Mar 16: Iceland

Tuesday 1 March

We arrived at the airport and got into the queue to go through to the departure lounge. And, as usually happens to me, something bleeped and I had my usual frisk search - it's normally a bracelet that seems to set it off. As I was being searched, and chatting to the woman about curry and chips (she had been fancying them since she came on duty at 4am!) Mike's little tray whizzed off down the 'problem' channel. So we waited... and waited...

And I watched the people going by - only to see someone I recognised!! It was Linda (Hall - school friend from Retford) who was working there - going to check out the new Boots store! It's very disconcerting to see someone in an unexpected situation - but lovely at the same time!

So after Mike sorted out his camera wires we boarded the plane and had a good flight and we arrived early to find the man from the car hire company waiting for us. We were soon off on our way to Reykjavik and had no problems checking into the little hotel Aurora.  As it was so central (just round the corner from the big church) we set off for an explore in the sunshine.

Lovely sunset over the lake...

Smoked lamb and tiny new potatoes in a cream sauce..

This is the same giant puppet who was looking for her uncle in Liverpool!  She is even wearing the same dress! This was a picture on the wall in the restaurant where we were eating.

Church by night - we didn't stay out very long as it was VERY cold and VERY slippy if you went off piste on the pavement!..

And cloudy sky so we didn't bother looking for the lights.

Wednesday 2 March

As we had to lug our bags up three flights of stairs yesterday we have now repacked them so that they are more manageable...

Our overnight stay last night was basic and nice and clean - but extremely hot!!

So - off to Stykkisholmur on the Snaefell peninsula for our next overnight.

A lovely journey in glorious (COLD!) sunshine...

Mike is walking on the frozen sea here...

He then managed to fall over (it was VERY slippery) and cut his hand. First trip casualty.

We had a picnic outside at a little (summer!) picnic spot overlooking a stunning views. Hot soup was needed at minus 5 degrees!.. The flask was an essential part of our equipment on this trip and I took a travel kettle too so every day the flask was filled with hot water in case we were somewhere in the wilds (which we often were!) with nothing to eat - so that we could have cuppa soup or instant coffee.  All very useful. 

As we journeyed on a little track led to a beautiful church so we had to go and investigate...

We drove along the peninsula around the Snaefelles national park. Lots of gorgeous scenery.  As we got nearer to the glacier we lost all our sunshine - but we could catch little glimpses of it in the distance.

  

Some of the waterfalls had frozen - very beautiful!...

Gorgeous moss on the rocks - not quite as vivid as this in colour (found the super vivid mode on my camera)  but still very pretty...

I found this horse shoe on a short walk we did - and had to kick and poke it out of the frozen ground! It was too cold to carry so I wore it on my arm like a bracelet - which was ok until all the frozen horse poo started to melt...

We stayed the night in a quirky house in Stykkisholmur run by a lovely gent called Hamish. Lots of interesting knick knacks and loads of musical instruments. He seemed quite tickled by the fact that I was a left handed drummer - even though I explained that I wasn't very good and hadn't played for ages.

Useful facts (?!*?!) about Iceland found on a leaflet somewhere...

The harbour by night - just down a very slippery road from where we were staying - hard work to walk!

Thursday 3 March

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the harbour!

We thought that we had quite a short journey today but Hamish, our host, told us quite emphatically that we were not to carry on round the ring road but to retrace our steps and pick up the road again further along.

The reason for this?... The next section of the road was gravel rather than tarmac and was very icy, there were numerous hairpin bends and sharp turns and there had been a fatal accident on the stretch the previous day. So even though it more than doubled our journey we took his advice...

We stopped for a breakfast picnic by the sea and the flask came out again.

And after a lot of messing about Mike managed to get petrol!   

We arrived at the hotel after a very slow, very slippy and very fraught drive along 15km of gravelled road. We could see what it would have been like on the main road so it had been a good decision to take the long way round!

We unpacked and set off for a drive down to see a famous rock on the beach. This again was a very slow and slippery ride along gravel roads...

When the tide is out you can walk underneath it.

And then a short walk down to the cliff top - it was strange to see breakers after seeing so much frozen sea!

