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Edda had encouraged the boys to avoid the ring road, or road number one 1 as it was officially called, and it did not take Brian a long time to realize why. The weather was sunny, it seemed everybody was leaving town and the long line of cars, many of which pulled a camping trailer, made the traffic go way too slow. Brian could hardly believe that this was the main road - it was just a single lane in each direction without a median strip - but he had to agree with Justin on the few occasions he was able to tear his eyes off the road that it sure was a beautiful place. Due to the the amount of traffic, it took almost an hour to drive the 12 mile distance to the turnoff to road 47, a road along Hvalfjörður (Bay of Whales). This road, according to the little book Edda had provided, was hardly used anymore since a tunnel had been built at the mouth of the fjord in 1998 which shortened the trip to Reykjavik almost 30 miles. Brian noticed immediately that he should not have thought so little of the main road, for now they found themselves on an even smaller road - gone were the shoulders only to be replaced with a thin strip of gravel. On the other hand there was not another car in sight so they pretty much had the road to themselves.  

Coming through the little mountain pass that opened into the fjord, Brian had to admit that he had probably never seen such a special place before. He’d traveled to many beautiful locations but never before had he been to a place where he could really see the land like that. It was as if someone had cut down every single tree in order for everything from the largest mountain to the smallest pebble to be put on display. Soon he found himself driving slower so that he could enjoy stealing a glance off the road. The sun reflected off the fjord in different shades of blue and even the mountains seemed blue in the distance, the hills were covered with patches of purple flowers of some sort mixed with different shades of green. He found himself wondering why this country was called Iceland and not ‘Blueland’; it was clear to him that Greenland probably had a better adman working for them back in those days. The radio was playing a slow song and he began to relax.  However, all too quickly he understood why Edda had told them to keep their eyes on the road at all times.

“Brian, LOOK OUT!!!” Justin suddenly yelled, pulling Brian out of his thoughts. A sheep was standing on the edge of the road with it’s two lambs and as the car approached they all ran straight into the middle of the road. Brian stepped a bit too quickly on the breaks only to realize that the car swirled out into the gravel on the shoulder of the road and he really thought they were going to roll straight off the road. After a few agonizing seconds, the car came to a stop in the middle of the road. Brian stared directly ahead of him and did not realize he was holding his breath until he felt Justin’s hand on his thigh.

“Brian, it’s ok, we’re alright… nothing happened” he said calmly.

“No. It’s NOT ok. I almost got you killed!” Brian answered right back.

“You did not almost get me killed, a sheep almost put US off the road, and we would not have been killed, this car probably has more airbags than a balloon shop. Seriously, look at that creature, it’s kind of funny come to think of it.”

The sheep was still standing stubbornly in the middle of the road staring straight at them, with a dissatisfied look. “Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa” it said loudly and then turned around following it’s lambs off on to the side of the road.

And that was the moment Cynthia decided to call. She had already read the world news and figured that Brian was not telling the whole truth. It certainly did not help that Brian sounded a bit off when he answered the phone.

“Brian, are you sure you are alright?” Cynthia asked. “Should I be worried? You’re not in any danger are you?”

“It’s ok, it’s just your timing, Cyn,” Brian replied and Cynthia could hear Justin laughing in the background. “I’m sorry I interrupted your ‘sightseeing’ I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” She sounded relieved.

“We’re fine, the airports just closed down a bit, we’re far away from the volcano. We just had to change our plans. I’ll pay you 15% of whatever amount you’ll be able to save me on those reservations. So get cracking.” He ended the phone call after instructing her to make sure Debbie, Jennifer AND Michael would not go mad with worry.

Having known Brian for so long, Justin knew that when he was omitting the truth even with Cynthia it meant that his lover had taken a blow and his mood could could swing either way. He was a bit shaken himself, but a self-blaming and shell shocked Brian was not a good combination, especially when just starting out on road trip.

“Get out of the car, I’m gonna drive for a while.” Justin hopped out, got behind the jeep, opened up the back door and reached into the duty free bag pulling out a beer.

“Here you go” he said as he met Brian halfway. Justin then kissed Brian softly and proceeded to get back in on the drivers side. Brian got in on the passenger side and and gave Justin a pained look. Justin gave him a long hug and then kissed him again. “We can do this. Now, buckle up and drink your beer.”

