede into the background once again.
With a few handshakes and thank-you's to the other people that helped, and ensuring that my sleeping bag had made it back to my trunk (missing the cuben stuff sack - oh well - that is what Icelandic wind does to something that weighs less than an ounce) I turned my car heat up as hard as it would go and just shivered for a few moments in the drivers seat as I let me own adrenaline burn off for a few minutes. With the women having been stabilized on scene - and a LifeStar Helicopter awaiting the ambulance at the town 30 minutes away - I knew that she would be at a major hospital in Reykjavik within the hour.
Whew - after all that I did the next logical thing - I stripped naked in the driver's seat of my rental car, surrounded by a hundred other cars, all idling along the roads while the police investigated the accident, took statements, and cleared what they could off the road. With the wet clothing off and the heat on - I had some potato chips and changed into some jeans and a sweater while we all waited for 45 minutes for the road to open up again so that we could drive on. With this accident ending as well as could be hoped for given the circumstances - my thoughts were 1) " I hope they bought all the Rental Car Insurance" , 2) "I hope they have a good Cosmetic Surgeon for these facial lacerations", and 3) "I wonder what I will do now". With over 2 hours of the day spent at this accident, I re-evaluated my schedule and decided to just wing it and start driving. Emotionally I was a little spent at that point, so I turned on Mumford and Sons and tried to relax as I headed back over to Selfoss to get gas before continuing on.
Having to pass the waterfall on my way back as I drove the Ring Road - the pretty much only paved major road around the whole country, I decided to make that my first stop. Amazingly enough I jaunted up a total of four off route waterfalls, skirting wire sheep fences, and literally walking up rivers on the side of the mountain to reach the base of some of these little falls. As the biggest - DUH - moment of my trip , not a few minutes walk West along a gravel path from Seljalandsfoss is an almost unvisited "secret" falls Glifruboi. With the rain coming down like an Olympic Peninsula shower - the icy deluge didn't dissuade me from taking off my socks and shoes and walking barefoot up the icy stream into the mountain to see the falls as they cascaded down within the mountain itself. Well worth some slightly numb toes! I spend twenty minutes or so drying off from my hour of waterfall hiking and proceeded to drive the 1/2 mile back up the access road to Route 1. It was at the intersection with Route 1, the Ring Road, that circumstances changed very rapidly for a vacation.
(WARNING: what follows is an account of a vehicle accident and injury (no deaths) and subsequent rescue - if this would be disturbing to you please move on to the next text box after the photo)
A young Thai women and her male friend were driving up from Reykjavik along the same route I had taken not a few days prior, and distracted by the magnificant views, the gentleman appeared to not have looked for oncoming traffic before turning into the road for the waterfalls. Hit in their small two door rental economy compact car on the passenger side, at around 70mph by a Mercedes SUV, I unknowingly drove up to the scene of a terrible accident had had unfolded only moments earlier. Seeing a group of huddled people standing around the shoulder of the road I threw on my soaking wet rain jacket again and walked over. The young Thai women was motionless on her back, dragged out of the car by witnesses, and was having a young Icelandic women who appeared to be an off-duty EMT try to wrap her bleeding head, she was alternating between moaning and being trying to move. I immediately asked the Icelandic EMT if I could assist her - as she alone was trying to stop massive bleeding from an open head wound over one of her eyes that was filling both her eyes with blood every time she tried to open them. She quickly requested that I assist her, and I proceeded to take control of the head wound and spinal precautions, in case of unknown spinal fractures or trauma. With the cold rain and 20 mph winds whipping into us both, I confirmed that someone had called 112 (the Icelandic Emergency number) and had the bystanders form a body shield around us to help protect the patient from the biting cold. With the male friend distraught and frantic over the injuries to his friend, we confirmed that he had no visible injuries or complaints, and had him sit in a car until help came. The women driving the SUV was also visibly uninjured, and to her credit did what she could to help - before people realized she was the driver of the SUV and had her also wait in a car for the medics. With both hands firmly gripping