The source of the nameless river, which a few hundred meters below forms the Grundarlækjarfoss waterfall. A nice, quiet place with beautiful views of the Suðurdalur valley.
However, this post is not about this spring, and perhaps no one will ever visit this place (nor should they), but it’s about the story.
In fact, I thought long and hard about whether to even include the nameless spring of the nameless river here, but then I decided to do it, precisely because of this story that led me here. It’s a tale not only about this place, the local landowner, but about the entire project.
The story begins in the morning, when my plan was to photograph the Strútsfoss waterfall in good light, which meant very early in the morning. However, my morning laziness won, and by the time I reached Strútsfoss, it was already noon. On my way along the road, I noticed a waterfall and in front of it, a few rusting vehicles, creating a picturesque scene. On my way back from Strútsfoss, I stopped at the waterfall and started walking around the place to explore it, so I could take a few nice photos of both the waterfall and the rusting vehicles. One vehicle particularly caught my attention because of some construction it had on its bed, and I couldn’t figure out what such a strange construction was for.
It wasn’t long before the landowner drove up to me, got out of the car, and asked what I was doing there. It surprised me. Yes, just a few hundred meters away, there was a building I had passed on my way here, and it looked quite abandoned, so I was quite surprised that there was anyone around. It turned out that the owner was a cheerful man named Þorsteinn, and he just arrived here a few days ago, planning to tidy up the place a bit.
I told him that I was traveling around Iceland, photographing and mapping all the interesting places, and the waterfall with its surrounding caught my attention, so I planned to capture it as well.
This surprised him, and at first, he was certainly a bit skeptical. However, we ended up having a long conversation about me, him, and Iceland. He probably realized that I wasn’t just someone interested in a few rusted cars for Instagram. After about 15 minutes, he almost casually mentioned that the river creating this waterfall originates about 300 meters higher in altitude. And after another 15 minutes of chatting, he offered to take me to the spring if I was interested.
So we hopped into a Toyota Hilux from the nineties, and before that, Þorsteinn adjusted the four-wheel drive, and we set off into the woods. Yes, into the woods; in this area, there is actually a forest. And yes, my guide’s family has a say in that. His father started planting the trees here if I remember correctly. Now, Þorsteinn takes care of them. For measuring their circumference, he has a large caliper. He mentioned that as the trees grow, he had to get a larger one. Besides getting to know the place, I learned something about forestry. Wow, I never expected to be educated in forestry while in Iceland.
I now know that when a young tree has a split top, it’s not good. And also, as you can see in one of the gallery photos, the trees here are nibbled on by reindeer.
During our time in the private forest, we also discussed tourism, and Þorsteinn mentioned that tourists don’t bother him unless, for example, someone drives a car through the forest paths, at which point he would be concerned about how to handle situations where something might happen to someone.
After about 10 minutes of a bumpy forest ride, we finally reached the spring, a place I never thought I’d find myself in just an hour ago.
After taking in the beauty of the place for a bit longer, we got back into the car and headed back down, taking a different route, which at times was challenging even for the Toyota Hilux. We occasionally checked some trees and continued on our way.
We parted ways at the bottom, and Þorsteinn pointed out that by the waterfall, there were ruins of an old mill, so I should capture those too. Oh, and I couldn’t help but ask about the unusual construction on the bed of one of the cars.
His father used to paint houses, and that structure served as scaffolding, allowing him to reach higher.
P.S. Today is Easter Monday, and as a little Easter egg, there is a piece of Þorsteinn’s car in the photos.
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