Icelanders are proud of their Icelandic horses, brought by settlers from Norway a thousand years ago. No other types of horse are bred in the country and importation is banned to avoid bringing in diseases to which the Icelandic horses have never before been exposed. I arranged an hour long beginner's tour at the nearby farm of Ytri-Stógar. Fortunately my horse was very obedient, unlike some I have tried to ride in the past, and I had the impression that I was not as far off the ground as I would have been on a British and American horse. She certainly crossed rivers more easily than me, not having to remove her shoes. The lady leading my tour, granddaughter of the farm's owner, said they mainly reared sheep and a few cows. Hay was the only crop.
After the ride there was some time left to walk to the beach. Unfortunately it was further than I imagined. The coastal plain was very wide here. Inland it is farmed or is covered in lupins, nearer the sea it is an expanse of small, rounded black stones. I never quite reached the sea, finding the black expanse somewhat tedious I returned to the Skógarfoss hotel for some lunch before my bus was due.
Getting onto the bus I was a little sad to leave the hotel where I had stayed for the last three nights and where the staff were getting to know me. I had bought a ticket for the bus on the company's "app". While the app had some nice features, like showing where the bus was in real time, the ticket section confused me. When I tried to "show the ticket", part of the screen just showed a picture of me looking puzzled at the screen. At first I thought it was trying to take a photo of me, but apparently it is so the driver can see a picture of himself when you show him your ticket. Curious.
There was also a change of bus at the town of Vik to confuse me. A minibus took us few travelers east and I was deposited on route at the Skaftafell campground. This was a well organised site with good facilities including a café and gift shop although only a limited selection of groceries were for sale and they closed at 6:00 pm. I had planned to stock up with food at the mini market at the Skaftafell petrol station, but that turned out to be some distance away, and after I spent 40 minutes walking along the road in its direction, I gave up and returned to camp. Nevertheless I did gain some good views of the Skaftafellsjökull glacier from the road and a path out from the campsite.
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