Bles to Skaftafell.

So long and farewell to Skaftafell and the Svinafell glacier. We have finished up for the season here in Iceland. For most of last ten days we were the only guides in the camp. Usually at this time of year the company only has one guide but they thought they would try two this year. The camp ground was dead quite, I’m pretty sure I saw the odd Icelandic tumble weed roll through. With the season winding up lots of the usual suspects of the area were heading away and the evenings were very chilled out. The only problem with all of this was that clients just kept coming out of no where. We have no idea were they were all staying. All the trips were full and we were flat out every day. Most days we could have done with three guides and sometimes four. The booking system which seems to consist of four different organisations booking trips, totally falls over when there is a limited number of guides and people just keep booking trips without checking with us. We took overfull groups on boring trips (overfull trips can be either boring or unsafe) for a couple of days then just started turning people away. Its pretty demoralising to turn away people who have booked, paid and showed up on time. You can’t do this job for as long as we have without actually caring for the experience you give people. But not doing a trip is better than doing a dangerous trip. Well that seemed to put a cat among the puffins and the bookings became a bit more controlled. Not everyone got to do the trip they wanted but everyone got a safe interesting trip on the ice and the guides started having fun again. If there is one rule I’ve come to really believe in the tourist industry, it’s that if the staff are having fun then the clients will have fun but if the staff are not enjoying it then the clients will pick up on it. It’s a Marbo, Vibe thing!
Well after a week of ruling the roost and working hard we got reinforcements for the weekend and left on the Monday. No more guiding until next year. Back in Reykjavik now and just mooching around for a day or two before heading back to the UK. My most overriding impression of Iceland is that the people are real. There is no false tourism polish to Iceland, the place is stunning, the culture interesting and the people open, honest and friendly. But that said if there are having a grumpy day or are tired or under the weather then that’s how they are that day and they are not going to fake it for you. This last month has been amazing to watch. At the start of the month it was still light all night. Then one night we had a sunset (for hours) and the next it got dark! Just like that. Now it seems to be making up for lost time and every night it is darker and colder. In only another month or so it will be dark in the middle of the afternoon and stay dark until the mid morning. Iceland is a land of extremes.
Bles, Bles.