Now my third day on the job, I am still drinking from a fire hose. In addition to my responsibilities as head of engineering, I have also been asked to run operations and customer service. Our 3D printer, the Mark One, has been selling very well creating a challenge to keep up with demand for the consumables they use.

sNicolai has been back from Colorado College for a couple of weeks now but I have hardly seen him. Between my trip to Iceland and his camping, kayaking, and music festival excursions we have had little time together. This evening Nico was here with Karuna and a bunch of their friends to watch the Women’s World Cup match between the US and Nigeria. Jeanine and I joined the group as did Maya who for reasons unknown seemed quite intent on pulling the ears off of Nala.

Jeanine received nice coverage in the Concord Journal last week for her keynote presentation at the Class Act Awards ceremony. We are all very proud of her volunteer work for the community and it is nice to see that recognized in the local media.

I left the house at 7 am and returned by 9 pm for my first day on the job at MarkForged. I can tell already tell this is going to be a very fun ride.

Today was the last regulation soccer game of the spring season for my team. We had to leave Concord at 6 am to make an 8 am kick-off in Fairhaven, MA. We came away with a 7-3 win which secured our position as Regional Division 1 champions. The top two teams in each of the north and south regions will now compete for overall honors in a single elimination playoff tournament starting with the semi-finals next weekend. I missed last week’s game while traveling in Iceland. Apparently, the referee suspended play late in the second half when the game got out of control. Pictured here is the aftermath of an injury sustained by one of my teammates. Believe it or not, this was not the worst injury on our team. Three of our guys were banged up by the same opponent who was eventually red-carded and ejected from the game.

I spent the entire day processing photos from my trip to Iceland and thought I would share a few more related to my driving experiences on the island. Pictured above is a map of where I took photos (minus the first three days before I enabled GPS tagging on my first camera and minus the first seven days on my second camera). If you plan to visit anything off the main Ring Road (i.e. most of the good stuff) you will absolutely need a high ground clearance 4×4.  Even the main roads have sections which are gravel.  Most of the secondary roads are gravel and any road number starting with an “F” is restricted to 4 wheel drive vehicles.  Many of them are only suitable for the so-called super jeeps (normal jeep on steroids). The higher you go in altitude the worse the roads get. I rented the Subaru below which served me very well.

Iceland has as many waterfalls as Minnesota has lakes. For every waterfall there is either a bridge to cross or a stream to ford. 90% of all bridges are one lane and you are as likely to share it with livestock as with another motorist (first come, first served in both cases).

Before fording a stream it is best to get out and make a thorough inspection. I made great use of my waders to check depth before crossing.

When crossing over mountain passes visibility is often reduce to 10 or 20 feet as you literally drive through the clouds which are often present.

Falling rock zones are to be taken VERY seriously. The rocks pictured below were not on the road when I passed this way 1 hour earlier.

I drove a total of just over 2,000 miles during my ten day visit and managed to avoid any serious incidents. I would not, however, describe it as a stress free experience.

Maya turns sixteen next Friday. Today her friends threw her a surprise party which she absolutely loved. Jeanine and I were in charge of on time delivery of the birthday girl and stayed on to watch the fun from an acceptable parental separation distance. We will be celebrating her birthday again on the actual day with family.

Before leaving for Iceland, Jeanine asked that I take pictures of some Icelandic horses. I am honoring that request with today’s post featuring several of the more beautiful horses I encountered. I was amazed by the diversity of mane hairstyles that were to be found.

I spent my final night in a Reykjavík hostel and slept in until 9am at which time I left to track down a pair of hand knit Icelandic sweaters for Jeanine and Maya. I found a nice little shop with the genuine article which happened to be on the same street as the Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran Church, a most impressive work of architecture. I arrived at the Blue Lagoon at noon for my scheduled visit and let my weary muscles soak in the geothermal, mineral enriched, 100°F sea water. I spent 15 minutes under a massive waterfall letting it pound the tension out of my neck and back.  Then I tried a silica mud mask which left my face and scalp feeling totally rejuvenated.  A perfect way to end a perfect photo adventure.

As a bonus treat, my return flight to Boston took us over Greenland which is anything but green.  I may have to add it to my bucket list.

I spent my last full day in Iceland touring the Snæfellsnes Peninsula starting with Mount Kirkjufell, one of the more photogenic mountains I have ever encountered. The lighthouse at Ondverðarnes overlooks the western tip of the peninsula where the mighty Atlantic pounds the cliffs of lava.

