Dinner was, to my surprise, reindeer burgers, with some sort of a blue cheese twist inside the patties, with bacon on top. It was a bit strange, with the texture being very soft, and the meat being under cooked and rare, but overall it was a satisfying meal – with good company, so how can that ever be bad, eh? I had no idea, but down the hill, within feet of the cliffside, was a natural geothermal pool, so we all ran through the cold, crisp air and jumped in the pool. It was the perfect temperature for relaxation, and respite from the cold Iceland winter air, but there were a few spots within the pool that had to be at boiling point, so you had to be careful not to get scorched.
I was invited to stay at the lovely Árból Guesthouse for the night. The guesthouse was a few stories tall, setup more like a hotel than a place worthy of congregating and meeting other travelers, but overall, I was quite satisfied with the comfort level of my room. Unfortunately, the season wasn't right for whale watching, so most of the town had shut down its tourism and so there wasn't much to do – I took it easy, resting up, and gearing up for the rest of my trip around the island, because I knew the next day's drive would be another drive from hell.
Geothermal areas do, of course, have a distinct sulfuric smell, but it's typically not too bad – after a while, I was beginning to enjoy the smell of it, as it's sort of one of those odd smells that you have the urge to continue to smelling, like gasoline or fresh-cut grass. However, once I started walking around through the areas in the photos above, I found myself stuck in the downwind draft of the large billowing sulfuric pit from hell (or whatever), and the effect was purely disgusting. My lungs filled with the strong putrid gas, and my nose started running, and my head instantly started hurting, while I bent forward coughing up my guts – while I didn't puke, I really thought I was about to let loose all over the ground. After that, like a bad night of drinking tequila and you never want to smell it ever again, I was obscenely OVER the smell of geothermal activity.