I tried to make a snow angel but the snow was so frozen that it was impossible!...

Then it was back to the hotel for a rest. We had a chat to a lovely couple from Taiwan who had spent over a year travelling the world on a tiny budget by a mixture of couch surfing and work exchange programmes. What a brilliant thing to do!

They had seen the film 'The secret life of Walter Mitty' and it had inspired them to give up their jobs and travel to Iceland. Great thing to add to a bucket list. We are hoping that they will pop in to see us in Manchester on one of their next expeditions!!

Our evening meal was delicious salmon washed down with the local beer. We met the lady who owns the hotel - and her four lovely children. She has to drive about 20km (each way) to take the two eldest children to school each day - and then do it all again later to pick them up!

She and her husband only took the hotel over last September so they haven't had a full season yet.  Hopefully bookings will pick up for the summer as we were the only guests this evening! Quite a novelty to have a hotel to yourself!

When we booked our evening meal I asked the owner if she could also arrange the northern lights for us at about 10pm so she laughed and said she'd see what she could do.

But when we went out onto the hotel steps later that evening - there they were!..

I'd gone out to have a look and there were short pillars of Aurora showing above the horizon and I was so excited that I didn't know whether to run back inside and tell Mike or stay and watch them.  By the time I'd decided they had gone but there was still lots of colour when Mike came out - and they were just visible with the naked eye as 'something different in the sky over there' rather than the colour showing on the camera, so they weren't very strong - but they were there!!...

So that was our first glimpse of the lights on this trip!

Friday 4 March

Time to move on again - to Lake Myvatn today. Quite a long journey but through some wonderful scenery.

This is actually the main road!  Some of the mountain passes were quite scary with snow and ice on them. The snow plough goes along regularly to keep them open.

This was one of the higher passes with a little monument to something or other - and people had built a cairn so I managed to scramble up and put a tiny stone right on the top.  I didn't linger - it was bitterly cold with quite a wind blowing.

And we didn't stop here for a picnic as we couldn't reach the benches!...

Reindeer moss - not quite this bright though (super vivid again!)...

But the flask had its daily outing when we stopped Akureyvi.  As the picnic table was a foot deep in snow we ate in the car and admired the wonderful views from there...

There was such fantastic scenery we had to keep stopping so it wasn't a fast journey.

And of course we had to stop at the Godafoss waterfall as we were going right past it (though we hadn't realised!) - stunning! And all in the bright sunshine!...

This waterfall was named 'waterfall of the gods' in the year 1000 after all the effigies of heathen gods were thrown into the water after the adoption of Christianity.

Even the little streams were so pretty with the twinkly snow and melting icicles. This was a very quick photo stop - without a coat!!

Now talking of icicles - these were on the window outside the little dining area of the latest digs when we arrived at the Vogar guest house near Bjork on Lake Myvatn. Very impressive.

We were staying here for three days so it was a chance to slow down for a while.

As it was quite late when we arrived we decided to just have a short walk across the road where we could see the lake before we lost the light. Problem was that we couldn't get to it as there was too much snow. Mike tried!   

It's very hard to know where to  walk as there are no indications of paths, ditches etc - so unless we can see clear tracks we stick to the roads!!

We could see the steam rising from the lake so we just watched the sun set over it - from afar!   A very atmospheric sunset - even from a distance!

We then went for pizza and beer.  Smoked trout pizza with pine nuts - a new one to us but absolutely delicious!...

As the night was clear we waited to see if the northern lights would appear again but they didn't so we went to bed.

Saturday 5 March

It was nice to have a lazy morning and not to be packing up and moving on. 

This is the verandah outside our accommodation - as it is in deep snow we won't be using it!...

We decided to have a ride out to the Dettifoss waterfall as it is supposed to be the largest and most spectacular in Iceland.  

On the road out of the town (village?) we realised that we were going past the thermal baths which we intended visiting later so we though we'd have a look at all the geothermal activity round about as it was very strange to see steam spouting up from fissures in the ground.

Mike walked over the melted snow to a small opening - not too near!  Apparently these are called fumaroles and not geysirs as they only spout steam into the air. and do not spew out water.

