Reykjavik - Ice!

The Katla and Hali Country Hotels are both very nice but my preference would be for the Hali, for reasons all Librans will understand - they both have two single beds but the Hali only made up one, so I didn't have to choose which one to sleep in. Decision was already made.

After we went looking for the northern lights last night in the bus last night, a few of us decided to take shifts to wake up and see if they were there. I was on 2:00am - as I'm usually awake then anyway. So I'm up and out and looking at the sky above. I can see a faint white stream stretching from one side to the other and think this might be the start of it. Keep looking, playing on the iPad, looking. The 3:00 girl arrives and we keep looking. It gets a bit more intense but not too much, and no colour. By 4:00 it's gone, so back to bed. 

They say go to Iceland and don't expect the lights so if you don't see them, you won't be disappointed. And that's how I've done it - if I see them, great. If not, it's been amazing and I don't feel I've missed out.

I came out this morning to this...

And this, over Vatnajokull - that's the glacier, not sure what the mountain is called...

At breakfast, I try a spread on toast - sort of like creamed cheese with mushroom. Sounds a bit weird but was really good. 

Yesterday Piedir had mentioned how the sheep particularly love the grass that grows right up high on the massive cliffs. Then the farmers have to go and rescue them. There's a fabulous poster of this in reception.

Then pack up and back on to the bus. 

First stop - back at Jokulsarlon for a boat ride amongst the icicles! Google had indicated that the boats had stopped for the season but we are in luck - they are running. At the ticket box, the guy stumbled over the price and was trying to translate it to euro. I said, "I don't care how much it costs!" And I didn't!

Yesterday this place was spectacular. Today the sun is shining and it is beyind words...

Veronika (or as she pronounces it, Weronika) tells us a bit about the lagoon. She has a lump of ice that is over 800 years old. You can tell the age by the air bubbles inside. After she hands it round so everyone can take a photo with it (I did not do this), she smashed it up and handed it round for us to taste.

The bit of the glacier we can see is only 10% of it - the rest is underwater. There is so much water here! They say if you filled a water bottle and gave one to everyone on the planet, you'd only use a tiny percentage of all the water in Iceland.

There is herring, krill and trout in this freezing lake.

After the boat ride, I take a look further up and see some seals swimming around! You can just make them out - the two dots in the middle...

Then it's over the road to the ocean, complete with a wild sea and blocks of ice on the black sand...

Lunch time, back at the cafe we went to yesterday. Good soup and crusty roll. They're very big on soup here. 

Next up we get fitted for our crampons and get our helmets and pick axes ready to head off for the glacier walk.

A short drive to Svinafellsjokull, a short walk up next to the glacier then a lesson in how to put on a crampon...

..a lesson in how to walk in them. What to do and what not to do - it's a bit scary, actually. "If you start to fall and are heading for a crevice try and stop yourself with your pick axe and dig the crampons in. Don't follow your phone or camera if you drop it. Walk slightly legs apart - like two dogs fighting. Stomp your feet in as you walk. Bend at the knee. Follow in a line. Don't stop to take a photo, keep up." Bit scary but then we're off onto the glacier.

Johan is obviously qualified and is leading us out. There's another tour of four, plus guide and he is bringing up the rear, with the two Chinese girls, who don't seem to know what's going on. We head out for a way, then the first photo stop.

It's quite fascinating to look down - the ice is obviously transparent but solid. So it's like your walking on water, sort of...

My foot slipped along the way and my toe slipped out. Talk about teamwork - one person grabbed my axe, another held my arm for balance, and another put the crampon back on! So nice.

Walking on again until the next stop...

There's a deep crevice here that Johan and the other guide let us walk up to to have a look. They are very careful with everyone, playing everything by the book.

We can pick into the ice and have a taste of it here. And Johan has a screwdriver thing that digs out the ice for eating.

As we start to head back, we come to sort of an ice slide and Johan again let's us up one by one to look...

Then he goes and finds a large rock to throw down and we can hear it tumbling and hitting the walls for ages until a loud splash, quite a way down.

Then we head back. We've been out there for 1.5 hours and it was fantastic!

Then it's back to the cafe to unload the hiking gear, grab a coffee and on the road to head back to Reykjavik - a five-hour drive!

As we're driving, Johan points out a mist over the landscape. It's the amazing volcanic rocks covered in moss that cover a lot of the landscape. Apparently when the hot and cold airs mix, it gives off a mist - like your breath in a cold day. 

Then it's back on the bus and we're off towards Reykjavik. Johan and I are talking about stuff in general - the lack of police on the road but if you do get caught, as he did - doing 130km/h one time - it's an expensive fine. But he talked his way down from 70,000 ISK to 50,000. He's on the lookout for the northern lights as it is dark already and all of a sudden he pulls over - he can see them. We all pile out of the bus but it's still a bit too light and they're not clear. 

Johan thinks if we go a bit further, past the town, allow the sun to set, it might be better. So that's what we do and then there they are! After what I said earlier, I was okay with missing them but the fact that they were here and they were massive is the ultimate finish to this incrdible trip!

They streaked and swirled, constantly moving position. I don't have a camera that can capture them at all, but the Brazilian did and he's going to send us some of the pictures! What a great guy - he might be a bit of a know-it-all but he knows how to take a photo and he's happy to go to the effort of sending them to us. Now I just hope I have the right email address for him!

We stopped for about half an hour, marvelling at Mother Nature's best. Then back and into Reykjavik to be dropped off at our hotels. Here's Johan from my seat for the last three days...

 In another Libran moment, I had been unable to choose between two hotels - Hotel Fron and Hotel Centrum Reykjavik - so I decided to stay at both! Fron before the trip and Centrum after. So here I am. What an amazing three days!