Djúpalón is a small cove surrounded by extraordinary lava formations and known by Icelanders for its black pebbles, called “djúpalón-pearls” and giant sea stacks jutting out into the ocean.

Hellnar is another small (seal bearing) cove where the ocean has carved out holes, narrows and arches in the interesting lava tile rock formations.

The harbor at Arnarstapi is very picturesque with sea stacks rising from the ocean brimming with birdlife.

It seemed fitting to end the day at this small black church in Buðir. When photographed from the right perspective (which took me an hour to find in the adjacent lava fields) it provides a dramatic foreground to Mount Helgrindur in the background.

Hraunfossar (“lava waterfalls”) gets its name from the countless streams of clear water which emerge from under the edge of the lava field Hallmundarhraun and cascade into the river Hvítá (“White River”). Hvítá actually has a very nice turquoise colour. The lava is quite porous so rain seeps through until it meets a more dense rock layer, then runs between the lava layers, eventually emerging to form almost a kilometer long series of falls.

When the soft morning rain turned into a torrential downpour, I tried to think of an indoor photographic activity I could undertake during the afternoon. I remembered hearing about a brand new attraction (opened just a week earlier) called “Into the Glacier,” featuring Europe’s largest man-made ice caves and tunnel. Set high on Langjökull, Iceland’s second largest ice cap, and stretching 1/3 mile into solid glacier ice at 100 feet below the surface. What I failed to consider was what a torrential downpour at low altitude would translate to at an altitude of 4000 feet. The answer is a zero visibility blizzard with winds that will knock you off your feet. First, let me share photos of the interior and tell you that it is a very beautiful destination, if a bit tourist oriented.

Now let me share the story of the journey to the cave which was worth the price of admission alone and probably my most intimate encounter with the deadly force of nature. At a rally point several miles from the entrance to the cave, we (about 15 guests) boarded a massive 20 ton, 8 wheeled super truck designed specifically to traverse glaciers. Visibility was about 50 feet and winds were averaging 20 knots (pictured below). As the truck began ascending the glacier, winds increased and visibility decreased until we were in the middle of a complete white out (zero visibility).  The driver is now navigating by GPS alone and must find the tiny opening to the cave and his two colleagues who are madly shoveling snow to keep it open without driving into a crevasse. When we arrive, we are told that we must walk the final 20 feet in groups of five led by a guide wearing goggles and a special face mask.  Until we get outside we think they are joking when they say that you must hold the hand of the person in front and back of you or risk being lost in the storm. The second we exited the truck cabin into the 50 knot wind carrying sleet and snow it became infinitely clear that you were hanging on for dear life. You had to turn your face away from the wind or risk having it sand blasted by ice crystals. Walking that last 20 feet through the deep snow and gale force winds seemed like it took an eternity. When we reached the opening to the tunnel we crawled through the opening and tumbled like Winnie the Pooh down the snow bank, one on top of the other. In an instant it was quiet, warm (32F), and there was no wind. The next 90 minutes were serene and it was hard to imagine that just 100 feet above us a massive blizzard was raging. Fortunately, by the time the tour ended the blizzard had abated significantly making our return to the truck a much less harrowing experience although the additional snow fall meant that we had to climb an 8 foot snow bank and crawl out of the tunnel through the remaining two foot opening.

For a change of pace today, I decided to join a whale watching tour out of Húsavik aboard the good ship Nattfari. It was a lucky decision. The beautiful scenery would have been reason enough to get out on the water. Our first sighting was a small pod of white beaked dolphins.

When the crew of our boat became hyper excited it was clear we were in for a rare treat. They had spotted a blue whale of which estimates place the total North Atlantic population at between 600 and 1,500.  At 100 feet in length and 200 tons or more in weight, it is the largest extant animal and among the heaviest that have ever existed. Our whale dove for about ten minutes at a time and then surfaced to blow its spout two times before diving again without showing its tail fluke. Spotters would look for the first spout (~40 foot high) and then we would race nearer to the whale. With luck you could get a shot of the second spout (~30 feet high) which I was fortunate to do.

Our final sighting of the day was a humpback whale which was far easier to track and photograph.