As we went into the valley it became shrouded in mist - we weren't sure if it was the thermal steam or mountain mist - whichever one - it was very cold and we could only see for several metres all around.

When we got to the road turn off to the waterfall the barrier was down across it saying that it was closed unless you took extreme precaution.  

Some cars attempted to go down the track but there were several more km to travel before reaching the waterfall so we didn't risk it.  We stopped for a picnic instead (with flask of course) and watched a large 4x4 get stuck in the snow before lurching off. That made our mind up!...

So we retraced our steps back towards the lake and decided to drive around it.

Stunning scenery - the pictures speak for themselves...

These are some of the fumaroles in the area. Like geysirs but without the jets of water.

This was an extinct volcano that you can walk up to.  We could see this from our bedroom window.

We found a small nature park and went for a walk in the sunshine.  Even though the snow was 30 or 40cm deep a pathway had been carved out along all the walk ways - they seem to do this in all the public places.

As you can see I found the super vivid on the camera again - Mike is not usually quite so bright!!  But it does make the colours stand out against the snow...

A stunningly beautiful place - and we only saw a couple of people in the hour that we were there!

Then a visit to the thermal baths! Very atmospheric and very cold - between -7 and -10°C! But very warm in the water. It was quite hard to see how big the bathing area was because of all the steam - and you moved very quickly once you got out of the water!!

It was funny to see Mike's hair all covered in frost - until I realised that mine was the same and was actually quite solid and brittle because it was so cold. But I couldn't take any more photos as the camera had packed up in the extreme temperatures!

There were even icicles hanging from the grab bar as you came out of the water.  I got out to pick up my camera and wiped my hands dry on my towel - and by the time I went to put my camera back a few minutes later (as it had packed up in the cold!) - my towel was frozen hard!!

We decided to go out for a meal at a restaurant across the road. We had been in to have a look the day before and watched the cows being milked (as you do in a restaurant!)...

But we arrived at 10 past 8 to be told that they closed at 8pm so it was back for another smoked trout and pine nut pizza - such a hardship!

We were very tired but we had a quick look out for the Aurora again. Mike spotted it very briefly - it was there! Honest - low down in the middle!! But you can see it better on the camera...

Thanks Hitesh for doing technical stuff and proving it was actually there!...

Sunday 6 March

Mother's day in the UK! Thank you Luisa for the lovely card. And thank you Ema for the good wishes and the promise of a card which she couldn't find!!

We managed to get suited and booted and make it to breakfast today (we didn't yesterday!)  The breakfast was served in the same place as the pizzas - only about a couple of hundred metres away - but far enough to warrant the full kit for outside!

And we met more interesting people including two lovely girls called Sonja and Cher (Sonny and Cher!) We hope that they will come to visit us in Manchester at some point because they don't seem to have too good an opinion about the city - but that could possibly be that their views have been slightly coloured by the fact that as flight attendants they haven't been very far on their stopovers. We will put that right when they come to stay!!

Dressing for the short walk to breakfast I decided to go minimal... and one pair of leggings without over-trousers was... chilly!...

The weather seemed a bit cloudy today but we were not too bothered as we had had loads of brilliant sunshine, done loads of stuff and were very tired.

View of the extinct  Hverfjall volcano on our short walk back from breakfast. We had realised that we could see it from our bedroom window... except that we couldn't as it was too misty.

We had planned to walk up to it but there wouldn't have been much point with nothing to see!

So instead we had a very lazy morning and ventured out when the sky seemed to be slightly clearer.  We went back to the Höfdi nature park for another walk round as it had been so pretty in the sunshine. Still pretty but completely different in the snow!

Quite a mild day with none of the colours from the day before but still very tranquil and beautiful.

There was a little turf thatched cottage at the side of a small (closed!) tea room - maybe part of some sort of summer educational visitor centre.  The snow drifts were so high at one side that I was able to climb up to the roof! (Someone had been there before me - I followed in their footsteps!!)

On the way back Mike stayed down by the car in the car park and I climbed up a lump of volcanic rock to look at the view...