the young women's head, and holding the bandage down on her forehead, the Icelandic medic tried to assess for any other injuries. The women quickly started to become hypothermic, so I had one of the bystanders go back to my still running Jeep and get out my ZPacks 30* Quilt which I had them spread out over the patients torso and legs and use their body weight to both keep her from moving, and try to keep her warm. As the patient started to regain her senses, she started becoming hysterical and screaming "I don't want to die" over and over while grabbing at our faces and trying to sit up. Still concerned that purely due to the speed of the accident and the fact that her whole side of the car had almost been ripped to shreds by the accident, we continued to hold her down - and I kept talking to her, as she understood English and could speak it well enough to be understood. As she started convulsing and saying she couldn't breath we realized that she likely had internal bleeding that was starting to choke her - and we barrel-rolled her onto her side and used fingers to sweep gobs of blood out of her mouth. As the minutes stretched on, we got word that the ambulance had an ETA of only 20 minutes (it had been about 10 minutes since they had been called). We continued to check pulses, keep pressure on the wound, and ensure that the women didn't move for the next 20 minutes. About 5 minutes before the ambulance arrived, two women came up that indicated they were nurses, and assisted us further in trying to reassure the women, and keep her as motionless and warm as possible. Neither worked of course - as the near freezing temperatures had started making this 100 pound women begin to shiver and her lips turn slightly blue with the cold. During this time the adrenaline from the accident was wearing off for our patient- while the pain of her injuries continued to make themselves more and more known through screaming. At a few points I had to scream in her face to wake her up again as she seemed to start to fall asleep or scream and moan in cycles, and ensure that she kept moaning or talking or anything - as once she passed out we had no idea of what may be going wrong.
Two ambulances and medic cars along with two police cars arrived after what seemed like forever, but consider the remote location, was incredibly fast to have arrived only 25 minutes or so from the time of the accident. I continued to hold the head as the medics used a scissor stretcher and secured it around her before we all lifted her up and walked her into the waiting ambulance. Hands covered in blood and starting to shake myself from the cold, the Icelandic medic who was first to arrive motioned me over to a police car - where we proceeded to use a full box of hand wipes and bottle of anti-bacterial foam. A tourist bus parked just yards away also called us over and gave us another box of wipes to use as we stared at each other in silence. I never got her name, and we never talked directly after loading the patient in the ambulance, but we shared a look and a nod of the head and that was enough. We had showed up to help when help was needed, and now our job was done, and we could recede into the background once again.
With a few handshakes and thank-you's to the other people that helped, and ensuring that my sleeping bag had made it back to my trunk (missing the cuben stuff sack - oh well - that is what Icelandic wind does to something that weighs less than an ounce) I turned my car heat up as hard as it would go and just shivered for a few moments in the drivers seat as I let me own adrenaline burn off for a few minutes. With the women having been stabilized on scene - and a LifeStar Helicopter awaiting the ambulance at the town 30 minutes away - I knew that she would be at a major hospital in Reykjavik within the hour.
Whew - after all that I did the next logical thing - I stripped naked in the driver's seat of my rental car, surrounded by a hundred other cars, all idling along the roads while the police investigated the accident, took statements, and cleared what they could off the road. With the wet clothing off and the heat on - I had some potato chips and changed into some jeans and a sweater while we all waited for 45 minutes for the road to open up again so that we could drive on. With this accident ending as well as could be hoped for given the circumstances - my thoughts were 1) " I hope they bought all the Rental Car Insurance" , 2) "I hope they have a good Cosmetic Surgeon for these facial lacerations", and 3) "I wonder what I will do now". With over 2 hours of the day spent at this accident, I re-evaluated my schedule and decided to just wing it and start driving. Emotionally I was a little spent at that point, so I turned on Mumford and Sons and tried to relax as I headed back over to Selfoss to get gas before continuing on.