Brian did as instructed, took a long drink from the half warm beer and pushed the button that would lean his seat back. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. Just a few minutes later he noticed the car slowing down as Justin softly stepped on the breaks “Holy shit...” he heard him say and as he opened up his eyes he could only imagine what was going through Justin’s artistic mind. They would be making a stop here taking a picture or possibly even more. In front of them was a pretty waterfall surrounded with crude rock formations on both sides.

As Justin found a nice spot to take some photographs of the waterfall, Brian sat down on a picnic table near the parking place. He finished his beer and was thinking how odd it was that there was such a nice parking place on this almost deserted road, when a small van rolled into the parking lot. Out jumped two men both dressed in fishing outfits. He quickly realized that this must be a salmon river.

After an initial introduction in Icelandic revealed that Brian didn’t speak the language, one of the men introduced himself as Jón and when Brian introduced himself, Jón smiled and told him that his brother shared his name.

“His name is Brjánn, that is the Icelandic version of Brian.” Brjánn! come meet your namesake.”  Brjánn was carrying an igloo cooler filled with ice and placed it on the small picnic table.

“How do you like Iceland?” Brjánn said and smiling and handed Brian a new beer.

“Well, what I’ve seen so far is very nice, but I’m not so sure I like your sheep” Brian said and thanked him for the beer.

“You don’t have to answer his question, it’s a joke really” Jón informed him. You’ll be hearing it again. Just say ‘I LOVE IT’ especially if you think it might be said as a joke.”

Brian told them how he almost lost the car off the road because of a sheep just a few miles down the road.

“I see that you met the Icelandic ‘killer’ sheep, the farmers around here are not so enthusiastic about fixing their fences.”  Jón told him, “sheep are a real danger on the country roads, one needs to be careful. And the driver is liable if he injures or kills one. If this happens to you again. Don’t try to get around it, the sorry excuse of road shoulders here in Iceland are much more dangerous than the lambs. Just lower your speed as much as you can and then just drive right into it. It’s not so bad in a vehicle your size, better them than you. Just remember to notify the police and let them deal with the paperwork for you. Our brother in law, Atli, was not as lucky as you, he’s right behind us. Looks like we are barbecuing salmon AND lamb this evening,” Jón said. Soon a large Land Rover Defender rolled into the parking lot with a dead lamb tied to the grill guard.

“Those bars sure came in handy today, my van would not have done as well with the collision. We might as well eat it since we have to pay for it anyway” Jón said and pulled out a fishing knife and proceeded to cut the ears off the sheep. He showed them to a slightly grossed out Brian,  “this is how we track down the owner, the lambs have marks on their ears.”

“Are you heading back to Reykjavik later?” When Jón asked him, Brian told him how they had just arrived this morning and that they were heading further up the west coast when Justin was done capturing the image of the waterfall. Just then Justin came back and Brian introduced him to the men. Brjánn wanted to know if that was partner as in business or partner as in boyfriend. Jón quickly said something in Icelandic in an irritated voice.

“I know I don’t NEED to know that, but it saves time, you know I hate guessing and pretending.” Brjánn instantly replied.  Brian tried not to laugh out loud at their hilarious accent. He liked the attitude of the brothers, it was pretty obvious they all were as straight as they come but also that neither of them had problems with the American’s different sexual preference, they just had a different way of showing it. The third guy - who the other two introduced as Atli the Lamb Catcher, while all laughing boisterously - had finished gutting the lamb and placing it in the river to cool it down, was now with them.

“If you like waterfalls, you really should not waste time on this one,” Atli told them. “The tallest waterfall in Iceland, Glymur, is just 8 miles from here. You do have to hike the last mile though.” The other men agreed and encouraged Brian and Justin to hike to the larger waterfall and then come back and eat with them if they wanted, now that they had so much food. The last statement was followed with another bout of laughter.

Justin and Brian shared a look, both liking the idea of not doing a lot of driving on this first day.

“That’s very kind of you. We’d like that,” Justin said. “And a short hike sounds great. I did read about this waterfall in the the guide book, but I hadn’t realized we were this close. Let’s do it!”

“We should figure out our accommodation before we go”  Brian said. He knew that sleeping in the car would probably not be such a great idea at this point on their travels. “I don’t really like to sleep in the car…” he told Justin, who agreed. They both were in the need of a good night’s rest and Brian asked the men if they could recommend someplace to stay in the area.”