Then we drove a short distance to Dimmuborgir which is an area of spectacular lava formations. As we couldn't really see where we were walking we decided it was too tricky so I just ventured a short way but had to turn back when the snow trail petered out.

The Dimmuborgir area is home to the Yulelads - the 13 sons of Gryla and Leppalúöi - vicious trolls that live in the vicinity. 

Icelandic legend says that in the 13 days before Christmas one troll comes down each night and every night children place their best shoe on the windowsill before going to bed and the Yule lad who has come down from the mountain places a small gift in it.

If the child has been naughty then a raw potato might be left instead!

Walking in the snow was tricky today - you couldn't tell where the snow ended and the sky started!...

We found out that there was huge Aurora storm going on overhead - kp 7!  But it was cloudy and snowing where we were. It was very frustrating to see lots of photos being posted from Scotland, Ireland and all over the UK and to be actually standing underneath it but not able to see it - but that's the luck of the draw I suppose.

We went literally a few hundred metres across the road to have a meal and as it was a working farm we had to try their home reared beef burgers!

They were excellent! But thankfully we didn't have the problem faced by another couple we had spoken to who had eaten there. They had gone to eat at milking time and could see the cows being milked just metres away through the window.  This was part of the set up there and the cows were all in their named stalls.  They said it was most disconcerting to be eating burgers while their relatives looked on!

Our short walk back over the road turned into a bit of a trek as it had snowed heavily and our footsteps had been covered.  We followed what we thought was the right path only to find ourselves at someone's front door!  After a bit more ambling along we managed to recognise something and find our way back.  A five minute stroll turned into a twenty minute walk! Just shows how easy it was to get lost...

The weather forecast said that the sky would clear after midnight so we waited up but it didn't! Mike went to bed at 1am as he had to drive but I went out from time to time to see if the sky had cleared.  

At 5am the aurora was there behind the clouds but quite faint. Shame really as it would have been amazing as it was visible over nearly three quarters of the sky!  But even though there was thin cloud for most of the night the stars peeped though a bit and it was worth the long wait!  And it wasn't freezing cold so that was a bonus!

These photos have been enhanced slightly but only using the automatic adjuster that I use on all photos - nothing technical!  Just shows what was on the other side of the clouds!!...

These are some before and after pics...

Monday 7 March

The snow had been quite heavy overnight. We trudged off to breakfast and had another chat with Sonja and Cher and then said our goodbyes.

This was our breakfast and pizza place where they made those delicious smoked trout pizzas!

Mike cleared the snow from the car and we were ready to go.

But just before we left Cher gave me this...

Very clever and very lovely! Thank you Cher xx

As it had snowed we weren't looking forward to our driving today. This is the furthest point we were driving to so we knew that we had to start going back through all the high mountain passes. But even though the weather wasn't as bright and sunny the roads were actually better as there must have been a slight thaw which meant that there was less ice around.

As we were going past it we stopped for another look at Godafoss waterfall but from the other side...

Mike walked down to the bridge and took photos from there...

And then we motored on.

Sometimes the snow covered mountains looked like polished icing sugar!  We decided that it must be the effect of thawing and refreezing multiple times.  Hard to capture with a camera but very beautiful in the sunshine.

We turned off onto a smaller road to get to our accommodation and spotted these turf houses. A fine example of how they made houses after a particularly bad winter which destroyed all the trees. All sort of joined together but separate. And as with all little communities - a small church nearby...

So we found our accommodation.  As with most of the places I booked here it had shared facilities. But as with most places we've booked there have been very few people staying so it hasn't been problem.

This place was a house with separate lockable bedrooms and communal areas. And we had it all to ourselves. And Mike had already clocked that there was a fish restaurant next door for later.

We decided to go for a short drive up the coast along the peninsula.  Just a little way we told ourselves, as we had already had a long drive...

The sky was beautiful and the scenery was gorgeous. We decided to just drive part of the way round towards the light house (top pic). But as the roads were slippy and winding Mike drove very slowly and it took longer than we thought.

Four hours later...

We had worked out how much day light we had and in the end we decided that it would be as quick (or slow!) to carry on rather than turn back. Plus there were no places to easily turn round!

