Diaries

Wednesday 27th June 2001

Since being back in Aberystwyth, we have had some pretty good windsurfing conditions, with southerly winds and sunshine. Unfortunately, I have been catching up with work following my Iceland trip, and my knee is still hurting so I haven;t been able to get out on the water. I did go to casualty though to see what I've done to my knee... Apparently I have torn the Medial-lateral ligament and should rest it for at least 6 weeks!!... Grrrr.

Monday 25th June 2001.

Today we stopped off at the Blue Lagoon on the way to the airport for a swim in the naturally-hot waters. We also drove around the Reykjanes Peninsular, stopping for lunch at the fishing village of Grindavik, driving across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge again and seeing thousands of Arctic Terns.

Sunday 24th June 2001.

We were picked up punctually from out guesthouse at 8.00am by Alma in her 'Monster Jeep'. We then picked up one and half Canadians (Thomas and his Dad) and drove towards Thorsmork in Southern Iceland. We stopped at the absolutely stunning waterfall of Seljalandsfoss which falls 60m from the overhanging columnar basalt cliffs into a shallow plunge pool. Its possible to walk behind the curtain of water, getting soaked in the process. From this location we could also see out to the Westman Islands, 15 or so volcanic islands about 10km off the coast. We could see Surtsey, the newest edition to these islands which began forming on Nov. 14 1963 and continued erupting for three years, becoming the the Westmans second largest island. It has since shrunk to half this size due to erosion.
We then drove inland along a crazy road which forded 18 rivers, some of them fairly deep, and some fairly wide. We stopped at the snout of Gigjokull one of the valley glaciers extending down from the Eyjafjallajökull Ice Cap. The valley glacier is currently melting and is scarred by hundreds of crevasses. We were able to clamber over the huge pile of moraine and sit beside the small lagoon at the base of the glacier.
Further along the track, beyond the lagoon, the landscape is dotted with huge boulders (probably glacial erratics) before passing the strange rock formations of 'The Elf Church'. We then arrived at the small campsite and mountain hut at Porsmork, where several paths lead up into the mountains and provide excellent views of the braided streams to the North and West, and the Ice Caps of Eyjafjallökull to the south, Tindfjallajökull to the north and Myrdalsjökull to the east. The alpine flora in this region was also interesting. After another short drive through some rivers that were now deepening as the glacial meltwater runoff increased under the afternoon sun, and the ruts deepened under the 'weekend rush-hour', we stopped at another campsite at Godaland. We also made a stop for a walk up a steep sided, narrow gorge.
On the way back to Reykjavik, we had good views of Hekla which erupted last year.

Saturday 23rd June 2001

We spent the day wandering around Reykjavik, shopping, eating, siting by the lake and looking at the raised map of Iceland in the Town Hall. in the evening, we went on a special midsummer's night cruise into Reykjavik Bay, around Puffin Island where we saw thousands of puffins and then up to the Hval fjordd, where the accordion player was joined by a couple of mad Icelandic locals who started singing and dancing. As per usual, it didn't get even slightly dark so we walked back from the Harbour in virtual daylight at 2am with the boy-racers of Reykjavik touring the streets.

Friday 22nd June 2001

We had booked a tourist tour to visit the 'usual' Iceland tourist attractions on the 'Golden Circle', which was supposed to pick us up from our guesthouse at 8.40am...So we went down for breakfast at 8.00am, and as soon as had we sat down and poured ourselves a coffee, our guide arrived, so off we rushed, still tired and hungry!! The 'tour bus' was cool, a huge Ford transit minibus affair, with luxury seat, air conditioning and all the usual creature comforts, but most importantly, ridiculously large (£4000 a piece) tyres, and monstrous suspension, steering and four-wheel drive set-up...A true Icelandic 'Monster Truck"... Cool! First stop was Thingvellir (actually spelt with a funny 'P' letter at the beginning, but my keyboard doesn't have one so I'll write them as 'Th' which is how it is pronounced.) This is the site of the meetings of the oldest Parliament, the Althing, held by Viking Chieftains as far back as 930 AD. Its also one side (the North American side) of the spreading ridge of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. After this we spent some time at the erupting hot pools of Geysir (where the word Geysir comes from). Geysir itself wasn't up to much while we were there, although it did have a go at a halfhearted spurt just as we arrived. Strokkür on the other hand was on top form, with some impressive 30m high spouts of boiling water. We then went on to one of the most picturesque waterfalls in Iceland, that of Gulfoss (Golden Falls) in the Hvítá River. The guidebooks were right, it is pretty spectacular. This fall is composed of two drops, one of 10m and then one of 20m through a gorge sided with basalt columns.
We next drove towards the interior of Iceland, where windy, lava strewn deserts exist and the roads become tracks and then become plain stupid... No wonder we were in a 'Monster Truck' We were heading towards and up onto the Langjökull Glacier. A 950 Sq km glacier (Iceland's and Europe's 2nd largest Ice Cap). Here, amid stunning mountain and glacier scenery we donned bright orange furry suits, helmets and jumped onto snowmobiles for a trip onto the ice cap itself.. Cool!
On the way back to Reykjavik we stopped at a lake in the crater of a volcano. Once back in Reykjavik we decided to give the Icelandic cuisine of rotten shark and smoked puffin a miss and headed to a nearby pizza restaurant.