Hvítserkur is a basalt rock rising about 15m just off the coast of Vatnsnes peninsula in the north of Iceland. The birds, which rest and nest on the rock have deposited quite a few droppings, colouring the rock largely white, hence the name hvít-serkur which means “white- shirt”.  Sea erosion has carved out two holes in the rock‘s foundation, giving it distinct features resembling a petrified monster, an animal of some sort or a troll. An old tale says Hvítserkur was a troll from the Westfjords planning to break a church bell in a fjord a little further east but was caught by the sun and turned to stone.

On the way to Hvítserkur I encountered a beautiful church and a nice lighthouse …

… and about a dozen horses blocking a one lane bridge I needed to traverse. Unmotivated to move by the approach of my rented 4×4 Subaru, several of the horses began licking the hood. Naturally, I rolled down the windows so that I might better photograph this strange behavior (I think they were after the salt spray residue which had accumulated while I was parked by the ocean earlier in the day). I became less amused when one horse began nibbling at my windshield wiper and down right worried when he poked his head inside the car for a look around.  When he started to abscond with my camera bag, I  decided it was time to  nudge may way through the impetuous gang who continued to block the bridge.

Krafla and Leirhnjúkur are volcanoes east of Lake Mývatn. I climbed to the top and around the rim of Krafla whose caldera is now filled by a lake. Regrettably it was still frozen and covered by snow. Fortunately, the lake in the adjacent Viti explosion crater had thawed, revealing the beautiful aquamarine water. It took another hour to hike mostly through deep snow to a vantage point on the rim of the Leirhnjúkur (“clay peak”) crater, a rhyolite formation, rising about 50 m above the surrounding lava field to photograph its lake passing some interesting volcanic fissures and craters along the way.

Game of Thrones fans may recognize Grjótagjá as the place where John Snow is, ahem, deflowered by Ygritte. It is a wonderful little subterranean cave that has a geothermal pool within.

The nearly symmetrical crater of Hverfell demanded that I make the 1500 foot ascent to see what was inside. The effort was well worth it, offering views of both the colder and surrounding mountains.

Goðafoss means “Waterfall of the gods” and the waterfall got its name in the year 1000 when Iceland converted from the old ásatrú-religion (norse heathenry) to Christianity.  According to the Book of Icelanders, the local chieftain and lawspeaker, Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði, was given the authority to decide whether Christianity was to be adopted in Iceland. After the decision was made, it is said, he threw his statues of the old Viking gods into the waterfall, as a symbol that the old religion had been discarded.

Aldeyjarfoss, about 45km upstream of Goðafoss on the Skjálfandafljót River, falls in a rather narrow but powerful current into a large round basin framed by impressive rows of hexagonal basalt columns. It was one of my favorite destinations because of its isolation. Unlike the other falls, I had this one to myself with not another soul to be found for ten miles.

Puffins are so charming that I could watch them for hours and that is exactly what I did this morning at their colony in Hafnarhólmi. They are only one of many different bird species which can be seen in the eastern fjords region.

Seyðisfjörður is a small town/artist community at the end of one of the more scenic fjords. I paused here for lunch and enjoyed exploring the town which features a beautiful blue church and a working telephone booth sculpture built into the side of a mountain.

Working my way around to the northern region by afternoon, I visited the falls of Dettifoss and Selfoss. The former is 330 ft. wide and has a drop of 150 ft. down to the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. It is the largest waterfall in both Iceland and all of Europe in terms of volume discharge, having an average water flow of 193 m3/s. Although it is quite impressive, Selfoss located a few hundred meters upstream is actually the more photogenic.

Sunset happens at about midnight at this time of year (with sunrise at 3:30am) making for a very long photographic day. My destination for the evening is Lake Myvatn. Despite a very late arrival, the area was still being bathed in golden light and I decided to make a quick tour at the Hverir geothermal area to wrap up the day.

I encountered more frozen water than falling water today as I traversed the southeast corner of Iceland with stops at the Svínafellsjökull glacier tongue and the glacial lagoons of Fjallsárlón and Jökulsárlón. Recent volcanic eruptions are evidenced by the amount of ash that can be observed everywhere.  The Jökulsárlón lagoon empties into the ocean through a river which is only a couple of hundred meters long. Icebergs formed by the calving glacier float out to sea where many wash up on the black sand beaches creating a veritable museum of ice sculptures.

My final destination for the day is the Stokksnes peninsula where winds shape the landscape and wildlife of all manner can be found.