So on we went...

And the road became more and more snow covered as we reached the point. There were some tracks so we knew that vehicles had been along it but it did get a bit hairy! At points the snow was very deep and we had to slide along in the tracks - and it was a bit scary to see a road sign saying steep hill in thick snow on a blind brow with the sea close by!

But Mike drove slowly and carefully and although it was a bit tense at times we made it! 

We had more than doubled our driving time for that day...

Though we did say later that if we'd approached it from the snowy side rather than the relatively clear side then we would not have done it. And even though our planned tootle of an hour turned into a four hour crawl it was well worth it!

So Mike earned his beer and we managed to walk from the car to the fish restaurant next door and have a well deserved meal before bed - with no thoughts of the aurora as we were far too tired!

The place we were staying was lovely - well apart from the view at the front which was towards the fish docks (though it did have a lovely mountain behind it!) 

Tuesday 8 March

Onwards to Reykholt today. When I'd planned the route and highlighted the places we were going to be staying I wasn't sure why I had marked this place as there was no Reykholt nearby. I looked again on the map and decided that I'd made an error and highlighted the wrong place and I checked with Google and it was just 200km from the previous stop - enough of a drive if the roads were bad and winding. 

But when we put the coordinates in on Vicky (Wicky the Wiking sat nav) it took us to a different place - 350km away and where I'd originally highlighted!

So - a long drive for Mike with ever changing scenery...

We stopped for a quick hot dog and didn't even get the flask out!

Beautiful skies.. .

Back through the tunnel...

And then off towards the accommodation on smaller roads for the last couple of hours!

We went past Pingvellir - a huge plain set in a deep valley with a big lake. This is where the Icelandic chiefs met for 14 days each year to decide on laws, rules etc for the country. The oldest parliament in the world!

Then the roads started to get more tricky but the scenery was beautiful so while Mike tried to keep the car under control I took photos.

The speed limit must be for summer months as we were doing only 30 or 40 km...

We arrived at our accommodation which was again a bedroom within a house - and once again we were the only people there so we had the place to ourselves.  And there was actually a very small village nearby called Reykholt so that solved that mystery!

We managed a five minute drive up the road to look for a restaurant which we had been told was open - but didn't look very hard as we were too tired and just came back.

So we ate pot noodles and drank wine for tea! Mike decided to go to bed early as he had done so much driving over the past couple of days and was completely shattered. I said I'd just nip out for a couple of minutes to see if there was any Aurora showing. I walked/slithered on the ice with the tripod and camera round to the side of the stables where it was completely dark and took my first shot!...

The top picture is how it looked in the sky - there was a slightly greenish hue and streaks of colour and I knew immediately that it was aurora - and the second shot is slightly enhanced with the automatic editor.

I was so excited that I fired off a few more shots on various timings (Mike had shown me what to do!) The ground was so slippery that I couldn't just rush back but I eventually tiptoed my way carefully back in to tell Mike and he came out to have a look. Two hours later we were still there... So much for the early night!.  

These were some of the before photos - we could see the faint lights moving around and shifting in the sky - as near as I've been to seeing the lights dance - it was sort of a sedate waltz!...

And these were some of the pictures after the automatic enhancement.  I'm sure that more could be done with them with time and knowledge but I'm very happy with what I've got!!

And the tree and fence provided a perfect frame so that was a nice bit of unplanned serendipity!

But I do think we'll have to work out how to get figures into the shots as some of these look quite spooky!...

As it was getting very late and I was very cold I had to reluctantly leave the lovely skies and follow Mike inside to the warm.  But not before one last shot...

Wednesday 9 March

Once again a lovely bright morning with great views from just outside the house...

This is the spot I had photographed the aurora borealis from the previous night - first time I had seen it in daylight.

We then popped up the road to see the geysirs - our long drive the previous day meant that we were in the middle of the famous Golden Circle - and we wanted to get to at least some of the sites before the tour bus arrived!..

 

Mike managed to get some great pictures of the little Geysir bubbling away like crazy and Strokkur which is supposed to erupt about every 7 or 8 minutes seemed to be on double time and was putting on a great show for the tourists!