Thursday 21st June 2001

Anna and I spent the day driving to and hanging around Heathrow ready for our flight to Iceland. Nothing exciting happened, except that I had to let Anna drive as my knee was still hurting following my windsurfing accident on Sunday and we found some nice shoes in the duty free shop, but couldn't fit them in the bags. The flight to Reykjavik itself was good as we first flew over my parents house in Bristol, and then right over the top of Borth. We got to Reykjavik around midnight (Icelandic time), but being the longest day of the year it was still completely light. We then stood outside our guest house for about 30 minute trying to get someone to hear us and open the door to let us in.

Sunday 17th June 2001

First priority for us this morning was hangover recovery. Steve, Anna and myself all drove into Borth and had a big fried breakfast, and then we went to the Golf Course Car park, Borth. The wind was NNW at about 16 knots and the German guy (still don't know your name sorry) was out and planing in the flat water. We rigged up and went out. The wind gradually increased throughout the day, and although most people were on 6.5m sails, a couple of people changed down to 6.0m towards the end of the afternoon. Rob, Andy, Richard, Steve, Ben, myself and the German guy all had a good days sailing. Derek turned up late in the afternoon and went kite-surfing. My day was punctuated first my a broken harness, so I borrowed one from Ben which I found quite uncomfortable, but better than my broken one. I then sheared a footstrap bolt off and had to repair that. I then got hold of Andy's seat harness which was more comfortable, but then landed heavily and wrong from a jump and twisted my knee. I thought I was going to have to just float back to shore as it hurt so much, but eventually managed to waterstart and sail home to Anna who had been sleeping in the back of the van all day recovering from the night before.

Saturday 16th June 2001

A windless, grey day at the beach. Anna, Steve and I all got there around midday and waiting until about 5 pm for the wind that never arrived. We walked along the beach, threw pebbles and played with my boomerang, but in the end had to give up and go home. Dave and Sarah even ended up going fishing! We (Steve, Anna and myself) then went to Sarah and Billy's leaving party as they are off to Perth, Scotland. The party was really good, with a couple of live bands, DJ's, a teepee and lots of people, beer and dancing.

Friday 15th June 2001

Had a really nice surf at the Golf Course Car park, Borth with Richard and Harvey. The surf was 2-3 ft, with a light offshore wind. I didn't get there until 7.00pm, but surfed through until the sunset at 9.45pm. We all had some really nice waves, and even the right-handers were holding up nicely and giving nice long rides. I was out with my 5'10" Fish, Harvey was on his usual 7'4 and Richard was on his new 7'6" gun. Considering I haven't been surfing for a while properly, I was doing fine.

Sunday 10th June 2001

Wooohoo, what a day! Despite the poor Force 3-4 forecast for today, the wind kicked in around midday. I was working until 2pm so didn't arrive at the Golf Course Car park, Borth until then. By that time the wind was a steady 18 knots NW, the sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and quite a few people were out windsurfing on 5.5m sails. Andy, Rob, Chris, Steve from Dudley and a few others were out, so I rigged my 5.4m and my Hifly and joined them. There was no real swell, just the wind blown chop so sailing conditions were easy in the nicely powered up conditions. Things did get a little hectic for a while, but everyone held onto their 5.5m sails and the wind did drop back down to a more manageable strength. Derek was doing well with his 8m Wipika now set up on 4 lines. A perfect day.

