Checkout and wait for my tour to arrive. Takes a while but eventually it's here. We're on something between a bus and a van - holds 26. Johan (pronounced Yohan) is our driver/guide. We head over to another hotel for the next pickup and have to wait a while. Then to their headquarters to pick up a couple more, which brings us to 17 in all, and we're off.
It's a bit grey and cloudy for the half hour drive to our first stop of the Golden Circle - Thingvellir National Park. Johan drops off and we walk across - it's beautiful!
The first parliament of Iceland was held here.
The lake here is massive and it continues underground. You can see it flowing under the lava field. Amazing.
On to the next destination. We pass a lot of summer homes. People come out here to vacation. They can't register them as homes as there are no services to them - garbage pickup, roads, etc.
There are lots of Icelandic horses. These are a very hardy stock that need very little care. They don't even need stables as they are designed to withstand the extreme temperatures. Ingason was telling us the farmers have a stack of different names for them - like brown with white star and white socks - every word tacked on to make one name - some have 20-odd letters.
The only native mammals are the mink, Arctic fox, mouse and reindeer. And we won't see any of those, unfortunately!
We also pass a school that used to be the school for good housewives. From the old days when there weren't any shops and the women had to learn how to use every bit of an animal for food, clothing, everything.
Our next stop is Geysir - and if I understood Johan correctly, all the geysers are called that from this one - this is its original name.
This one is called Strokkur and blows every 5-9 minutes. Very funny watching people waiting for the perfect selfie!
This is our lunch stop and there are very few dishes without meat. I order some potatoes and the side dish of curried vegetables - which was delicious. The girl didn't know what to charge - "No meat?" I think she used the salad price. Huge gift shop with all sorts of Icelandic wool knits.
On to Gullfoss - pronounced Goodfoss, sort of. The double 'l' is like a 'd' sound. This is one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world and the sign says in terms of wildness and ferocity, it beats Niagara Falls. Amazing. You can hear the roar of it before you see it.
Now we're heading south. It's an hour's drive - lots of farms, flat lands. In the distance appears the volcano that erupted a few years back and provided the ash cloud that stopped the airways - Eyjafjallajokull. At work, we hated it until we created a short form!
We arrive at Seljalandsfoss, a magnificent waterfall.
And you can walk up and go behind it, which was brilliant and unique.
Got soaked, but don't care...
Then the most incrdibly scenic drive to the next stop. The volcano was on our left, massive and impressive, with little farmhouses dotted along, nestled at its base. To our right, is farmland, flat as far as the eye can see. The sun has come out a bit so it's cloudy on one side and sunny on the other.
Then it's Skogafoss waterfall, which is also amazing - I'm running out of superlatives!
And then for our last stop, an incredible beach the likes of which I've never seen. It's called Reynisfjara, or Black Beach. It's all black pebbles, massively strong waves that pound the coast. In the distance is a huge land formation that we could just see through the fading light and cloud. Johan emphasised how dangerous the waves were - they can come up unexpectedly and carry you out. It's certainly not a beach for swimming or surfing!
Just an spectacular place!
Then a short drive to Vik - as Johan said, "The southest town in Iceland." And unusually, a simple name! 'Vik' meaning bay. Like Reykjavik was 'smoky bay', this is just 'bay'. We're at the Hotel Katla and have a bit of rest time before dinner. Then we all sit for dinner - they are mainly Americans, one from Brazil, three Asians (not sure where, they don't talk much) and an English couple.
Spectacular scenery today. Two more days of it!
No comments:
Post a Comment