... while the old Geysir just muttered and burbled away to itself - not sure if it even erupts any more!..

As we walked away there seemed to be more action taking place with steam pouring out of many more fissures than when we'd arrived an hour before...

We then drove to the Gullfoss waterfall which wasn't very far away. It was treacherous underfoot as there had been a slight thaw the previous day which had frozen hard again.

But very beautiful in the -4° sunshine!...

The path down to the side of the waterfall was closed.  Last time we came here it was closed too - but although it was slippery most of our tour bus marched off down it to take photos on the rocks below.  As it was snowing at the time we were able to get a grip on where we were walking.  

There was no way that anyone would have been attempting to go down there this time as it was sheer ice!!

I managed to slip on the ice and landed star shaped hoping that I wouldn't slide towards the very large drop (pic underneath) as I watched my sunglasses skitter off to the side. Quite funny really but it's a wonder that there aren't more accidents as elf n safety seems to be minimal at these places and there are so many people trying to tip toe along!

This was where I slid from - but as I was at the side furthest away from the edge I didn't go very far.  There is only a wire rope at the edge with about a metre of rock to the far side - and then a sheer drop!!

We took photos for a couple of tourists and asked them to take one of us which they did - totally obscuring the waterfall!!  They got it right eventually...

And although it had been pretty crowded at the waterfall when we arrived most of the people got into their buses and moved on to their next sites so it was nice and quiet.

This t shirt in the souvenir shop made me laugh - it reminded me of my friend Bob who was a huge Wishbone Ash fan and who would have loved the humour!...

We then started driving towards Keflavik for our last night and we soon lost the bright sunshine - so we'd been very lucky at our morning stops!

As we were getting hungry and the weather was getting cold and cloudy Mike looked at the symbols on Wicky the Wiking's sat nav and saw that there was a place signposted on the harbour front at Grenavik, a little fishing port nearby.

So we drove down through docks and fish factories. The drive towards it didn't look promising...

But it turned out to be a lovely little place used by locals and selling the most amazing lobster soup and wonderful cakes!..

Good choice Mike!

As we were going past the Blue Lagoon we gave a lift to a Russian couple who were staying there in the hotel nearby and couldn't get a taxi back.  We popped in to look at the pool there which they said was just as good as the Blue Lagoon but much quieter as it was for hotel guests only.

It did look very nice and when we asked if it was expensive they shrugged their shoulders and said - not really, only about 350 euros a night. About £275 then!!  We just gulped and nodded.  Mike reckoned that he was part of the Russian oligarchy - he certainly had the build for it!

We got to Keflavik and found our guest house and walked over the road to the hotel, as per instructions, to book in. A lovely man upgraded us to a room in the hotel (at about four times the price!) which was very nice!

He said it was because his father was called William! But it was more likely that they had spare rooms in the hotel - or he'd got a load of youngsters in the guest house and thought that us oldies wouldn't be able to cope! But most probably it was because only us would have been staying there (once again) so it was easier to put us up in the hotel.

Whatever the reason we weren't complaining.

Ironically the view from our hotel window was across to the guest house where we should have been staying...

The rain had set in for the night and the wind was howling so we stayed put and went down for a drink in the bar - which cost more than the price of the accommodation!!

So a few beers and an early night ready for a 4am up get!

Thursday 10 March

We packed our bags and went down for a 5am breakfast. What a feast! There was smoked salmon, slices of rare roast beef, fancy sandwiches, cheeses, hams, continental meats, salads, dressings, tiny granola and yogurt pots, fruit - and even a large selection of cakes and gateaux! 

A bit early but even so we tried most of it...

And then it was time to make the short trip to the airport and leave the hire car. 

We had seen the aurora at kp0, kp1 and kp2 - and seen it through the clouds at kp7!  So basically that index is for guidelines only and should be ignored!!

Then we had one last glimpse of the lights (well sort of!) on the plane as they shone softly above the overhead luggage lockers!  Very funny!

And that was it!  

Homeward bound.

We had travelled about 2000km and seen some marvellous sights.

Iceland certainly is the land of fire and ice and there is still lots more to explore.  Next time...