“Well…ahh it’s a bit tricky right here. There are a few cabins for rent but I think they’re all full, we booked ours in advance. There is very nice hotel on the other side of the fjord, Hotel Glymur, we can call them for you but… they are very popular so... I wouldn’t count on it. You might want to head a bit further along the coast there are more accommodations when you get back to the main road. We are here for the peace and salmon and it comes with the territory that there aren’t a lot of hotels.”

“Nonsense,” Brjánn blurted out, we came here to fish not to make phone calls. They’ll stay at the cabin with us. The kids wanted to camp anyway, we have extra rooms.”

They men proceeded to explain that they had their families with them on this trip and that their wives had stopped at a swimming pool with the children and would be coming to pick them up after they’d had caught some salmon. “We are all very lucky to have found such good wives,” Jón said and open up a beer for himself.

“It’s a good thing the kids did not witness the collision” Atli said, ”They would not have taken well to that. I’ll have time to skin it and making it look like food before they arrive.”

Jón showed them on Brian’s iPhone’s GPS how to find Glymur and then Brian and Justin said their goodbyes, planning to be back in 4 hours or so. They found the waterfall without problems, there were several other hikers in the area and even though both men were already tired from their travels the walk was easy with little inclination. They did not see the waterfall until they were right at it since the canyon was quite narrow and hidden behind a bend in the landscape. But following the path up the river and the other hikers, it was clear how to find it. They were both immediately in awe of the immense beauty of the canyon and the waterfall itself. Brian found himself astonished - he’d already found the mountains, shores and ocean stunning but those paled in comparison to Glymur itself. It was certainly a well hidden, but not so secret, jewel.

While Justin insisted on sketching the picturesque scene, Brian decided to climb to the top of the cliffs. It was a pretty steep climb but fairly short and when he made it up other hikers told him that if he followed the river about a mile round the mountain, he would find the lake feeding into the waterfall. It was simply beautiful - tranquil and not so many people around, so he had some nice opportunities to take pictures of birds in their natural peaceful habitats. The lake was too big to hike around in the time they had left so Brian made his way back to find Justin who had finished his sketch and was now lying in the sun relaxing. Brian didn’t want to scare him so he made his shadow cover Justin’s face for a while to make his presence known.

“Mmmm hey... I thought you were a cloud,” Justin purred and Brian reached out and pulled him up, hugged him tightly and kissed him. “Are you glad I’m not a cloud?” Brian asked seductively. Justin could feel Brian’s hard cock through his jeans. “I’m very glad you are not a cloud. Do you want to go back to the car and do something about this?” He rubbed himself against Brian’s crotch. For some reason, their walk back to the car was quite a bit faster than the walk to the waterfall had been.

When they came back to the original car park more than an hour later than initially planned, Jón and Brjánn were just about finished packing up their gear.

“I hope we didn’t make you wait for us,” Justin said apologetically but Jón assured him that was not the case. “We are waiting for my son to come back and pick us up. He already came back for Atli. We are very strict in showing the kids good example and never drive the car, not even after one beer. Besides he loves to drive and he has his learning permit now.” Shortly after, one of the wives came back with a teenage boy who was the spitting image of Jón, who hopped into the driver’s seat of the car, and the Americans followed behind to the cabin where they met the rest of the families - in total 6 adults, 7 children and two dogs. It was quite a bit to take in, but they were all so welcoming. They even refused to let Brian pay them for the accommodation. “It’s the least we can do since Iceland messed up your travel plans,” they all demanded. As Brjánn had predicted, the kids wanted to pitch their small tents outside of the cabin so there were plenty of extra beds inside.

After a great night of soaking in the cabin’s outdoor jacuzzi, eating freshly caught salmon and incidentally a freshly caught lamb, sharing stories with the salmon, and now lamb, hunters, and watching the sunset, Brian and Justin realized it was close to midnight already. This certainly came as quite a surprise since it was still bright as day outside.

As Brian and Justin lay in bed slowly stroking each other - both too exhausted to fuck - Brian told his bedmate with tongue in cheek that he was slowly warming up to the idea of spending a few days in Iceland. He rolled over so that he was half on top of Justin. “I owe you one babe,” he whispered throatily as he lightly bit his young lover below his left ear, a spot that always turned Justin on. He then moved to his left nipple and feasted on it until Justin was begging him to stop. A quick pull at his nipple ring almost made Justin scream and when Brian dove under the blanket and engulfed his entire cock, all he could do was bite the pillow so that his moaning would not be heard through the thin walls of the cabin. Their very long first day in Iceland had come to an ever so sweet end.

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