Hofn - The Cave of Ice

The breakfast buffets here in Iceland are a bit different, as you would expect. They have porridges, mueslis and cereals, but then they have sliced tomato, boiled eggs, cucumber, a large selection of pate, meats, fish stuff and Swiss cheese. No scrambled eggs or bacon or anything like that. And they do have coffee, thank goodness.

I hold back from getting onto the bus so someone else can sit in the front seat if they want, but when I get on, everyone is pretty much sitting where they were yesterday so I'm back in the prime seat! Happy with that.

We drive along the largest lava field in the world. It varies between flat, black plains and then there's miles of moss-covered rocks in unusual formations. Iceland is definitely the land of ice and snow - the volcanoes erupt and lava flows for miles. And it can melt the glaciers, which then cause massive floods. It's an unstable land but so beautiful! These lava fields were caused by an eruption hundreds of years ago. 

Photos taken from the bus... 

There are waterfalls all along the way. We stop briefly at one - Fossasipu.

The weather is so changeable - it goes from sunny to cloudy to a kind of rain/snow within minutes. And the lava fields continue...

Johan gives lots of information about the lava fields, with his accent and some of the names, we get the picture but not the specifics. Lots of volcanoes exploding and lots of glaciers flooding. He tells of the farmers and the northern folk and how they don't like people from Reykjavik let a.one foreigners!  There was a reporter who was sent north for a story. He was harassed by the police and left his camera running. The police chief can be heard on the walkie talkie asking the policeman if the reporter was from the south. When hearing the affirmative answer, he replied, "arrest him."

Volcanoes are generally named after females and glaciers are named after anything. Johan told us his grandfather said females and volcanoes are the same - you never know when they're going to erupt.

A rest stop at Skatafall where we watch a video about the area and then it's off to lunch at a stop in Freysnes.

 A bit more about the group - they are all younger than me - which is not hard. Most of them stayed in a hostel in Reykjavik, in communal rooms - those days are long past me! There is a honeymooning couple from Florida, both very nice. He constantly cracks his knuckles though. A young Japanese couple who spend a lot of the bus time on their gadgets.

 A group of six Americans - they're the ones we're always waiting for. Last night at the beach, our time was nearly up and we're all on the bus. We can see two of them in the cafe ordering hot drinks. Then they proceeded to sit down to drink them. Johan had to go and get them. A know-it-all Brazilian who will just talk louder to finish his point if people try to change the subject. And an Asian girl who hands you her camera and indicates to take her picture for her and then bows and says, "Hie".

After lunch it's off to one of the places that helped me choose this tour as a destination - Jokulsarlon - the glacial lagoon. And here's why...

Just stunning - I'm not sure these pictures show just how impressive it is. Massive icebergs from the Breidamerkursandi glacier in the Jokulsa river... (Think that's right!)

It's reall cold here and the gloves recommended by the lady at Kathmandu are useless! My hands are freezing. So I pop into the shop and buy a combination fingerless glove/mittens that are toasty warm. You can wear them as fingerless when you want to use the camera, and then flip the mitten over when you're done. There's nothing quite like feeling the warmth return to freezing fingers in cosy wool mittens.

The other reason I wanted this tour was for the ice cave. A couple of days ago we got an email saying the caves were too dangerous and they would have to organise something else for us. So disappointing but what can you do. Johan confirmed this yesterday. He wasn't sure what we'd be doing but was sure it would be 'good.'

Then last night at dinner he got a call saying we can go and everyone is very excited about that. I had been thinking yesterday was pretty spectacular so if it was similar, that would be fine, but it was a shame. So this news was great!

So now we head to the cave. We have to get in super jeeps to drive us half an hour down as they aren't real roads, just old tracks from farmers...

Our driver, Piedir, tells us that this super jeep was the one used by Pierce Brosnan while filming the Bond movie set out here.

We have a bit of a hike to where the caves are...

Up to the cave that shows us why we can't go inside this one - it collapsed two days ago!

Amazingly blue. That ice is less than 2%-3% air which is why it's blue. And it is so very dense and thick - denser than glass. It takes forever to melt. The glaciers move quite a bit, and this one cracked and fell as it's not cold enough to keep it frozen.

Gummir is our ice cave expert and he gives us all sorts of information. He cracks off a loose bit and shows the very hard layer underneath but you can see bubbling within it. Also shows the layers of ash in the ice and the white and clear lines, which indicate summer and winter and help date the glacier. Every time we move to a new spot to look at, he says, "Come this way. This is going to be amazing!!"

We walk down to the one open cave and he examines it to check it's okay for us to go in. Then he takes in the first group of four. They come out and we can hear ice cracking - living nature, as he says. He throws a couple of rocks at the ice, has a listen and then says, "okay, next group." Which I'm in! Bit daunting! We have to follow in his exact path, and keep our heads down, so if something falls, it will hit our helmet and hit our face.

Bit scary but once we're inside, past the danger zone, it's pretty awesome!

Here's Gummir and Piedir - quite the characters!

Fantastic experience! We then hike out, back in the jeeps, back into our bus and head for the hotel - Country Hotel Heli. We have a 7:00 dinner and I try the traditional Icelandic dessert, skyr, which is sort of like a yoghurt and is delicious.

Then we head out to try and find the northern lights. Out to Jokulsarlon, coz it's dark out there. Once there, you can see every single star in the sky - amazing! But no lights yet. The indications are that they will be there but probably later. So we go back to the hotel to organise shifts for night sky watching, my time is 2am!

Vik - The South Coast

For the last two mornings, I've been one of the first in the restaurant, put my stuff at a table away from anyone else and someone comes in and chooses the table right next to me - in an almost empty restaurant! Fine, I just pick my stuff up and move to another table far, far away.

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!