Friday 8th June 2001

An average afternoon windsurfing at the Golf Course Car park, Borth. I was there on my own and went out with my 5.4m sail and 278 board. Nothing special, but a nice sail in sunny, choppy conditions all on my own.

Wednesday 6th June 2001

A mad day on the sea front. I got to the Golf Course Car park, Borth at around 3pm, to find a grey, rainy beach, a 23 knot SW wind and a rough sea. Richie was already out and RIPping on his Fanatic Goya wave board, with what looked to be a 5.5m sail. I therefore rigged my 5.4m and my Hifly and went out to join him. It didn't take me long to realise that this sail was far too big. I was way overpowered and out of control. I spent as much time in the air as I did on the water , and of the time I did spend on the water, half of it was spent going sideways following a spin out!! It was good fun survival conditions though. Richie then went home as it was getting too much for him with what turned out to be a 4.7m sail. (I knew I should have rigged my 4.5m). I then had a few more mad runs through the fairly big surf, but the wind was picking up even more. It was now 30 knots, with bigger gusts. On my last run in I did catch a really nice wave, went to hit the lip and actually pulled off a little off the lip aerial and landed back on the wave. I thought it was cool, so did it twice more, before sailing straight to the shore and packing up and going home. A good day even though it was only a quick sail and it felt like winter again...rain, wind, waves, winter suit and no one else on the beach.

Saturday 2nd June 2001

An excellent day at the Golf Course Car park, Borth. I got up at 5.30am, but the wind didn't look too good so I went back to bed. We then had a fairly leisurely morning, with coffee at home before saying goodbye to Jo and Guy. Steve and I then went to Borth for a greasy fried breakfast, before heading up to the Golf Course Car Park. The wind didn't look too good. Ben had been out on his new wave board (F2 254 Wave) with a 5.5m sail, but wasn't planing. Andy had rigged his 5.8m but hadn't actually been out. Derek was also hanging around, and Simon was on the beach with his dog. A German guy (sorry don't know your name) was there too, as was a guy from Birmingham (name unknown also) who'd come to Borth after reading about it on this site. People generally milled around for a while, waiting for wind, then just as everyone started going at around midday, it started picking up. I borrowed a Tushingham Series 5 6.5m from Dave and Sarah (Thanks you two!) and went out on my Axxis. We all had a brilliant day sailing in choppy conditions, with the sun shining and the wind gradually increasing. People were out on sails varying between 5.5m (Ben and the German guy), through 6.5m for most people and 7.0m for Steve. Rob turned up a little later too, and went out on his big AHD, and Derek went out for a kite surf (presumably with his 6.5m Wipika, but I didn't really get to see him as he soon headed south towards Borth. The wind continued to pick up, until I just couldn't hold on any longer. Steve changed down to his 5.4m and his wave board, and Billy turned up and had a quick sail overpowered with a 5.7m sail. Dave and Sarah had a good late afternoon sail in the estuary, which apparently became too much for them, so they gave up sailing properly and practiced waterstarting instead. When I saw them, they seemed to be getting the hang of it.
All in all a good day was had by everyone. Thanks again Dave and Sarah for letting me borrow the sail, I would have got pretty annoyed sitting on the beach watching everyone if you hadn't lent it to me. I would of got out eventually on a smaller sail, but would probably have given up waiting before then. It was also the end of Steves holiday during which time he managed to sail every day.

Friday 1st June 2001

A fairly disappointing day at the Golf Course Car park, Borth. I got there after work at around 2pm. Steve was already there, but there was no wind, so we just sat in the van for a while. Anna, her mum, Jo and Guy came to the beach later and we all went for a walk towards the point, to look across to Aberdovey. Steve stayed at the golf course car park and rigged his 7.0m sail. Just as we got to the point, the wind started picking up, and I could see Steve in the distance and he seemed to be going along OK. So, I ran back and started rigging my 6.5m, but snapped the webbing holding the built in pulley hook, so couldn't go out to play. Dave and Sarah turned up at the beach too, and Dave went out for a sail. The wind dropped off again after about half an hour, and I briefly flew my 4.9m Blade. Not a particularly good day at the beach, but we did watch some windsurf videos and drink beer in the evening.