Following on from the Part 1 blog – our Iceland trip was in full swing and our mission to search for waterfalls brought us to the east of the country.
After a fun day on the Fossa the previous day we went to scout a few of the waterfalls previous groups had found including the ‘Cobra crusher’ and ‘Princess plug’, unfortunately no matter the optimism, both of these were too low.
After a long day of driving/ faffing/ too much whiskey the night before, we made it to Egilsstaðir one of the main cities in the east of the country. Where we put in for some class joy kayaking on the Eyvindará river, a short canyon that finishes right in town. After a quick late (7 pm) lunch we still had energy from the never ending sunlight.
Using the RiverGuideApp we found a pin for the Klifbrekku waterfalls with no information, just 30 minutes from us and we were all fired up to check out and see if these waterfalls could be paddled.
We found an incredible series of waterfalls all running straight into the next fall. Although some of these looked runnable, the fact that each one ran straight into the next and inaccessible due to the loose terrain of the rocks made it impossible. A quick look downstream of this incredible sequence we found a perfect 9 meter drop and the sunlight at this time of day was incredible.
Lyndon was quick to fire this one up first, a very flat landing left him with all of the signs of over boofing a low water drop, winded, struggling to breath, throwing up and complaining about him back. Fortunately he managed to get himself to the side and with a little help onto the bank. This left us all questioning weather or not to follow or call it a day, luckily for us Oli was so fired up he got back to the top of the waterfall and in the zone. An awesome line and soft hit at the bottom had us all following in their footsteps as the sun past behind the mountain.
Failed missions aren’t often talked about but our mission to the Kelduá on Lyndons birthday wasn’t giving me the vibe I was hoping for.
After a short (2 hour) hot hike took us to the top of the river. Let me just add in here, we didn’t actually hike to the top of the river, we missed some drops above by accident. We decided to split into two groups for this with Piers, Johnny and Shearer all fired up. Oli and I took the media and safety positions whilst Lyndon was still sore from the boof the night before watching onwards.
After seeing the boys come off each drop in a variety of different ways Oli and I decided the drops were too low to run with the style we wanted so took the short walk back to the car and onto the next adventure.
Although slightly tired from the mission, I was so keen to tourist while I was here and the Stuðlagil canyon was high on my list, although flat water within the short canyon it was a beautiful place to be, even if the missions started at around 11 pm and a beautiful place to see out the rest of Lyndon’s birthday.
Whist birthdays were the teaser to get everyone to agree to a trip to Iceland, when my birthday came around two days later our trip brought us round to the north and back to Aldeyjarfoss, one of the main reason why we all came hunting waterfalls here.
No matter how beautiful the waterfall is, when it comes to running it there are so many factors to consider and there are definitely risks. We did our best to cover all the possible outcomes and cover media. Although it was clear Piers, Shearer, Oli and I all wanted to run it. It wasn’t without a whole heap of effort getting safety set up, Oli and I down into opposite ends of the pool, but an hour later we were ready for Piers to pull the trigger.
Although getting an amazing line, Piers got pushed hard right on the exit and into a small cave, fortunately in his boat and most of his deck on. It was a weird one for me being the other side of the waterfall I never saw Piers for 15 minutes after the glimpse of yellow at the top of the waterfall. But I was grateful to see the OK signal from Oli as soon as he popped up.
If there’s a reason to carry radios with you on a trip, waterfalls are the reason! Next up was Shearer, after seeing Piers emerge from the cave he was fired up and ready for his time to shine. Without a moments to waste, he hopped in his boat and was at the bottom before anyone was ready, I heard a frantic faint whistle from Lyndon on a cliff far away and a flash of green. Fortunately we were all semi ready for him to come down. This time a slightly different outcome, the worst case ejection from his kayak, after landing upside down there isn’t much chance of staying in your boat in that situation. Resurfacing a few seconds later very close to a siphon, a combination of Adam Peaty swimming and Piers’ throwbag skills he was out on the bank safe and sound.
Without us having someone on the lip it meant that none of us could see Shearer getting in his boat or run the waterfall, thankfully it all worked out ok and everyone was safe but we could have been just as prepared as we were for Piers if we had better communication between the team.
After rescuing Shearers boat I was exhausted and didn’t feel like running Aldeyjarfoss again but it was great to see Oli fire himself up around three hours after we arrived at the waterfall and get another great line.
We finished off our trip at the Midnight Sun kayak festival, put on by Viking Rafting. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog I worked at Viking Rafting, but I never got to experience a full festival due to covid so to come back three years later and see the full kayaking community of Iceland come together, paddle, race and party was amazing. We’d all thoroughly reccommend heading out to Iceland around late June to enjoy the festival and kayak around Iceland, it’s more than just kayaking there we did enjoy some of the local culture as well as kayaking … honest.
End note, if you need an leveraging factor to get your buddies out on a kayaking trip, birthdays are great for that!
Onto the next adventure.
