Iceland Blog
Day
1
Our
small group of 16 - 2 Canadians, 2 Frogs, 2 Poms, 2 Poles, 2 Koreans,
a Yank and 5 Australians (funny how Aussies always make up about a
third of these tour groups) - set off from Reykjavik on what was to
be a brilliant first day. Our tour guide was the delightful Belgian
Annie (a youthful 69), who, in her quaint French-accented English,
all day long shared with us her knowledge of the history and geology
of Iceland and her passion for the landscape and people. The weather
was glorious - after weeks of foul weather with no sun we had been
blessed with perfect touring conditions. May it last the week!
(Editor's note: it didn't.)
From
Reykjavik we travelled south through different landscapes, all
strange and exotic. At first the terrain looked barren, rocky and
lunar (though green with mosses and grass), sometimes with steam
escaping from the rocks. You could never forget that the land was
volcanic.
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| Steam escaping from the rocky ground. They pipe this into the city to heat the houses. |
Following Route 1 along the southern coast, we travelled
through fertile farmland fed by glacial rivers. We made a couple of
stops at some beautiful waterfalls before stopping at a farm at the
base of the famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano (that's easy for you to
say) which erupted in April 2010 and crippled the world's airlines.
The people who own the farm saw a once in a lifetime opportunity.
They opened a visitors centre that shows guests a 20-minute film
depicting and explaining the spectacular event (at $7.50 per person)
as well as selling all kinds of souvenirs at inflated prices. Good on
them, they could milk this for years!
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| A typical waterfall along the way. |
It
was then on to Skógar to view an awe-inspiring waterfall with the
brightest, most colourful rainbow at its base that I have ever
seen. You could climb 370 steps to the top to view the falls from
above, but of course His Laziness preferred to see it from below.
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| How´s that for a rainbow? Can you see the second? |
Skógar is a former school community and is known for its excellent
folk museum that contains all sorts of household objects, tools and
equipment depicting the life and customs of the southern Icelanders
from the arrival of the Vikings in the 9th century to the early
twentieth century. They also had a number of typical old turf-covered
buildings which you could enter and get a good impression of how hard
life must have been in times past.
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| Typical turf house. Apparently they weren´t heated in winter for fear of fires. Must´ve been bloody cold in winter! |
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| Inside. Vey intimate. |
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| The sleeping quarters were in a separate building. |
After
this the really spectacular scenery started. We drove past some
glaciers then stopped at a couple of places along the coastline to
view the vertiginous Reynisdrangar cliffs, the strange and beautiful
rock formations, the black sand beaches and the "millions of
flocking birds". Unfortunately the latter had all flocked off to
Europe on migration, leaving only a few puffins and wild geese who
were obviously too lazy to bother. We ended the day at our hotel in
the Vik area, not far from the beach. A lovely three-course communal
meal ended a long, tiring but enjoyable first day.
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A very lazy puffin who was not into migrating
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Day
2
A
second day of awesome sights. Again the weather was great, though a
bit cooler (10-12 degrees) and cloudier than the day before. We began
the day by driving to Skatafell National park, through huge mossy,
then black and barren plains devastated by lava and
flooding from frequent volcanic eruptions. Throughout the day we
passed several enormous glaciers, waterfalls and tall mountains,
including Vatnajökull, the largest ice-cap in Iceland. It was all so
primeval, I kept expecting a dinosaur to come trundling out from
behind the next mountain!
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| A devastated plain with a glacier in the background |
The last stop, and highlight of the day,
was the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon where aqua-coloured icebergs
float and bump into each other in the still waters at the glacier's
mouth. (The lagoon has been used in several Hollywood movies,
including the James Bond film Die Another Day.) The afternoon's
activities finished with an optional amphibian boat tour (which we
all did) among the floating icebergs. Only during our two-hour drive
back to the hotel did it finally start to rain. It was to continue
for the rest of the tour.
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| The awesome Jökulsarlon Glacier |
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| Our "boat" |
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| Icebergs breaking off the glacier |
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| Striped icebergs! |
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| Oue guide explains about icebergs by showing us a baby one. |
Day
3
A
disappointing day in all respects. Firstly, the weather was terrible
(it was grey, misty and drizzly all day) and the sightseeing was not
up to the standard of the days before. We took off early to catch a
ferry to Haimaey, chief of the Westman Islands, a group of 15 islands
situated off the south coast of Iceland. Haimaey, home to a small
fishing village, has four adjoining sections, all produced by
volcanic eruptions at various times in history. The north-easterly
part was formed by a massive 5-month lava discharge in 1973 that
buried part of the village and threatened to close the harbour. They
refer to this section as the "Pompeii of the North" which
they are just now starting to excavate. The magnificent ocean cliffs
that greet you as you enter the harbour are home to millions of
nesting birds. Unfortunately most were off soaking up the sun on the
French Riveria when we arrived. Just a few kittiwakes, gulls and the
odd pair of terns were to be seen. (Did you know that male and female
terns mate for life? Just shows that one good tern deserves another.)