Driving through Selfoss in the pouring rain I past a hitchhiking young women on a bridge with a big backpack and an exhausted expression. No stranger to hitch-hiking myself, I imagined myself out in the rain right then, and turned the car around. When I pulled over and rolled the window down, the hitch-hiker said "didn't you just pass me ". Yup she caught me having a change of heart - gotta help out if I can. As it turned out, "Noemie" was Swedish, and currently living in Australia and had been traveling Iceland for two weeks with a girlfriend, but had left her mother's camera at the Selfoss Hostel and had to hitch back down from the northern part of the country in order to pick it up. With no plan other than to catch a flight out of Keflavik just a few hours after my flight the next day, I told her to throw the pack in the back and jump inside while we talked options for plans. Energized by a much needed adventure companion for the day after a rough start to my morning, I explained my plan of trying to hike into the hot river, and then go soak in some hot springs at a spa. No encouragement needed - Noemie was ready for adventure, and we ate chocolate and turned up the music as the miles ticked by on the drive to Reykjadalur. Arriving with the rain still pouring down, I changed back into my wet clothing and we once again headed out into the rain for a muddy and conversation filled 2 hour hike. With the rivers all freezing cold with the rain, we didn't even bother to take a photo - the hot river had turned pretty cold- but laughing and muddy, we turned to face a ferocious tailwind that was now a headwind - and proceeded to hike back down the mountain and out of the valley to the waiting car. While certainly having fun in the rain - we where both now almost rabid with the desire to get into a spa and soak (I was probably more so rabid - while she was composed and svelte but who is really keeping track). The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent soaking for nearly 6 hours at the Laugarvatn Fontana Spa and Geothermal Baths & Steam Sauna. I would return to Iceland just to spend a week doing nothing but soaking at the Fontana for 8 hours a day - they have enough pools of different temperatures that we lay comfortably in the water without ever overheating, and could jump in the freezing lake (twice) or try the 56* C steam room - so freaking hot I could only last a few minutes at best. With the final night at
And yes the photo above of steam pits at Reykjadalur - they are boiling. We both put a finger in just to make sure. Don't want a to be duped by a non-boiling bubbling sulphur steam pit (that is dry humor - don't try this kids it will scald you). With my final night at HI Reykjavik Downtown Hostel, I got the last bed in the girls dorm for Noimie (her friend had their tent) while we were still soaking at the Fontana, and ate dinner at Noodle Station. Tons of comfort food in a trough. Just what I needed after a long day - a celebration of friends, adventure, and family - the things the truly matter in life. People and Experiences - they always matter more than things and money. Slept on the flight out the following day - without any trouble returning the rental (I TOOK THE CAR TO A SELF CAR WASH BEFORE RETURNING IT - not a bad idea people - and most of them are free). And with a short pickup at Boston Logan - my little adventure was over for now.
Thanks for following along on a few pretty incredible days - now go enjoy your own adventure!
As Cinderella says " Be Courageous, and Be Kind".
And yes the photo above of steam pits at Reykjadalur - they are boiling. We both put a finger in just to make sure. Don't want a to be duped by a non-boiling bubbling sulphur steam pit (that is dry humor - don't try this kids it will scald you). With my final night at HI Reykjavik Downtown Hostel, I got the last bed in the girls dorm for Noimie (her friend had their tent) while we were still soaking at the Fontana, and ate dinner at Noodle Station. Tons of comfort food in a trough. Just what I needed after a long day - a celebration of friends, adventure, and family - the things the truly matter in life. People and Experiences - they always matter more than things and money. Slept on the flight out the following day - without any trouble returning the rental (I TOOK THE CAR TO A SELF CAR WASH BEFORE RETURNING IT - not a bad idea people - and most of them are free). And with a short pickup at Boston Logan - my little adventure was over for now.
Thanks for following along on a few pretty incredible days - now go enjoy your own adventure!
As Cinderella says " Be Courageous, and Be Kind".