CHAPTER TWELVE

I was content to be riding on horseback through this interesting country. I began to feel that I could enjoy our journey. Anyway, I thought, what's so bad about traveling in a very interesting country, climbing a volcano, then going inside? Saknussemm obviously did the same. As for going into the center of the Earth, that's just impossibly!

Hans was leading us, walking rapidly. He refused to ride on horseback, as he always went on foot. Behind him were my uncle and I, each on a horse, and two horses behind us, carrying our baggage.

Iceland is one of Europe's largest islands. It has an area of nearly forty thousand square miles, with a population of only sixty thousand people. We were travelling southwest, where Sneffels was located.

I was quite amused watching my uncle on his horse, behind our calm guide. My uncle only had the choice to be patient, relying on our quiet guide to take us to the mountain. As we went, we saw a few cottages made of earth, but no one outside their homes to greet us. Yet, this region of the country was the most populated. What, then, were the other parts like—the ones with even less people than this area?

After travelling two hours outside the capital city, we stopped at a church to have a small breakfast. Hans politely answered my uncle's questions with yes or no. When asked where we would sleep that night, he replied with only, "Gardar."

I looked at our map to see that Gardar was a village eighteen miles from Reykjavik. I then showed it to my uncle.

"Only eighteen miles," he said. "Eighteen miles out of a hundred. That's just a short walk. We could go at least twenty-five miles today."

He began complaining to our guide, explaining that we could go a longer distance, but Hans did not respond.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived in Gardar.

(end of section)