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| The fishing village on Haimaey. Note the lava in the foreground that threatened to close the harbour in 1973. |
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| Our bus in the crater of the last volcanic eruption on Haimaey. |
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| A baby kittiwake |
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| A group of flocking kittiwakes |
All
this was quite scenic and very interesting and it would have been
great if we could have returned on the 2.30 ferry, but no, they left
us there till the 5.30 ferry for "some extra time to explore the
island". There was nothing more to explore! Some of the younger
well-heeled members of the group did a "ribsafari" tour
around the island in a high-speed open boat, exploring the cliffs and
the many caves at the base of the cliffs, but at $75 for an hour's
ride Dorrie the Jew chose the gratis "footsafari" tour.
Most of us just aimlessly strolled around, eating and drinking as we
went. A total waste of time. Because of the late return of the ferry
and a two-hour drive to the next overnight stop, we didn't reach our
hotel till 8 pm, making for an almost 12-hour day. Too long and
too boring, was the general consensus of opinion. The magnificent
three-course meal provided by the hotel, however, helped lift our
sagging spirits somewhat.
Day
4
Awesome
sights, awful weather. The day was supposed to have started with
an optional tour to a stud farm to see how the horses were bred
and trained, followed by an inspection of a greenhouse
(most of Iceland's fruit and vegetables are cultivated in
greenhouses), however no one wanted to be saddled with the horse tour
and the prospect of sweltering in a hothouse left us cold, so we got
straight into the official program: The Golden Circle. No, not a
pineapple farm, but the three "must-see" attractions close
to Reykjavik. The first was the Geysir Geothermal Area, where hot
springs and mud pools bubble and a geyser spouts 30 metres high every
ten minutes (spectacular!); the second was the thundering Gullfoss,
or Golden Waterfall (like a mini Niagara Falls); and the third was
the Thingvellir National Park, site of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where
the North American and European tectonic plates meet. The
continental drift between the plates can be clearly seen in the
cracks or faults that traverse the region, the biggest one,
Almannagjá, being a veritable canyon. It is a truly awesome site
which we would loved to have checked out fully on foot. The pouring
rain put paid to this unfortunately.
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| The spouting geyser |
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| The Golden Waterfall |
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| The fault line of the Thingvellir National Park from the air. |
So
that was southern Iceland in four days. Not enough time to do it
justice of course but enough to give you an idea of the forces of
nature that have shaped (and are still shaping) the land. I was eager
to see more. Maybe one day I'll return and check out the northern
part. Watch this space..
Postscript
At
the end of my Iceland visit I had a whole day to fill before my
flight to Hamburg that night (at 45 minutes after midnight!) Since
the weather was glorious - blue skies, sunshine, 15 degree
temperature - I decided to go to the mother of all Icelandic tourist
attractions: the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa about 40 minutes away
from Reykjavik. The waters are rich in minerals like silica and
sulphur and are reputed to heal all kinds of skin diseases and other
ailments. To access the pools you have to pay a substantial entrance
fee, hire a towel and bathrobe, and then, horror of horrors,
you have to take a communal shower. The thought of exposing myself to
other guys - something I hadn't done in 50 years - filled me with
some trepidation but no one pointed or giggled so it was less painful
than I feared. It was all worth it. The pleasantly heated pools were
pure bliss. I wanted to get a massage as well, as my neck and
shoulders were particularly knotted after weeks of sitting in buses
and planes. They managed to slot me in almost immediately and for 30
minutes I was oiled, kneaded and pummelled by a blond Nordic god
(would've preferred a goddess) whilst floating on a mat on the warm
sulphuric waters. This put me in a relaxed state for the next couple
of hours as I waded around the pool, soaking up the warm sunshine and
stopping now and then for a refreshing glass of beer. If heaven is
like this I'm going to turn religious! It was a fitting end to my
Iceland adventure, don't you think?
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| Beautiful, no? |
